Patterico's Pontifications

5/13/2018

U.S. to Open Embassy in Jerusalem Tomorrow

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:59 pm



U.S. Presidents talked about it for a long time, but did no act. For all his faults — and he has many — Trump actually did something about it. The New York Times doesn’t like it:

When Israel declared its independence in 1948, President Harry Truman rushed to recognize it. He took just 11 minutes, and Israelis, about to go to war to defend their infant state, were euphoric.

Seventy years to the day — and nearly as long since Israel declared the holy city of Jerusalem its “eternal capital” — the United States will formally open its embassy on a hilltop here two miles south of the Western Wall.

The embassy’s move from Tel Aviv and President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — reversing decades of American foreign policy — comes at a moment so fraught with both pride and peril that Israelis seem not to know what to feel.

. . . .

To Palestinians, the official unveiling of the embassy is just the most concrete and latest in a cavalcade of provocations from Washington and the Israeli government.

“It’s might makes right,” said Hind Khoury, a former diplomat for the Palestine Liberation Organization who now heads a sustainable development nonprofit based in Bethlehem. Not only are Palestinians now expected to forget about Jerusalem, she said, but also the losses of their homes in 1948 and again in the fighting of 1967.

Calm down, Hind. The U.S. is moving its embassy to the country’s capital.

It is, of course, possible that this move will contribute to terrorist attacks. If that happens, that will be the fault of the terrorists — not of Israel for placing its capital in Jerusalem, or of Donald Trump for moving the U.S. embassy to Israel’s capital.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

90 Responses to “U.S. to Open Embassy in Jerusalem Tomorrow”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. “It’s might makes right,” said Hind Khoury

    Snorfle. Black September’s motto was “No justice for Palestine, no peace for the world”. How’d that work out for you, desert flower?

    nk (dbc370)

  3. It’s been a long time coming and should ha e been done years ago. Next just tell the Palestinians no more money is coming there way and they need to grow up.

    NJRob (9d9100)

  4. To those who didn’t vote for Trump: You’re welcome.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  5. Among the attendees

    Cruz will be joined by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Dean Heller of Nevada on the trip, according to his office.

    https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/05/12/sen-ted-cruz-attend-us-embassy-opening-jerusalem

    Kishnevi (30d0bc)

  6. U.S. Presidents talked about it for a long time, but did no act.

    No, U.S. Presidents promised to do it, but did not. Apparently, this is a trait of those “principled” and “morally fit” to be president.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  7. Love
    It

    mg (9e54f8)

  8. @6

    Which presidents would that be?

    Davethulhu (7e7722)

  9. An Israeli football club (Soccer) has added Trump’s to the team’s name to honor him. They are now Israel Trump Jerusalem.

    ropelight (35d238)

  10. Speaking of, 1967 called and they want their borders back.

    Pinandpuller (3017e5)

  11. #8, that would be Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama.

    ropelight (35d238)

  12. RIP (Ground) Chuck Knox.

    ropelight (35d238)

  13. Well, it’s not like he discovered a cure for eyebrow dandruff. He followed through on a favor Congress did for Israel, and I approve. No further deferred action on our commitment. But the gratitude should be from Israel. For “those who didn’t vote for Trump”, there’s maybe a thousand higher priorities I have for a President.

    nk (dbc370)

  14. “It is, of course, possible that this move will contribute to terrorist attacks. If that happens, that will be the fault of the terrorists — not of Israel” from Patterico.

    Agree. This is one of those instances where I think Trump gets it right. We have to stop apologizing for our actions with regards to Israel, which has frequently been the case in the more recent past. If there are terrorist attacks, I believe some of the cause will be from expectations of Palestinians. They are used to the US and other countries bowing to demands.

    I have been to Israel. I have seen the dividing lines and the hatred even if for just a short time. I met sincere, beautiful people on both sides. Unfortunately, Palestinians are schooled from a young age to hate. You see it in their eyes when Jews walk by. Until that changes, terrorist attacks will probably continue no matter what actions are taken.

    noel (b4d580)

  15. 13. This is indeed a good thing that Trump has done. I say that without hesitation or reservation. Now I’d like to see him put “America first” as he promised the voters of our nation he would do.

    Gryph (08c844)

  16. I’d like to see more Americans – but especially young ones – show more of the work ethic their forebearers are known for.

    Colonel Haiku (8f010c)

  17. #15 Where have you been?

    Ed C (7bbaf6)

  18. Good job by Trump.

    DRJ (15874d)

  19. What a shame, Haiku 17. Is it possible you live in a place that doesn’t have many jobs? The young people where I live work as hard as any generation.

    DRJ (15874d)

  20. 18. Waiting for Trump to put America first. He’s done a fine job of doing stuff for China and Israel so far. He also promised to build a wall (hasn’t happened) and repeal Obamacare (hasn’t happened).

    Gryph (08c844)

  21. Davethulhu: “Which presidents would that be?”

    Google is just so hard.

    George W. Bush, who is seen in 2000, says: “As soon as I take office, I will move the United States ambassador to the city Israel has chosen as its capital.”

    And Barack Obama is seen in 2008 saying: “I continue to say that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel. I have said that before and I will say it again.”

    https://nypost.com/2017/12/08/trump-mocks-other-presidents-for-being-all-talk-on-jerusalem-promise/

    random viking (6a54c2)

  22. Consider yourself lucky, DRJ. I live in California, but this problem is not limited to one state. Their is an aimlessness and lack of motivation that has taken hold of a sizable part of young folk demographic. Think about summer jobs, for example. That has almost become antiquated thinking. It goes back to parenting.

    Colonel Haiku (8f010c)

  23. 24. Unfortunately, that’s not something that any presidential administration can cure. I wish government, especiallY FedGov, would get out of the way of people being industrious. But that would require them to gut their own power — and that ain’t gonna happen. I place most of the blame for this on congress, and it doesn’t matter which party is in charge ultimately.

    Gryph (08c844)

  24. Used to be a young man, for example, understood that to obtain the good material things of life, initially money to buy a car and to be in a position to get a date and enjoy female companionship, one should seek employment.

    Now this teenager will say, “car? I’ll just Uber… female? Heck I can score on my laptop sitting in my closet.”

    Granted, that is simplified, but that is what we are dealing with. And things don’t necessarily improve as they get older.

    Colonel Haiku (8f010c)

  25. I fear for the future.

    Colonel Haiku (8f010c)

  26. So your saying that even if _________________, the SoCal youth would not put 2 and 2 together and take those jobs again? Thats the danger of that sort of talk in that provides talking points to the C of C and like actors.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  27. “It’s might makes right,” said Hind Khoury, a former diplomat for the Palestine Liberation Organization who now heads a sustainable development nonprofit based in Bethlehem. Not only are Palestinians now expected to forget about Jerusalem, she said, but also the losses of their homes in 1948 and again in the fighting of 1967.

    Yes, choosing war over compromise has consequences. So does losing a war. The Palestinians were repeatedly offered a compromise.

    In 1948, the UN said, let’s split Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews said yes, the Arabs said no, and started a war with the aim of destroying the Jewish state. They failed. Had the Arabs said yes, they would have a state today with more than anyone in the world is willing to give them now.

    In 1967, the Arabs surrounded Israel with the announced intent of destroying it. They again failed. They again lost more territory.

    That’s the way it works. You launch a war and fail, you lose something. Ask Germany — it happened to it twice in the 20th century.

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  28. Little notice taken last Tuesday…

    Raman Ghavami
    @Raman_Ghavami
    H.J.Ansari Zarif’s senior advisor: “If Europeans stop trading with Iran and don’t put pressure on US then we will reveal which western politicians and how much money they had received during nuclear negotiations to make #IranDeal happen.”
    That would be interesting.
    #JCPOA

    Colonel Haiku (8f010c)

  29. 30
    I am skeptical. He’s claiming that Iran bribed politicians to do something the politicians wanted to do.
    The Iranians are not stupid. Why pay for something you know you can get for free?

    Kishnevi (e95dc4)

  30. Little notice taken last Tuesday…

    That’s because anybody can tweet anything.

    nk (dbc370)

  31. @ random viking: Believe it or not, some of us are capable of holding more than one thought in our heads at the same time! Thus, some of us can say, truthfully, as I did yesterday in comments on another post and our host has done in the text of this one, that Trump has done something praiseworthy, while still holding him accountable for the things he has done (or failed to do) that are not praiseworthy. Moreover, we can run, and adjust as needed, a mental tally of how, overall, we think he’s done and is doing, and we can base, therefore, our decisions on whether to thank the low-wattage voters who made him the GOP nominee.

    I do not thank you. I do, however, maintain the observation I made before you chirped up with your preposterous preening, which is to say that on this one matter, Trump did indeed do the right thing. I’ve got counterexamples if you’re interested — but of course, you are not (see above re low-wattage).

    Beldar (fa637a)

  32. *”… base on that tally our decisions on whether to thank,” that ought to have read.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  33. There are three publications currently out which explore the issue of the “low wattage” voters you so easily deride.

    County after County in the industrial midwest and upper plains that had voted overwhelmingly for Dems in every election going back to the 50s, and which had handed double-digit wins to Obama twice, saw 20+ point flips in vote tallies in 2016.

    These are industrious hardworking folks who aren’t rich, aren’t trying to get rich, but simply want a lifestyle that they can sleep at night with.

    Some of the anecdotal info is that lifelong Dem voters ultimately broke with their party for the first time in something of an epiphany — “I don’t have to vote for the person my party tells me to vote for.” Many were offended by social and cultural turns of the Dem party — while Trump might not be a paragon of morality and culture, the GOP as a party is stronger on those issues than the “anything goes” Dems. So there is some evidence a significant number of lifelong Dems turned away from the Dem party after 8 years of Obama — after voting for him twice — and towards the GOP. Trump just happened to head up the ticket. There is evidence to support this view as these people did not split tickets — they swept into office GOP candidates in state and local races that had been dominated by Dems for decades.

    And older white male voters who had voted for Dems their entire lives simply got tired of liberals on the coasts calling them racists and xenophobes.

    If you listen to the mindless drones that show up for Dems at anti-Trump rallies, its clear that Trump didn’t have the corner on “low-wattage” voters.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  34. @23

    I’m going to split hairs here and point out that the Obama quote took place when he was a candidate for president, not as president.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  35. @24

    There’s not much funnier than old people complaining about “kids these days”.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  36. If you listen to the mindless drones that show up for Dems at anti-Trump rallies, its clear that Trump didn’t have the corner on “low-wattage” voters.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 5/14/2018 @ 10:22 am

    Did you intend to prove Beldar’s point? Because that’s what it sounds like.

    DRJ (15874d)

  37. @24. =Haiku!= Gesundheit!

    Anything you say, Pops.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3edtd9AkWg

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  38. “High wattage” voters versus “low wattage”…. not exactly an original observation. William F. Buckley captured it nicely decades ago:

    “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”

    I’ve quoted this many times here. I’ve gathered the anti-Trump crowd finds the quote rather annoying. They’ll profess to agree with it, but really don’t. If nothing else, Trump does a service by smoking them out.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  39. I think you have it backwards. Trump is an elite. He isn’t even in the phone book.

    DRJ (15874d)

  40. Trump is in the elite, correct… and? He is not an elitist — at least not in the political realm which is what is obviously being referred to.

    DRJ, I already had you jotted down as hating the quote.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  41. 42. I think Trump IS an elite, and an elitist. Decades of his history in Manhattan ought to be enough to put that issue to rest.

    Gryph (08c844)

  42. Yes, Deplorables are easily confused with “elitists”. LOL

    random viking (6a54c2)

  43. Yes, the guy who owns a private club with a $200k member fee is not an elitist.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  44. Buckley was nouveau rich, his father was a Texas wildcatter kicked out Mexico, little like a character in there will be blood, who was really based on Edward doheny. And of course trump was an upstart in palm beach.

    narciso (d1f714)

  45. Yes Davethulu, that’s why he won the Harvard vote.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  46. $100,000 is being offered for blowing up the new US Embassy by a shadowy Iranian group.

    ropelight (6a8681)

  47. lol yes, Harvard professors elites and the guy who lives here is not http://www.idesignarch.com/inside-donald-and-melania-trumps-manhattan-apartment-mansion/

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  48. Got it, Davethulu. The “low wattage” demographic actually voted for Hillary. OK, let’s go with that.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  49. No, the “low wattage” demographic are the people who, despite all evidence to the contrary, believe that Trump isn’t an elite and that Harvard professors are.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  50. News Cthulhu can use… https://www.t-nation.com/living/keep-estrogen-under-control

    Colonel Haiku (8f010c)

  51. Davethulu, you missed my comment @42. Please keep up.

    Elite versus elitist. Know the difference. The poorest schmuck can be an elitist. Marx, for example.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  52. News Haiku can use… https://i.imgur.com/nnwVNui.png

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  53. random viking,

    I’m not disagreeing with Buckley’s quote but with the suggestion that Trump is the kind of person Buckley was thinking about. We know what Buckley thought about Trump and it was not positive.

    DRJ (15874d)

  54. @54

    Picking Marx as an elitist is quite a choice, considering that, in theory, he’s speaking for the workers.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  55. Yes but he had no acquaintance with working people,

    Buckleys particular opinion of trump is immaterial to the description.

    narciso (d1f714)

  56. Kevin M

    You’ve brought up Trump’s state of mind before, IIRC. I was listening to a guy called Matthew Walker talking about sleep. He says there’s a correlation between lack of sleep and both cancer and Alzheimer’s.

    He says there are rare people with a gene that allows them to get by on a minimum of five hours but your odds are better to be struck by lightning than to have that gene.

    He points to Reagan and Thatcher as people purporting to get by on a few hours sleep and both developing Alzheimer’s. I think he said beta amyloid is swept from your brain during deep sleep. He actually said being awake causes low level brain damage.

    There has been an emerging interest in sleep and its association with β-amyloid burden as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Despite the evidence that acute sleep deprivation elevates β-amyloid levels in mouse interstitial fluid and in human cerebrospinal fluid, not much is known about the impact of sleep deprivation on β-amyloid burden in the human brain. Using positron emission tomography, here we show that acute sleep deprivation impacts β-amyloid burden in brain regions that have been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Our observations provide preliminary evidence for the negative effect of sleep deprivation on β-amyloid burden in the human brain.


    Link

    Pinandpuller (3c4a0e)

  57. One speeakd of the Rockefeller and ford foundation that forgot where they came from.

    narciso (d1f714)

  58. Buckleys particular opinion of trump is immaterial to the description.

    narciso (d1f714) — 5/14/2018 @ 2:42 pm

    Which is why my first comment was that Trump’s individual phone number isn’t even in the phone book. Trump isn’t one of the people Buckley was talking about in that quote. Trump is an elite Buckley would not have trusted.

    DRJ (15874d)

  59. And some of the most destructive social policies came from them.

    Turning to Russia, those who were state managers berezovsky khodokorsky vekselberg became oligarchs it was a neat hat truck that summers and Sachs enabled.

    narciso (d1f714)

  60. Buckley was referring to those who dictate the opinions for the rest of us, who shape the educational media and policy frameworks, like those he noted at god and man at Yale, who are corrosive of fundamental institutions.

    narciso (d1f714)

  61. Trump is an elite Buckley would not have trusted.

    Then, Buckley wouldn’t have trusted himself, which makes no sense. Buckley was referring to elitists, not the elite.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  62. 65. Funny, isn’t it, that Buckley never pursued elected office, eh? He probably didn’t trust himself to know better than individual people their own wants and needs. That’s why he was a movement conservative.

    Gryph (08c844)

  63. Picking Marx as an elitist is quite a choice, considering that, in theory, he’s speaking for the workers.

    It was an example, Davethulu. But, if you truly believe Marx wasn’t an elitist then you’ve got little use for Buckley’s quote anyway.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  64. You mean like when he ran for mayor of new York city in 1965, could you be a little less aware.

    narciso (d1f714)

  65. Who, besides liberal academia, is an elitist?

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  66. Marx which is being given a nice write up in teen vogue, Lol, was of a class that despised common peoples interests, someone would day Darwin of the Wedgwood fortune had similar proclivities

    narciso (d1f714)

  67. Freud, came from middle class roots as well , yet all three were destructive of most institutions.

    narciso (d1f714)

  68. Who, besides liberal academia, is an elitist?

    For starters, anyone who believes in “high wattage” versus “low wattage” voters.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  69. 68. In fairness, that was a little before my time. I always thought that was a stunt and Buckley never followed through. So sue me for being wrong. I’ll hedge that a little bit: He never ran for *federal* elected office.

    Gryph (08c844)

  70. I’ll be damned if I ever again pause for so much as two seconds of sympathy with any Trump supporter who complains that Trump critics never give Trump any credit here in the comments of this blog, even when it’s due.

    It triggers the likes of random viking into spasms of vulgar and unjustifiably smug presumption. random viking thinks he can re-write the prose of our host, of me, and countless other commenters here whose words he regularly and shamelessly twists, and now of William F. Buckley. I suppose that’s something of a backhanded compliment to the rest of us.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  71. 72. If any voter thinks their vote matters, rest assured it does not. And I am at a loss as to persuade them out of their denial.

    Gryph (08c844)

  72. Trump is not an elite. He is merely a rich man, a nouveau riche, a parvenu. Money does not buy breeding, intellect, character, or talent.

    However, he is most definitely an elitist. (You can be an elitist without being an elite — every peasant who tugged his forelock to the squire was.) For how many years has he been saying that he will appoint only “the best people”?

    nk (dbc370)

  73. thoughtful reflection on the life of Meghan’s putrid coward-pig daddy

    Unbeknownst to John McCain, the world has entered a whole new era. And this didn’t happen yesterday. Russia and China may have only recently announced new hypersonic missile technology, but it didn’t fall out of the sky. It does profoundly change things though. It ends all notions and dreams of American exceptionalism and unilateralism.

    And America needs to learn that lesson. It will have to do it without John McCain. And it might as well, because McCain was incapable of changing, and of seeing the changes around him. But the American view of the world will have to change, because the world itself has.

    Still, you’re right: the real tragedy is not that John McCain wasted his own life. It’s that he helped destroy so many others.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  74. In, that was the presumption if limited war since Korea that yields the enemy the advantage, the Russians don’t think that way neither do the Chinese, the Syrians take the former view into account.

    narciso (d1f714)

  75. Look what they’ve done in chechnya for instance.

    narciso (d1f714)

  76. Beldar, the purveyor of the “low wattage voter” pejorative, actually sounds outraged.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  77. So the Russians became involved in Cuba from their niche in Mexico city, but we put missiles in turkey that’s a deal breaker, this was the reason that Pershing missiles initially provoked such agitate.

    narciso (d1f714)

  78. 69… most of the Silicon Valley’s power brokers are elitists. So is much of the old media.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  79. Navy SEAL wins. Corrupt prosecutor runs away when confronted in court, yelling threats and insults back over her shoulder. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/missouri-governor-eric-greitens-prosecutors-drop-invasion-of-privacy-charge-today-2018-05-14/

    nk (dbc370)

  80. 76. Trump is NOT “nouveau riche.” That implies that he made his money on his own. He played around with and invested Daddy’s millions, making a name for himself and more-or-less breaking even.

    Gryph (08c844)

  81. As opposed to old money. Like the harrimans Rockefeller lodges scranton.

    narciso (d1f714)

  82. No, random viking, you mistake outrage and disgust.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  83. Well celebs may not be the right description:

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/14/celebs-blame-trump-deadly-israel-protest

    narciso (d1f714)

  84. @ Gryph & nk: You’re both right: Trump was surely under water on a net personal basis in his most acute wave of business bankruptcies and liquidation sales, meaning he’d lost (but not yet had to pay off on quite yet) his inheritance. Whatever his current net worth is — and he’d probably say it’s $40B, on the theory that being POTUS has enhanced the “Trump Brand” fourfold already, and its value is whatever he believes it to be on any given morning when he gets out of bed (as he’s testified before, under oath), one could say his current money is indeed nouveau. Our current ambassador to Israel, bankruptcy lawyer David M. Freedman, is credited with teaching Trump not to make personal guarantees, so he’s not nearly as personally leveraged as he was then. Given that the Trump Organization’s main asset is Trump (including a ton of licensing agreements to use his name, that might or then again might not be renewed depending on his political fortunes), I’d describe his current fortune as illiquid and perishable. But since he’s produced neither audited financial reports nor tax returns for himself or his businesses, no one really knows the degree to which his self-estimations are inflated.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  85. I’ve been preaching since before Trump’s inauguration that the GOP would be committing a mistake of historical proportions if it didn’t finish nuking the filibuster during this Congress. And I was extremely cheerful when the Dems predictably announced they’d filibuster Gorsuch. He was such an obviously qualified and objectively uncontroversial nominee that the Dems overplayed their collective hand: If they’d filibuster him, they’d filibuster absolutely anyone any GOP POTUS might ever again nominate. The Dems’ brazenness shocked even the likes of Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) into an instant low-debate backroom decision, unanimous throughout the entire GOP caucus, to nuke the fig leaf — of filibustering only POTUS nominees — that Harry Reid had left behind.

    Imagine how different this Congress’ legislative record would have been, had they likewise nuked the legislative filibuster in that very same caucus! They could, and should, have been more productive, writing more consequential legislation on a broader variety of topics, than even Obama’s Congress from Jan. 2009-Jan. 2011 — the Stimulus and Obamacare Congress.

    Would the Dems have griped this November and accused the Republicans of being “hyper-partisan”? Please. No one on either side believes the other side is ever anything but “hyper-partisan,” like so incredibly partisan, they’d not just oppose, but indeed filibuster, Neil Gorsuch!

    Trump made noises about the filibuster rule, amidst all his other tweets and squawks and polemics. I genuinely don’t know if he understands the history or institutional dynamics, or whether he just sees this as an obstacle that makes no sense to him. I suspect the latter; regardless, he’s made no effective case yet to the public, or in particular, to the portion of the GOP that writes letters and makes campaign contributions to GOP senators.

    I’m pleased that Ted Cruz was among the first sitting GOP senators to finally endorse the position I’ve been advocating since election day 2016. And there seems to be some genuine movement, some cracks in the ice, in the Senate now: Trump to press GOP on changing Senate rules. The headline is vaporware — promises from Trump spoxes that Trump is going to be getting more involved, meaning I guess tweeting harder, I guess. But the article quotes Senate insiders and names some names for and against that I haven’t seen on record yet as being in favor of the full nuclear option.

    I still don’t think it will happen in this Congress. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised. If not, however, I would very much like to see Senate Republicans actively run on this issue across the country in November. “Send me to Washington to dynamite the Dem logjam,” they should all say. “We all know they’ll blow it up themselves the next time it suits them, just like Harry Reid has already promised, so let’s just stop being suckers, recognize the obvious (that the polite and quaint custom of Senate comity is dead, at the hands of partisans on both sides, but undeniably dead), and get rid of it once and for all.”

    Beldar (fa637a)


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