President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem “probably makes it more difficult for a two-state solution,” according to a Republican senator.
“I think that’s probably the biggest impact it’ll have right now,” Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, a member of the American delegation that dedicated the embassy on Monday, told the Washington Examiner.
That comment echoes comments made by many Democrats who worry that the decision to move the embassy was premature, and could make it harder for Israel to find a way forward in peace talks with Palestinians. However, Heller generally praised the decision, and said it was a necessary adjustment of the starting point for any future peace talks.
“When you went in there to have discussions with them, the first thing that was discussed was whether or not Jerusalem would be the capital of Israel,” he said. “Then the first thing they’d say would be take it off the table. Now, we’ll take it off the table because it’s already happened.”
Israeli forces have controlled all of Jerusalem since 1967, when they seized East Jerusalem — including the Old City containing the sites revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims — during the Six-Day War. Palestinian officials want to recover East Jerusalem as the capital of any future state that emerges from peace talks, and former President Barack Obama’s administration aimed for a two-state solution modeled on the pre-1967 lines.
That’s unlikely to happen, under Trump’s long-awaited peace plan, even if the proposal does not exclude the Palestinians from controlling at least some part of Jerusalem. The administration, however, is expected to propose leaving the holy sites under international control.
“For decades, American administrations indulged the Palestinian fiction that huge parts of Jerusalem are up for grabs, and the Obama administration went further and said that all of the city was in play,” said a veteran policy expert who advises the White House on Israel issues.
“None of that was true,” the expert added. “The Israelis were never going to cede sovereignty over the Old City and Jewish holy places, let alone to Palestinian leaders who keep backsliding into genocidal anti-Semitism. Pretending otherwise only led to deadlocks.”
Israeli officials have long protested that they don’t have a viable negotiating partner on the Palestinian side, where terrorist organizations exert significant influence in Gaza. That criticism has been endorsed to varying degrees by U.S. officials in the Obama and Trump administrations. The relocation of the embassy is unlikely to diminish that problem, Heller allowed, citing the violent protests against the dedication of the diplomatic post.
“[The White House is] not abandoning the two-state solution, they still want peace,” he told the Washington Examiner. “But, these moves, you can tell from the conflicts that have occurred over the last few days that Hamas is very unhappy, I’m sure Hezbollah is very unhappy, Iran is very unhappy. But, you know, they have a right to defend themselves and they have a right to declare their own capital.”
Still, Heller argued that the tempest over relocating the embassy shouldn’t do any permanent damage to the the prospects for peace.
“No doubt, it caused the conflict,” Heller told the Washington Examiner. “I do not think that’s a setback, because this White House has a way of doing things … I think they sent a message to the Palestinians that we’re here to do business. You want to deal with us? Otherwise we’re going to make these moves, whether it’s the Iran deal, whether it’s moving the U.S. embassy, we’re here to do business and we’re going to do it our way. You want to be part of the solution? We’re going to give you an opportunity to do that.”
