Everybody Celebrated Trump’s Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital But No One Read the Fine Print or Saw the Hidden Plan: Trump Wants to Give Part of Jerusalem to Palestinians
By Julio
Severo
What it is, it is not quite so. Even
though U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision
recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has hugely pleased evangelicals,
who are his main political supporting base, the Israeli press has raised major
worrying points that are emerging now.
“Just
months after recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and days before
moving the US Embassy there, Israeli media reports that US President Donald
Trump now wants Israel to give part of the Holy City to the Palestinians.”
Israel
Today added that “The Trump Administration has been working for months on” this
plan and that in exchange for accepting this plan, “Israel would receive total
and unquestioned American backing in handling the Iran nuclear threat however
it sees fit.” Can it be labeled blackmail?
It
means: If the Jews want the whole Jerusalem as its capital, Israel will not
receive American support. The Jews will only receive total American support if
they accept the delivery of parts of Jerusalem to Palestinians.
So has essentially Israel become just a
puppet or slave of U.S. plans?
Months before Trump’s recognition of
Jerusalem, Russian
President Vladimir Putin had already recognized West Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital. But everybody had thought that Trump’s recognition was better
because they understood that Trump actually recognized West and East Jerusalem.
Evangelicals thought that Trump had recognized the whole Jerusalem. But it was
not quite so.
Because
the United States is a mostly Protestant nation and its president is nominally
Protestant, I think that Trump should respect the Bible and what God says about
Jerusalem: It belongs wholly to the Jews by promise. What if Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is pleased with Trump’s plan to recognize only partially
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital? In my evangelical view that respects God’s Word,
both would be wrong.
In the end, Trump’s plan in a sense seems Putin’s
plan, who also recognized only partially Jerusalem as Israel’s capital before
Trump did. Of course, as an evangelical I oppose such partial recognition.
In a report titled “Trump’s peace plan
includes giving away parts of Jerusalem,” the Israeli newspaper World Israel
News said last week, “The US peace plan allegedly includes cutting away four
Arab neighborhoods that would become the Palestinian capital.”
Jerusalem cannot be at the same time the
capital of Israel and the capital of Palestinians, who are enemies of the Jews.
Why? Because God gave Jerusalem only to the Jews, not to Palestinians.
As the largest Protestant nation in the
world, the United States had the responsibility to have already recognized the
whole Jerusalem as Israel’s capital decades ago. But it never did it. And now,
after so much delay, does the United States want to make a partial recognition?
Now many can understand why Saudi Arabia was not displeased at Trump’s plan. In
fact, in his first international trip, the first nation Trump visited was not
Israel. It was Saudi Arabia. Has Trump planned with Saudis Jerusalem as a
hybrid Jewish and Palestinian capital?
In
a report titled “Trump to ask Israel to withdraw from 4 east Jerusalem
neighborhoods” last week, the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post said, “The
Trump administration will ask Israel to withdraw from four Arab neighborhoods
in east Jerusalem, which will likely become the capital of a future Palestinian
state, US officials told Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman during his visit to
Washington last week.”
The big problem is that we evangelicals,
who are Trump’s main base of support, did not pay attention to his official
recognition of Jerusalem. Last December, Trump said in his official
proclamation,
“Today’s
actions — recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announcing the
relocation of our embassy — do not reflect a departure from the strong
commitment of the United States to facilitating a lasting peace agreement. The
United States continues to take no position on any final status issues. The
specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final
status negotiations between the parties. The United States is not taking a
position on boundaries or borders.”
Some points on this statement:
*
Trump did not recognize the whole Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. We
evangelicals naively interpreted this way. Trump made very clear that “The
United States is not taking a position on boundaries or borders.” That is, he
recognized Jerusalem without taking a position on boundaries or borders of
Jerusalem, but no one noticed the fine print.
* Trump made clear that his
recognition was not a “departure from the strong commitment of the United
States to facilitating a lasting peace agreement.” This “strong commitment” is
the U.S. policy of many past president who took into consideration neocon geopolitical
ambitions and the whims of the Islamic dictatorship of Saudi Arabia. Sadly,
this does not take into consideration the best interest of Israel and God’s
promises in the Bible.
*
Trump made clear that “The United States continues to take no position on any
final status issues.” In this statement, Trump clearly showed that he did not
recognize the whole Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The
wording of his official statement is very worrying. This wording, which was not
accessible to evangelicals in the first days of the recognition, presents major
loopholes that, instead declaring solidly Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,
actually fly in all directions.
The lack of solidity in the wording is disappointing
because my wife, my children and I have been praying on a daily basis, for many
years, for Jerusalem to be recognized as exclusively belonging to Israel.
Can
you imagine a young man going to a businessman and saying that he wants to
marry his daughter? Can you imagine the businessman answering, “I give 80% of my
daughter to you and 20% to your enemy”? Trump has done exactly so regarding
Jerusalem. In fact, it’s worse: The daughter (Jerusalem) does not belong to
Trump, but even so he wants to give 20% of her to the enemies of the Jews.
If
the U.S. played the same game with the Saudis, offering 80% of their capital Riyadh
to the Saudis and 20% to the Palestinians, would the Saudis accept it?
Does
a true friend and ally play games with its friends and allies? So why does instead
having recognized Jerusalem decades ago the U.S. keep playing games with Jerusalem?
If the U.S. does not dare to play games with Riyadh, why play games with Jerusalem?
Why doesn’t the US treat Israel as a
true friend and ally?
Putin recognized
West Jerusalem last year, but this was not answered prayer. It is the whole
Jerusalem or bust!
So when Trump recognized, everybody thought
that he had surpassed Putin. Everybody thought it was answered prayer.
Everybody celebrated, but no one read the
fine print or saw the hidden plans!
At least, Putin was sincerer, because his
recognition of Jerusalem gave no occasion for interpreting that he recognized
the whole Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, both recognitions are wrong.
So both Trump and Putin should be pressed to recognize the whole Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital.
In
Putin’s case, Orthodox Christians should make such pressure. If they are real
Christians, they will do it.
In Trump’s case, we evangelicals should
make such pressure.
Trump should forget neocon geopolitical
ambitions, the whims from the Saudi Islamic dictatorship and remember what God’s
Word says: the whole Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel.
As
an evangelical president, Trump should use his influence not to force Israel to
withdraw from parts of Jerusalem, but to force Jordan and other neighboring Islamic
nations to withdraw from Israeli lands that they are illegally occupying.
Portuguese version of this article: Todos
celebraram o reconhecimento de Trump de Jerusalém como capital de Israel, mas
ninguém leu as letras miúdas ou viu o plano oculto: Trump quer dar parte de
Jerusalém para os palestinos
Source:
Last Days Watchman
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Reading:
Good article! I had not known this. But please don't call Trump an evangelical president. He is not a Christian in the least--never having felt he needed to ask forgiveness (of God or anyone), scorning Jesus' teaching about loving one's enemies.
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