Wednesday, May 16, 2018

O Jerusalem!

Now that Trump has opened the U.S. Embassy in Israel - or at least a makeshift version of it - in Jerusalem, Palestinians are rioting in the occupied territories over official American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital when Palestinians want it to be a capital of their eventual state.  The United States wants to continue to achieve a peaceful solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Palestinians want nothing to do with American mediation any more because they don't see us as an honest broker.  And they probably wouldn't trust us even if a Democratic President moved the U.S. Embassy back to Tel Aviv sometime in the future.   
Multilateral mediation? The Arab states have their own internal problems, and the Europeans have more sympathy than power to being a Palestinian state about.  Short of a herculean effort by the United Nations, there doesn't seem to be much of a prospect for that.
Jerusalem will never be a neutral city or a free city-state, because both the Israelis and the Palestinians at least agree on a position against that.  I don't understand why any future Israeli-Palestinian border can't just go right through the city and effectively create two cities of Jerusalem.
After all, we have two Kansas Citys.
To respond to the complaint that Kansas City has no religious significance, I need only point out that Kansas City is near the place along the Missouri River where Mormons believe Jesus will return.
Not making that up.
And if there's a world war over the Middle East, expect Moroni to blow his horn signifying the Second Coming. 
No word on what Robert Jeffress would think of that.

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