Trump move fallout for peace negotiations

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza City on Wednesday, carrying banners denouncing Trump, hours ahead of his declaration that will also see the US embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The declaration comes amid global condemnation of the decision.

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Resistance groups in Gaza called on the Palestine Liberation Organization to withdraw its recognition of Israel in response to Trump's expected move.

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In Lebanon's capital, Beirut, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the Palestinian refugee camp Bourj el-Barajneh to protest against Trump.

  al Jazeera

Arab and Muslim leaders across the Middle East unanimously lambasted US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Wednesday.

Following Trump’s White House address, Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary-General Saeb Erekat told journalists that the president had “destroyed any hopes for a two-state solution” to the conflict.

  Times of Israel

Honestly, I don't think the two-state solution was ever even close to being a deal.

Trump “disqualified his country from any role whatsoever” in the peace process, Erekat said.

So that clears up Jared's calendar for some time in jail.

The head of the Hamas terror group, Ismail Haniyeh, accused Trump of disregarding Palestinian feelings with the announcement.

The Palestinian people “know how to respond properly to the disregard of their feelings and sanctuaries,” he said in a statement.

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Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the US and other Western allies.

Yes, but not by the Palestinians. Hamas is essentially the Palestinian army, as well as its elected government.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said in a statement that the move “put back the peace process by decades, and threatens regional stability and perhaps global stability.”

He added that Trump’s credibility as an honest broker between the Israelis and Palestinians had been shot.

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Turkey also condemned Trump.

“We condemn the irresponsible statement of the US administration… the decision is against international law and relevant UN resolutions,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter.

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Egypt, which was the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel (in 1979), said in a statement that Trump’s decision was a violation of international resolutions on the city’s status.

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In its condemnation, Iran threatened a “new intifada” or uprising.

Swell. Now we can "legitimately" pre-emptively strike Iran. Let Armageddon begin.

Erdogan has already called a summit meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul on December 13 to discuss the issue.

Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada said that one would have to be "living on another planet for the last few decades to believe that the US was ever an honest broker".

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"It is a more honest expression of American policy, which is to support Israel unconditionally, including Israel's illegal colonisation and settlement-building in East Jerusalem," he said, adding that "this has effectively been US policy for many, many years and Trump is simply coming out and being open about it".

  alJazeera

That is, of course, true, and it may be the only thing in all of this that's good.

No other country keeps an embassy in Jerusalem; most of those that did had relocated to Tel Aviv after the UN Security Council in 1980 condemned Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem as a violation of international law. That came in response to Israel declaring Jerusalem as its capital.

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Meanwhile, The New York Times on Sunday reported that the US and Saudi Arabia are backing a peace plan that gives Israel full control over Jerusalem.

And how the hell is that going to bring peace? Full scale war?

Both the US and Saudi-Arabia denied the report.

Of course they did. But, it is absurd.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.