Jerusalem: recognizing what has been unofficially known (op-ed)

Recently, President Trump announced the United States will formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient, divided city. (Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but Washington never officially recognized it because of Palestinian claims to the city.)

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was asked, “Why now?” Haley stated that no one doubts Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, their parliament, Supreme Court, and prime minister are all there. (The Palestinian administrative center is located six miles north of Jerusalem in Ramallah, a historically Arab Christian town.) In other words, the Trump Administration accepted the reality on the ground and officially acknowledged what has been unofficially known for decades.

Of course, the Palestinians were outraged, but many Democratic senators were concerned about the decision undermining America’s ability to broker any Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and new outbreaks of terrorism. Former democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said, “There’s a reason why all past U.S. administrations have not made this move.”

Let’s look at the reason past administrations didn’t make this move through a quote from former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld said, “There are known knowns. Things we know that we know, and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we don’t know we don’t know.”

So what do we know?

In Presidential politics the issue of Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem has been strategically supported and used against opponents. In 1992, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton attacked President George H.W. Bush for failure to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and candidate Clinton pledged to move the U.S. Embassy once elected.

Then in 1995 Congress passed legislation requiring the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem by 1999. But Congress knew the embassy move would generate repercussions, but their severity was unknown, so the bill contained a loophole. The President was allowed to sign a waiver every six months to delay the embassy move.

President Bill Clinton signed waivers for his entire presidency.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush promised to move the embassy, but decided against it while in office, and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama stated during his campaign that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel but signed waivers for two terms.

Now, six months ago, Politico reported, “The Senate voted 90-0 on a resolution marking the 50^th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification. The measure includes language that calls upon the president and all United States officials to abide by a 1995 law that urged then-President Bill Clinton to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.” And the Republican senate majority leader said, “Bipartisan passage of this resolution will serve as yet another indication of the United States’ commitment to standing by our Israeli friends.”

Here the U.S. Senate united to show Israel moral support alone.

The actions of President Trump’s predecessors made it a “known known” that presidential candidates promise to move the U.S. Embassy and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but once in office they renege. President Trump followed through on a campaign promise and heeded to the language of a six month old senate resolution, but the Trump administration’s official acceptance of reality is being treated as an “unknown unknown” because it might hinder Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that are only known for failure.

Donald Rumsfeld also said, “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.”

But what does he know?

 First published by New Pittsburgh Courier 12/13/17