TRUMP AND JERUSALEM ; MUCH ADO ABOUT THE BASE

Trump has announced that the US now recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel. At the same time he confirmed the support for a two-state solution and left open the question of Jerusalem's future contour.  In so doing he gave in, yet again, to his base of Evangelicals.  He made Israeli P.M. Netanyahu and Sheldon Adelson happy, made Mahmoud Abbas' life even more miserable and finally upset the Arabs, the Europeans and everybody else.

Otherwise his address was short on substance. One is entitled to wonder what Jared Kushner's and Jason Greenblatt's "efforts" regarding the peace process amount to. It is too early to predict if the Arab streets might react but it is clear that the Arab leaders are unanimous in expressing their concerns for the possible consequences of an unnecessary decision made for "home consumption".

The president has a most predictable psyche. He bites when he feels cornered, as is now the case with his lawyers creating a stampede among themselves to find a rebuke to the accumulating alarm bells coming out of the Russian probe. The tactic from the White House is to deflect, "over lie", and occupy the news cycle with more junk than can be found in the "space graveyard" which circles the earth.

The secretary of state was absent during this "major" address.  Tillerson had the non-enviable task to meet with blatant hostility in Brussels, of the kind that ruled the European waves before the second Iraq war. The esteem for things American in Europe is at its lowest point. 

From Lebanon to Turkey, from Syria to Yemen, Washington is seen as the unwelcome, clueless guest and spoiler-in-chief. France tries to bring some coherence to the situation but it is an uphill battle since MBS, the Saudi "Wonder Prince", is as unpredictable as his forays in foreign affairs (Yemen, Qatar) betray. It will be interesting to see how he will now react to Trump's own "fatwa".

In America, international policy has become "local." The most "far out" actions or statements have from now on to be seen not as game-changers abroad but as  gestures to placate Trump's base of "deplorables."  Other than that there is no there there.