How Recognizing Jerusalem Could Jettison – or Jumpstart – Peace Talks

The decision by President Donald Trump to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital could give the U.S. added leverage to demand difficult concessions from the Israelis, possibly breathing new life into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. However, it could also render the U.S. an untrusted broker, unable to wrangle necessary concessions from the Palestinian side. Moreover, the move may also break the nascent unified effort between Israel and Arab countries to offset Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the Middle East.

• In a televised statement delivered Wednesday afternoon, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, stating that “this is a long overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement.” While on the campaign trail, Trump had expressed a desire to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and on Wednesday, Trump said that “while previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.”
• The status of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was already enshrined into U.S. law pursuant to the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which also urged the American government to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem. Since the legislation was passed, however, each U.S. president regularly exercised a six-month waiver authority granted by the act, which permitted the President that suspended the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as well as the movement of the embassy as a means of protecting “the national security interests of the United States.”
• Jerusalem is a key sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. A two-state solution would almost inevitably require the western part of Jerusalem to serve as the capital of Israel while East Jerusalem would represent the capital of a future Palestinian state. Jerusalem is a sacred city for Judaism, Islam and Christianity and is home to holy sites including the Western Wall, the al-Aqsa Mosque and Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision calling it “courageous and just.”

As expected, the move has drawn harsh reaction from the Palestinian government as well as Arab leaders in the region. Leading up to the announcement, Trump informed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, of his impending decision.