At Davos, President Trump is again making news and creating U.S. policy toward Israel and the Palestinians on the fly – and making life more difficult for those within his administration and in the region who want to advance peace and end the conflict between the two peoples.
Meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort, Trump described last month's U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his decision to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv as an "honor" to Israel for always supporting the United States.
Trump also slammed the Palestinians for their reaction to the Jerusalem move and their decision to boycott Vice President Pence on his Mideast trip earlier this week: "Israel has always supported the U.S. So what I did with Jerusalem was my honor. And hopefully, we can do something with peace. ... They (the Palestinians) are going to have to want to make peace too, or we are going to have nothing to do with them any longer. The hardest subject they had to talk about was Jerusalem. We took Jerusalem off the table so we don't have to talk about it anymore. They never got past Jerusalem."
Trump also threatened further cuts to U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority. "When they disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great Vice President to see them; when we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support – tremendous numbers, numbers that nobody understands – that money is on the table. That money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace. ... Respect has to be shown to the U.S. or we're just not going any further."
What's remarkable about these comments is that Trump apparently sees U.S. policy in purely personal terms. Netanyahu supported him and must therefore be rewarded. The Palestinians disrespected Pence and must therefore be punished. There is no appreciation for the fact, understood by every single president who has come before Trump, that the purpose of U.S. policy is not to settle personal scores but to advance our national interests, protect our allies and to defend and promote our values as a nation. Trump apparently takes the position of France's King Louis XIV who famously said, "L'etat c'est moi" – in English, "the State is me."
Successive U.S. administrations have recognized a national interest in pursuing peace between Israel and the Palestinians which would inject a much-needed element of stability into the chronically unstable Middle East while allowing our ally Israel to finally live in peace and with security. Yet everything Trump has done in the past two months has made that goal much more difficult, if not impossible.
Yes, he won the applause of his evangelical base with his U.S. embassy decision – but he has certainly not taken the Jerusalem issue off the table in the negotiations. The Holy City will always be deeply, vitally important to Muslims around the world and it is home to over 300,000 currently stateless Palestinians. Its final status can only be settled through negotiations and never through diktat.
As for U.S. aid to the Palestinians, it is not a personal favor generously given as a reward for doing Trump's bidding. Much of it goes to funding Palestinian security forces whose daily cooperation with their Israeli counterparts saves lives in both communities and maintains stability, fights terrorism and upholds law and order on the ground. Those are U.S. national interests as well. Threats to cut aid as a response the perceived affront to Vice President Pence is childish and dangerous.
Those are two adjectives that could apply to this administration's Mideast policy as a whole.
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