Trump’s Jerusalem move expected to impede Zionist/Sunni alliance against Iran

The perception of progress on the peace process between the Jewish State and the Palestinians gave Sunni Arab states public legitimacy to work with Israel; now they’re being forced by Trump’s recent Jerusalem declaration to backtrack and take up hardline positions

Ed note–gosh, there’s something SOOOOO familiar about the thesis contained in this piece…Hmmmm, let’s see…

Why yes, it appeared right here, just a week ago in fact, right in the midst of the ‘muuvmnt meltdown’ following Trump’s ‘declaration’ on Jerusalem, when everyone, his brother, his cousin, and everyone in between was in full blown screech mode that this development had no further significance attached to it other than as living, breathing, sweating, stinking confirmation that Trump is a ‘seekrit Joo’ pretending to be a blond-haired Gentile in order to fool everyone.

Please compare/contrast the thesis contained in this piece with what appeared here a week ago, to wit–

ed note–before everyone reacts and erupts with all the typical noise, please consider what may be the underlying strategic reasons for Trump doing this–

1. The ‘friendship’ that Israel has been trying to cultivate with the Arab countries–most notably KSA, Egypt, Jordan, etc–has now been put to the torch over this issue. The Zionist/Sunni alliance against Iran which Israel envisioned whereby Judea, Inc was then in the position of utilizing the militaries of the aforementioned Sunni countries as proxy forces against Iran has just come to a screeching halt.

2. Israel has now been put under the gun as all her surrounding neighbors are seething with rage, thus putting Netanyahu in the position of being forced to come to Trump on his knees begging for assistance and support, a situation which puts Trump in a much better position in terms of his much-discussed ‘peace deal’ between Israel and the Arabs.

But, naaaah…None of that makes any sense. It’s much easier to just say that Trump did this jes’ cuz he’s a ‘seekrit joo’

Post Script ed note–NB the comments of Ghaith al-Omari, described as ‘a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’ which represents the NEOCON line, as WINEP is one of Likud’s many tentacles in DC, operating alongside AEI, JINSA, AIPAC et al.

Times of Israel

Sunni Arab states and Israel share a declared goal of countering Iran’s growing influence in the region, and the United States has been working on a regional plan to bring those parties together in that aim, which it also shares.

But US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel complicates the cooperation between the nascent anti-Iran alliance, experts say.

That, indeed, seems to also be the opinion of Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who said last week at the Saban Forum that peace with the Palestinians was a necessary aspect to building a broad regional coalition against Iran.

When his father-in-law announced that the US would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, to those in the region it seemed like a serious blow to the peace process — an unprecedented privileging of one side’s position on one of the most sensitive final-status issues.

So far, no Arab or Muslim country has publicly paid heed to the president’s assertion that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city or his stated opposition to changing the status quo at the city’s holy sites.

Instead, countries that enjoy historically close relations with the US and maintain (overt or reported) security ties with Israel — including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — have all denounced Trump’s declaration, saying it undermines the peace process and empowers extremists.

“The Jerusalem decision greatly complicates tensions between the strategic interest of pursuing a relationship with Israel and their interest in terms of domestic politics, in terms of values and in terms of the strategic equilibrium they require in order to live happily,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

In the eyes of the Arab world, Trump’s decision undermined the agreed-upon framework for an Israeli-Palestinian peace process that could provide “the grounds to say, ‘Now we have put 1948 behind us on the basis of all this legitimacy,’” added Ibish, referring to the year when Israel was created and immediately attacked by its Arab neighbors.

He said that the political leaders of Sunni Arab states were “frustrated” with Trump’s decision, because in destabilizing the region it hindered progress on two closely related objectives.

The first is solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is a destabilizing factor on its own, exploited by extremist groups to swell their ranks and justify their actions, he said. The second, confronting Iran, also is also about seeking regional stability.

Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, argued that Trump’s decision has forced Arab countries to take up anti-Israel and -US positions that they were previously loath to adopt.

“It has cornered all of the Arab countries, both ones that wanted to start building relations with Israel, and also those that are US allies. Both feel cornered. Both feel that they have to take hardline positions now and that their margin to maneuver has been limited,” he said.

He pointed out that Qatari and Iranian media have used the Jerusalem declaration to sling mud at the Saudis for their relations with the US.

In protests in Gaza and in Jordan, crowds chanted anti-Saudi slogans.

Some of the anti-Saudi sentiment stems from media reports that Riyadh has been pressuring the Palestinians to accept an American peace deal that is seen as entirely unacceptable to Ramallah.

“Everyone now needs to sound hardline and everyone is afraid of doing anything that can be used by their regional political opponents,” al-Omari said. “They are paying the price for their close relations with the US — not a big price, but a price.”