It happened yesterday, but it should have happened much sooner. There was no real reason not to establish a U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem after the armistice was signed following the War of Independence in 1948. West Jerusalem became the capital of Israel quite simply because the Arab side rejected the U.N. partition plan. Had they agreed to the plan, Jerusalem in its entirety would have been under an international regime administered by the United Nations. While America and the rest of the world knew this full well, our ally nevertheless preferred not to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in the false belief there was some way to turn back time and return Israel to the borders delineated in the partition plan.
The establishment of a U.S. Embassy in west Jerusalem should not be tied to any sort of permanent status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and should not prevent al-Quds' establishment alongside Jerusalem once east Jerusalem is divided between us and a future Palestinian state.
I do not know if the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem will foster peace, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued on Monday, but there is no reason for it to prevent the resumption of the peace process. The Palestinians must understand that the geo-strategic situation is changing. For years, the Palestinians waited for the next U.S. elections in the hope the next president would be more accommodating to them, but that never happened. If they keep waiting like this, nothing will ever happen.
U.S. President Donald Trump is an unpredictable leader who is interested in proving to the world that unlike his predecessor, he delivers on every single one of his campaign promises. One of those promises was to find a solution to what many consider to be the most difficult international challenge: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians would be wise to understand that Trump's ambitious nature could provide them with a unique opportunity.
I don't like playing the "no partner for peace" game. There is ostensibly no Israeli partner for a final status agreement because the most right-wing government in Israel's history refuses to partition the land, let alone east Jerusalem, and without these partitions, there can be no deal. On the Palestinian side, the internal rift between Fatah and Hamas has yet to be resolved, and the elderly Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas sounds more and more like a bad history teacher of late. But both sides could surprise if they are offered a deal that addresses the issues that truly matter to them and is accompanied by a carrot-and-stick approach from the U.S.
The establishment of the U.S. Embassy in Israel does not prevent peace and does not come at the expense of the Palestinian people or the Arab world. It would be a mistake on the part of the Palestinian leadership to continue to reject in advance any American offer that is made because the U.S. transferred its embassy to Jerusalem. The attempts to find another mediator are reminiscent of a little boy who threatens to run away from home and find a new mother. The Palestinians would be better off arguing about the essence of the peace plan instead of pouting in the corner.
