FOREIGN POLICY/ISRAEL/PALESTINE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “There was no dancing in the rain-soaked streets, no jubilant horn-honking or waving of the blue-and-white flag. But there were blustery statements from Israeli politicians…
News that President Trump would formally recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and take steps to move the United States Embassy to the city seemed to be taking a bit of time to sink in on Wednesday — like an unfamiliar feeling — among the two peoples that it will affect most.
It was perhaps easier, for the moment, to let reflexes take over. Israelis did what they know well, bracing for the sort of explosive response that has long been cited by international leaders as a deterrent for moving their embassies to Jerusalem.
Yediot Ahronot, one of the nation’s leading dailies, ran a photograph of Mr. Trump touching the ancient stones of the Western Wall, a Jewish holy site in the hotly contested Old City, under a blaring headline, ‘Trump Alert.’
The article warned of a possible outbreak of violence as Israeli forces readied for protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Indeed, in the Palestinian territories, Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions, whose internecine battles have often been bloody and politically debilitating, came together to urge a public venting of rage against Mr. Trump.”
-David M. Halbfinger, “Palestinians Protest U.S. Embassy Plan, as Israelis Brace for Violence,” The New York Times online, Dec. 6, 2017