And What if They Only Moved the U.S. Embassy Eastward?

 

The current United States Embassy building was opened back in 1966 and is probably electronically challenged with dated wiring and deficient ability for upgrades and very likely would be replaced soon in order to implement a great amount, one might say groundbreaking, upgrades to its capabilities with modern meeting facilities, internal wiring to integrate greater networking and other modernizations and security upgrades bringing the United States Embassy into the twenty-first century. The United States Embassy is half a century old and was built with an outlook for future technology which probably included cathode ray tubes, not flat screens, old word-processing equipment and not computers and interconnectedness beyond the imagination fifty years ago. The building probably had been upgraded as far as it was capable and still leaves much to be desired. The embassy is currently located at 71 Hayarkon Street in Tel Aviv, Israel. What if the United States built a new embassy under fifteen kilometers to 18 Shalom Shar’abi Street, Petah Tikva across the street from the School for Gardening and Planting and next to the Zharia Kohlani Garden which would provide for a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere and nice picturesque environment allowing for a new building with all the modern requirements an embassy could require. Did we mention that this move would be eastward placing the embassy almost fifteen kilometers closer to Jerusalem? As the current embassy is almost on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, any move would most likely place the embassy closer to Jerusalem. We understand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas and the PLO would all prefer for the new United States Embassy be placed offshore on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea as that is also where they would like to locate Israel as well. This is highly unlikely to ever happen, so the United States Embassy, when modernized with a new building and location, it will very probably be east of its current location as central Tel Aviv does not have much, if any, open spaces of sufficient size to place a new embassy. Moving the embassy, even just to Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv, would move the building eastward and thus closer to Jerusalem, not to Jerusalem, but in that direction. I think we all know exactly how our Arab friends would react. They would claim that the United States was making the move towards Jerusalem as being recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and a move designed to indicate the United States opposition to dividing Jerusalem and allowing the Arab Palestinians to use East Jerusalem as their capital. The sharing of Jerusalem with Israel would result in denying Israelis access to the Old City, Temple Mount, Western Wall and also deny Christians access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the Temple Mount. Any claims made that these places would be shared would be just as honest as the Jordanian promises to do likewise, a promise they had and never did fulfill. If you do not believe the United States could use a new embassy, simply look at the old style, block architecture with its straight lines all parallel with a cement facial appearance which resembles a prison more than the embassy of a world power (see image below).

 

United States Embassy Tel Aviv, Israel

 

We all probably can almost hear the caterwauling and threatening coming from not just the Arab Palestinians but from across the Arab world and other nations under Islamic rule across all of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The main drift of their all but ridiculous complaints and difficulties would be that the simple fact that the United States was building an embassy in Israel (see our idea for the building below) would be construed as supporting the Israeli side of the Arab Israel Conflict and would have demands that the United States also build an embassy to the PA in Ramallah or Nablus or likely in East Jerusalem. Of course having an Arab Palestinian Embassy built in East Jerusalem would be viewed by the Arab and Muslim world of MENA as the proper recognition of their claims to the city. Placing a United States Embassy for Israel in Western Jerusalem would be critical and a display that abrogated the fairness for the United States to adjudicate any settlement and lead to demands that only the United Nations, the General Assembly in particular could be a fair adjudicator of the conflict. The fact that there would be such a different set of claims for embassies with an embassy to the PA in East Jerusalem being a wise and politically correct and approved move while an embassy to Israel in West Jerusalem would be a declaration of Israeli imperial claims to Jerusalem would bring on no feel of hypocrisy in the Arab world.

 

Imagined New Style for United States Embassy in Petah Tikva, Israel

 

The same is true of their call for any further decisions to be adjudicated by the United Nations General Assembly, the same body which has passed declarations that Zionism equals racism, has targeted Israel more than the next ten nations targeted combined, is all but ruled by the Arab and Muslim nations with their allies from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM a group of undeveloped and developing nations usually depicted as the Third World Nations usually with dictatorial governance and many virulently anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic in their official positions). Even many of the European Union nations in such cases of denunciations of Israel either join those condemning Israel or simply abstain with only rarely having them vote against such declarations. The only blocking for denunciations of Israel brought before the Security Council historically has been the United States with the few times anti-Israeli motions pass through the Security Council, such as the recent denunciation contained in UNSC Res. 2334, is when the United States abstains, as President Obama instructed Ambassador Powers to do in the recent passage of UNSC Res. 2334 declaring Israeli “settlements” as a major obstacle to peace and against International Law. We must point out that UNSC Res. 2334 and its claims run counter to the United Nations Charter Article 80 as well as numerous historic treaties including but not limited to the Balfour Declaration, San Remo Conference, League of Nations 1922 Mandate on Palestine, Treaty of Sèvres, Treaty of Lausanne and the Anglo American Treaty. Of course the one thing we did find out early from President Obama was that the history of events and any agreements made by the “colonial powers” including but not limited to Britain, France, Netherlands, Germany, the remainder of Europe, and especially the United States and Israel were meaningless and his position and mark he would try to leave for posterity would be the upending of everything these powers had ever accomplished and to favor all others and their claims over these nations he found to have such horrific histories of exploitation. President Obama appeared to have a special animosity and visceral hatred for Israel and particularly Prime Minister Netanyahu. Life goes on and perhaps things will return to a more balanced form of insanity going forward.

 

The promise by President Trump to move the United States Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem would be a wonderful fulfillment of what the United States Congress promised over twenty years ago. Israel had officially annexed all of Jerusalem and granted the Arabs residing in East Jerusalem Israeli identification cards and resident alien status with an additional right for voting in Jerusalem City elections. There will likely be movement to make these Arabs full citizens as time passes. There will be no dividing of Jerusalem no matter what the rest of the world, the United Nations specifically included, believes or attempts to rule. Should the European Union, United Nations, United States or any other group of nations or organizations decide that they will divide Jerusalem and grant the PA to control the eastern parts which had been illegally occupied by Jordan, they had better be prepared to take those areas by military force because Israel will not be relinquishing any part of Jerusalem, period, end of story. Israel should be taking on a new approach which recognizes the new realities of having friends who are willing to enforce the aforementioned treaties and conferences above returning all of the promised land of Israel to Israeli rule. That would include everything from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. In recognition that even some in Europe who are ascendant also support these promises and we wish them the best going forward and in the upcoming elections imminent in Europe, Israel should drop all efforts to evacuate Amona or any other of the so-called “settlements” which are actually Israeli cities, towns and communities. Many of these communities also have industrial and other economic entities, many of which employ a fair number of Arabs from the neighboring villages and these Arabs work side-by-side with the Jewish employees, receive the same salaries, and make more than other Arabs working anywhere under the PA rule. Whenever the BDS movement or other entities claim success in forcing these businesses to relocate to within the 1949 Armistice Line (named the Green Line), as they did with SodaStream, many Arabs lose extremely well-paying jobs and become unemployed. When these do-gooders have such a success they laud their great victory presumably to assist Arab Palestinians; meanwhile, when they forced SodaStream, through coercion to relocate, hundreds of Arabs lost their jobs being unable to make the transit to the new location. That was some assistance these Arabs received, losing the best paying jobs they could have hoped to find, but why should reality rain on these do-gooders’ parade. The same goes for the European Union Nations when they also pressure Israeli companies through boycotts either nationwide or location by location as many cities and even counties in Spain are targeting these enterprises, some are simply boycotting everything Israeli made. Well, most things Israeli made as they continue to import Israeli stents for use in heart surgeries, continue to use Israeli security software, cell phones using Israeli technologies, instant messengers using Israeli coding, Microsoft operating systems and applications such as Windows and Office, and numerous other wonders of the modern world. These boycotts refuse to actually make any real sacrifices, they just boycott mostly products they were not using in the first place, they just like to proclaim how anti-Israel they are. Israel need call the world’s bluff and simply take the lands which rightfully belong to Israel, allow the Arabs not aligned or contributing to terrorism to remain as legal resident aliens with voting rights in their local elections, grant them elections for the first time since Mahmoud Abbas was elected in 2005, and grant them freedom to rule their towns themselves and live free of the oppressive PA and its dictatorial regime and make a decent living free of the corrupt rule of Abbas robbing them at every turn. Israel would be granting these Arabs their futures back and eventually potentially to be Israeli citizens if they choose or even to move away and return to their families elsewhere in the Middle East or Europe and North America, something currently denied them as they are not allowed to sell their properties without Abbas and the PA taking their cut providing they do not claim they were selling to a Jew and steal their land and allow gangs to execute them.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Reasons for NOT Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem

 

This has been the most and greatest coverage we have seen since the Inauguration of President Trump when covering his promises and the possibility that he might falter. Every article has mentioned different choices predicting which promises the President Trump would renege upon. Many claimed he would never build the wall along the Mexican border. Some kind of cheated by claiming that he would merely use a fence or even cameras with computer monitoring for motion detection and alerting the Border Police instead of building a wall along the entire border. Some would claim that the terrain would prevent it being a wall along the entire border but these arguments were disingenuous as the wording of a “wall along the Mexico border” simply meant closing the border through the use of combined deterrents, walls, fences or monitoring through advances of technology in the most difficult terrain or least used crossing locations and simply closing the border using all means necessary and required. Others claimed he would be unable to deport all the illegal immigrants as promised. First off, that was not the promise. He promised to deport illegal immigrants with felony convictions and to work at finding an equitable solution in which deportation may be an integral part of the equation.

 

The one item which made virtually every article’s list was the promise to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Almost, well, honestly every article we read claimed that President Trump would not be capable of moving the embassy as the threats, dangers, political pressures or even that Trump would use moving the embassy to force the Israelis to make the next concession of dividing Jerusalem and returning to the 1949 Armistice Lines with very minor land swaps making a final peace deal. What the problem with the claim is that the Congress passage and the signing into law of the Jerusalem Act “recognized Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty.” That makes an undivided Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty United States law and thus holds any President to standing either actively for the undivided capital of Israel as being all of Jerusalem or remaining silent, no matter how President Obama attempted to divide Jerusalem as he disregarded numerous laws including the United States Constitution. Even some Israeli media has come up with lists for why President Trump will not, or should not (Haaretz), move the embassy to Jerusalem claiming things so extreme as stated by Haaretz, “Relocating its embassy to Jerusalem would mean the U.S. taking a partisan stance on a central and sensitive issue, a source of controversy between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and the international community.” That is a falsehood unless moving the embassy to western Jerusalem would be taking a position that western Jerusalem would remain part of Israel. Is Haaretz indicating that Israel should leave western Jerusalem and if that is the meaning, then what else should Israel surrender or does Haaretz stand with the most extreme position such as that expressed by Helen Thomas who stated on May 27, 2010, when asked whether she had any comments on Israel? “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine,” she replied. “Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not Germany, it’s not Poland.” When further asked where they should go, she answered, “They should go home.” When asked where’s home, Thomas replied: “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”

 

 

The American Embassy could easily be moved to even the most western edge of Jerusalem and be as far as possible from any lands under dispute and still there would be whole hosts of people screaming that the United States is persecuting the Palestinian Arabs and determining to cheat them out of their homeland. This might at first glance appear as a ridiculous position to take as it could be so easily repudiated except that the Palestinian Arab claims include all of Jerusalem. The reality is the United States has already made a statement that is determined to cheat the Palestinian Arabs out of their homeland by leaving their embassy in Tel Aviv as the Arab claim is to all of Israel just as the students chant in campuses across the United States, Europe and beyond, “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.” The Palestinian Arabs are actually the entire Arab world’s crowbar and will be their implement by which they continue to wage their war to destroy all of Israel. The truth is the existence of a United States Embassy is an affront to the Palestinian Arab claims to their “rightful” country which would be built on the ruins of the Jewish State as anything less would be an aberrance to their stated demands and eventual goals. This is part of why Mahmoud Abbas, and Yasser Arafat before him, refused even offers which granted them with over 90% of Judea and Samaria along with all of Gaza and east Jerusalem as their capital when offered in 1999, 2000 and in 2008.

 

So, why should President Trump move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem according to us here at Beyond the Cusp? Well, we could use our favorite reason when trying to win an argument as kids with our parents when life got between us and a promise to go somewhere fun, “But you promised,” but we know that does not wash when things are on this level. First, it would send a message that there really has been a change in Washington D.C. and that the change will very likely be permanent for all intents and purposes. The world’s train is racing towards oblivion and nobody is manning the breaks. The old steam engine is racing with its speed balls spinning full out threatening to blow off their spinners. Everything about the old globe is screaming, whistles blowing and rivets near popping and the boiler exploding and the Deadman’s switch rig disabled and there is nobody in the cabin. Well, there was nobody in the cabin. This was the picture of the world not long ago and hopefully things will be saved before we hit a sharp curve and it all goes off the tracks. Brexit was step one and President Trump is step two but nobody knows how many steps it will require for sanity to rescue the world. Will the needful steps be taken or will the next cataclysm strike before the world regains sanity. What are the necessary steps that will bring the world back within the bounds, who can tell? The world has been slowly gaining reckless speed slowly slipping out of control and towards untold violence. There are those forces which would welcome the untold violence. They loudly proclaim their love for violence and the death it brings. They claim to worship death and that this allows them power over all who worship life. Their claim is that death conquers life. Those who love life claim that death is the rest one receives after a full, long and hopefully well spent life. These are opposing views which cannot be reconciliated, one must prevail. The good news is that President Trump is aware of the challenge though he has spoken only about it through allegory and indirect references. Moving the United States Embassy would be a strong message when it is announced as a definitive and executable policy decision. Perhaps that is the future for the moving of the United States Embassy, a declaration that the United States and life will declare over death and those who believe it is primacy. Yes, perhaps the moving of the Embassy will be a greater declaration than what the debaters believe it will be. Perhaps there is a grander plan than we are aware, perhaps the plan is greater than men and from beyond our understanding. This may be a greater issue than a mere embassy and the city in which it sits. Jerusalem had been more than a city and perhaps this is more than a simple embassy. Lastly, if the reason not to move the embassy to Jerusalem is because it reportedly will inflame Muslim passions moving them to further animosity and in turn greater acts of violence, then there is no reason not to move the embassy as from all observations of the Middle East, especially Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Libya and both Sudan and South Sudan as well as the levels of terrorism in Europe, more so Western Europe and also in the United States, though there it has been reported as anything but terror, especially Islamic driven terror, the levels could not conceivably be any higher. Violence, thy name is Islam, has become a truism of our times and thus simply move the embassy as there is no possible additional levels other than war, and that will happen whether the embassy is moved or not. If we had our way and the United States had not already purchased the land, then we would call for the embassy not only to be moved to Jerusalem but to the Jewish sector of the Old City as well. After all, did not Trump promise that his Presidency would be a brave and bold rebeginning for America and her relations with her friends? Well then, let’s get it off on the right foot.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Perhaps Netanyahu is not the Answer

 

There is the possibility that Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is not the one who makes Israel whole and annexes Judea and Samaria. What if the answer comes from another source, another place and another person? We prayed and realized that what needs to be will be and Hashem will have his designs, desires and will completed, just not necessarily in the manner which is most straight forward. But first perhaps we should share that which we expect and then try to figure out the remainder of the puzzle.

 

We know that Prime Minister Netanyahu had a brief conversation with President Trump on the phone this weekend. We know the call lasted under thirty minutes and that the end result is President Trump has invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to visit in February in Washington D.C. We can extrapolate that one of the men, more likely President Trump, refused to talk about any plans or the “peace process” preferring to talk mano-a-mano so that Trump can take the measure of Bibi and ascertain what truths he is able to glean and judge the Israeli position on everything from there. We need to remember that President Trump prefers to take the measure of people in person and often gets it right when feeling the pulse of the other people face to face. President Trump is a people person and not likely as much prone to discuss things of an important nature with a person he has no yardstick established or any real measure of the person as to their truthfulness and the validity which can be assigned their words. President Trump can likely see a huckster from a mile away after dealing with some of the greatest showmen and women on the planet in New York real estate and other ventures around the world. Trump may not have the wealth he claims but he does have the sense for business and the ability for deal making where a deal is possible. So step one with Israel is to take a measure of Bibi and at the same time ascertain to what extent Israel has been the problem and what extent the victim.

 

So what is step two? Step two is taking a measure of Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab or Palestinian side of the equation. The one truth we know about Mahmoud Abbas is that he believes himself to be a slick trickster who easily plays on European ingrained anti-Semitism with great success. He hit a chord with President Obama and Obama virtually went to work for Abbas against Israel. Now Abbas is going to try and out hustle a hustler and that will be an interesting scenario. The question is not will Donald Trump see through Abbas, it is how long it will take before he sees through Abbas and his façade and lies. We doubt it will take too long as the very first item Trump will see is a simple visualization. His discussion with Bibi will be all about peace and what Israel would do for peace and little if any demands of the Arabs other than peace and recognition that Israel exists and will continue to do so. Abbas, on the other hand, will also talk of peace but will be setting goals and demands to be met in order to even sit down and talk about what other demands he can make before the world peace is permitted to even be mentioned. That is when and where Trump will see that Abbas does not desire peace, he is after a military victory through negotiations. Trump has likely run into Abbas type people throughout his childhood and has maybe been taken by a few of the first hucksters, but he has also hit the big leagues and dealt with the likes of the Reverend Sharpton and his ilk. Trump will see what is what and who is who and quickly make his reconnaissance and all which will remain is his solution. That might take up to six months to a year depending on time invested.

 

Mahmoud Abbas, Donald Trump and Benyamin Netanyahu

 

That brings us to step three, the deal. This will at best be a conference possibly in Abbas’s home court of Paris, France. Netanyahu will also be invited and both men will be told to bring their advisors and be ready to get the deal done. The pot may be sweetened by inviting the French President and his advisors and even invite another Abbas facilitator, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and whomever she would like to be her escort and figurehead advisor. There might even be the chance for the evil one, at least according to the New York Times, Vladimir Putin brought onboard just for that extra panache. Once the stage is set, the show can commence. By the time this confab has been arranged, The Donald will already have spoken with both of the main members of this conference, Abbas and Netanyahu, and have reached his verdict and little if anything will be capable of changing that mind. Trump will know which he believes is the honest broker and which is the huckster attempting to pull one over again. Trump may already have a fair idea and be predisposed in one direction and everything else is part of the show, we have to put on a show as how often does one get to play on a stage this grand and elaborate in front of the eyes of the world. This is a once in a lifetime appearance and President Trump will make the most of his opportunity. Do not for a minute as the conference unfolds believe it will not go exactly as President Trump desires as he is the main attraction, the master of ceremonies and the man who can deliver the goodies.

 

The fact that there has been talk that President Trump was thinking of assigning Jared Kushner, his Orthodox Jewish son-in-law, to be his special representative to settle the Israel-Palestinian conflict speaks volumes, both quantity and decibel level, about the direction Trump is leaning. Trump has met Netanyahu before and knows the man well enough to already have a good picture of his virtues and drawbacks. Trump probably has a line on Abbas and company as well as probably has their positions and bluster all summed up. The meetings now are to dress the bride for the ceremony, and only one of the potential bridegrooms get to go home with the prize while the other gets a bouquet which will rapidly wilt before he gets home. Could things turn around, sure, and I could become Trump’s Ambassador to Shangri-La and live forever in a garden paradise hidden away in some remote valley in the Himalayas. President Trump has been hiring some extremely high level firepower for much of his Cabinet and as personal advisors despite the brouhaha over his Secretary of Education pick, Ms. Betsy DeVos. By mentioning that he was considering appointing his Orthodox Jewish son-in-law to negotiate between the Israelis and Palestinians, he was signaling that his mind on the subject was made up and appointing what appears to be as biased a person in favor of Israel as humanly possible was just Trump’s way of signaling his direction. Discern what you may about his direction from such an obviously skewed choice.

 

So what remains is the set-up of the match, just like the UFC, you bring each fighter before the media, separately in this case as having them together would make for too ugly a scene and this has been choreographed to the final blow. Then you allow the media to get a feel for each side’s training camp and give everything the build-up of an impossible deal. Finally, you gather the top people, often these are Hollywood types to fill the first three rows for the UFC main event mixed in with former champions, but here it will be leaders such as we mentioned above and who you add to the list of top EU and other European officials along with Putin and possibly whoever replaces Ban Ki-moon as United Nations Secretary General and if some Arabs desire to come along, all the better. Putin will either be briefed on what to expect before he is invited to make sure he desires to be seen alongside the final deal as will a select group of others. Then there will be the three or four days of drama in the media as to whether Trump can make the deal or not, but the deal was already formulated and all but finalized beforehand and Trump is holding all the cards including, of course, the Trump Cards. When the pressure has almost peaked, as if it peaks then Abbas will spout some crazy, over the top demands and disappear showing up back in Ramallah launching the next Intifada. So, anticipating the point at which Abbas does his usual disappearing act, Trump will alert the media, close the airport and trains stations preventing anybody bolting, and the next morning the main event will take center stage, as we intimated, possibly Paris or perhaps Rome, it is beautiful there in the Spring. Trump will appear in a large press room before all the cameras and reporters with Bibi Netanyahu on one side and Abbas on the other side. Abbas will be wearing his usual “there are cameras in front of me smirk.” One can see the image below of that exact smirk which he wore when he was pictured center of the front line for the procession mourning the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher Market terror attacks. The fact that it was more a funeral than a parade is obvious from the other faces in the picture. But please never tell to Abbas such truths as that might cause laughter to accompany the smirk, especially if he knows that it was all the result of a terror attack. One need remember that terrorism is his trade coinage.

 

Mahmoud Abbas smirking while at remembrance rally for Charlie Hebdo in Paris after terror slaughter of a dozen writers and cartoonists for the satirical magazine.

 

Before such an audience is where Trump would like to make his grand finale, but he also might end up settling for something far more low key if he decides to allow Abbas to bolt, thus hanging his side permanently. Walking out on Donald Trump because he would not give you all of the candy will not play well. Since Abbas is demanding the entire bowl of candy and demanding the Jews be removed so he can enjoy all of the candy from the Jordan River of chocolate to the Mediterranean Sea of Skittles, his idea of a good Israel is no Israel. That has been the Palestinian chant taught to college students and leftist protesters across Europe and North America and anywhere else pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been bought and paid for including the defining, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be free.” That sure leaves a whole lot to debate over, especially when it really is the only solution Abbas can accept as that is exactly what he has promised and so often that the people do not care or remember that there were possibilities that it would have to happen in stages. After President Obama and his grand schemes and promises and Abbas doing all he could to out-promise Obama, the Arabs expect they have already won. Nobody has told them there is a new sheriff in town, and he is taking names and numbers. At this point everything is conjecture but we feel pretty confident things should play out in some manner similar to what we have vaguely described above, or at least we like to think they will.

 

Beyond the Cusp