Donald Trump starred in the main headlines in Israel on Wednesday morning, just as he did in the United States, but for completely different reasons. Americans were reeling from the unequivocal conviction of Paul Manafort, the damning confessions of Michael Cohen and the sweet smell in the morning, if you don’t like Donald Trump, of impending impeachment. Israelis, on the other hand, were more flabbergasted by a few sentences that Trump uttered, intentionally or inadvertently, in his campaign-style rally in West Virginia. The term that grabbed people was “higher price.” Israel would have to pay a “higher price,” Trump said, in return for his decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. It’s the Palestinians’ turn, he said in his typical third-grade lingo, “to get something good.” Israelis, who had lulled themselves into believing that Trump’s support came with no strings attached, were dumbfounded. Suddenly it seemed that Trump was not only to make a demand, the chutzpadik, it was going to be a steep one. In high-strung Israel, that is more than enough to spark an immediate sense of crisis. >> Palestinians fire back at Trump: No 'deal of the century' without Jerusalem as capital ■ Hamas chief: Trump's peace plan 'clinically dead' Visiting U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton tried to put a lid on the turbulence. He did so in typical, Trump-administration manner, by directly contradicting the president. There will be no quid pro quo for the embassy decision in Jerusalem, Bolton said, as if people hadn’t heard Trump’s distinct words, or because what the president says, as his top adviser implies, doesn’t really matter. The winds of storm, however, were already raging. Israel's ideological right wing immediately geared up for battle with yet another backstabbing U.S. president who had obviously come under the influence of hostiles. Netanyahu’s people nervously reassured everyone that nothing had changed and Trump was still our number one best friend forever, making a great effort to believe their own words. The left, meanwhile, was having a ball. If Trump were to turn on Netanyahu and press him to make concessions, it would be a double whammy for Israel’s beleaguered anti-right: The moribund peace process could unexpectedly return to life and there would be an endless supply of schadenfreude at Netanyahu’s expense. The pleasure would be doubled by the thought that Netanyahu, who lavishes fulsome praise on Trump on a daily basis, had become, as the Eagles would put it, a prisoner of his own device. Upon closer inspection, Trump’s words should have actually generated even greater right-wing hysteria. The “higher price” that Trump supposedly expects Israel to pay isn’t just for the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem and the transfer of its embassy there. Trump seems to believe that those decisions have, in and of themselves and in one fell swoop, solved the eternally thorny issue of contested Jerusalem. “They never got past Jerusalem,” he said of everyone who’s ever tried. “We took it off the table. We don’t have to talk about it anymore.” If that were true, if Trump had indeed handed over the keys to Jerusalem to the Jews and magically made the issue vanish from the Israeli-Palestinian agenda, he could reasonably ask for the moon. Wasn’t he Israel’s greatest friend ever? Hadn’t Israelis told him he was the successor of the Persian messiah and Emperor Cyrus, who allowed the Jews to return from Babylonian exile to their precious Zion? Didn’t the Jews insist he had redeemed Jerusalem from 3,000 years of solitude? Weren’t Netanyahu and Israel so deeply indebted to him that he could demand anything of them, with interest? The fatal flaw in Trump’s line of reasoning, of course, is that it is essentially a mix of balderdash and poppycock wrapped in pure rubbish. One can argue the merits and demerits of Trump’s embassy move, but it did not, in any way, shape or form, “take Jerusalem off the table.” In fact, quite the contrary: For the first time since the start of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and as a direct result of Trump’s decisions, Jerusalem is now an impassable obstacle not only to a peace deal but also to any semblance of a diplomatic process. Trump’s message in West Virginia can only make things worse. The Palestinians, he is implying, will sell out their holy city of Al-Quds in exchange for “something good” that Trump is going to rustle up from Israel. This is a sure-fire formula for failure: The Palestinian leader who would dare contemplate such a dubious deal has yet to be born, and no Arab leader who values his future would consider it either. It’s also hard to imagine – unless he’s gone completely bonkers, which is always a possibility – that Trump would pick a fight with Israel when he is at his most vulnerable. To offset the rising tide of demands for his indictment, impeachment or resignation in the wake of the Cohen confessions, which have cast him as an unindicted criminal, Trump desperately needs to hold on to his loyal base, without which he cannot control deviant Republicans who may be thinking of deserting his sinking ship. The core of Trump’s base includes a large chunk of Evangelicals, whose blind allegiance to the president could easily cope with allegations of campaign finance improprieties but would be sorely tested in a direct clash between the president and Netanyahu. Trump needs a falling out right now with Evangelicals, excuse me, like a hole in the head. Nonetheless, despite all of the caveats above, Trump’s “higher price” bombshell was a shot across the bow for Netanyahu and other right wingers who thought they could sleep soundly for the next four or even eight years. It indicates that Trump can flip on Israel without a moment’s notice or a second thought, just as he renounces anyone else who dares challenge him, from political allies to top security officials to his own personal lawyer. And that he might do so based on his delusions of grandeur and his apparent inability to grasp the broad lines, never mind the small details, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All of which could lead Israeli decision-makers to an interesting reassessment of their priorities. Perhaps it’s safer now, they might reason, to hope for a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, which could rein in Trump’s currently unchallenged power. Impeachment, which would surely keep the president otherwise engaged, might also be good idea. In fact, the ideal solution for Jewish settlers and other ultra-nationalist Israelis is to pray for U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to muster up the courage to do the right thing. If Pence invokes the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and garners sufficient support from the U.S. cabinet, Trump would be dumped, stability would be restored and danger would be averted. Right-wing Israel would get an even dreamier president in Pence than it did in Trump, Evangelicals would be ecstatic at the ascent of one of their own and even Palestinians would be spared empty promises of “something good” coming their way.<doc-sep>US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Israel will pay a "high price" in any peace talks in return for the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem in May. Speaking at a rally in the US state of West Virginia, Trump called the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem "very big". He said that in return, Palestinians will "get something very good […] because it's their turn next." The President did not put forward any concrete suggestions as to what this "something very good" might entail for the Palestinians. President Trump also remarked that the US had "taken Jerusalem off the table." He added "if there's ever going to be peace with the Palestinians, then this was a good thing to have done […] In past negotiations, they never got past Jerusalem becoming the capital. So I said 'let's take it off the table'," the Times of Israel reported. In response to Trump's comments, US National Security Adviser John Bolton stressed that there had been no change in US policy vis-a-vis Israel. The US has long been a principal ally of Israel and continues to donate huge sums of military aid to the State. Currently visiting Israel to discuss regional issues with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bolton added that the Jerusalem embassy move is "not an issue of quid pro quo", Arutz Sheva reported. Bolton: US not seeking regime change in Iran Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israel and Palestine as their capital, was determined a "final status" issue in the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, the last round of peace talks to yield any results. Under UN Resolution 181, often known as the Partition Plan of 1947, Jerusalem was declared a corpus separatum that was to be demilitarised, neutral and ruled by a UN administration. In moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and unilaterally recognising the city as Israel's capital, Trump disregarded this international legal framework and was accused of undermining any peace process that might remain. Trump is no stranger to making controversial remarks on the topic of Israel-Palestine. On Monday it emerged that during a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah in June, Trump suggested that if a one-state policy were pursued the prime minister of Israel "in a few years will be called Mohammed." It is thought Trump was referring to the demographic balance of Israel, which were the current state to be combined with the occupied Palestinian territories as a "state of all its citizens" would no longer yield a Jewish majority. The president has been pushing his own peace initiative dubbed the "deal of the century". It is not yet clear what the details of the deal will involve, but it is thought that any proposed deal will be advantageous to Israel. Last week, the Jordanian King said that "we have never seen or read about something called the 'deal of the century'." Egypt's President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, however, said in July that any solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "would not be at the expense of the Israeli public's 'security and stability'." READ: Israel forces assault Palestinian street sellers in Jerusalem<doc-sep>Bolton: There was never quid pro quo for Jerusalem embassy move, August 22, 2018 (Ziv Sokolov/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem) The Palestinians dismissed as “worthless” US President Donald Trump’s statement they will get something good in return for his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.The Palestinians also repeated their strong opposition to Trump’s yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East.The Palestinians’ comments on Wednesday came in response to remarks made by Trump during a campaign rally in Charleston, West Virginia.Trump said that since Jerusalem is now “off the table,” Israel will have to “pay a higher price” during the negotiations with the Palestinians.“If there’s ever going to be peace with the Palestinians, then this was a good thing to have done,” Trump said. “We took it off the table. In past negotiations, they never got past Jerusalem becoming the capital. So I said, ‘Let’s take it off the table.’ And you know what? In the negotiations, Israel will have to pay a higher price, because they won a very big thing. But I took it off the table.”Ahmed Tamimi, a senior PLO official, said that Trump’s remarks reflected the “continued American policy that is biased in favor of Israel.”Tamimi said the remarks also reflected “the ongoing illusions that the US administration is living under with regards to the possibility of implementing” Trump’s long-awaited peace plan, which “excludes Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state in any future settlement.”The PLO official said he did not know which negotiations Trump was talking about.“Jerusalem is in the hearts of the Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims,” he said. “If Trump was able to remove Jerusalem from the negotiating table, he won’t be able to remove it from the hearts.”Tamimi affirmed the Palestinian Authority’s “categoric rejection” of Trump’s upcoming peace plan in particular and the US policy concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.“The US administration will not find one Palestinian who agrees with its policies,” he said.Another senior PLO official, Taysir Khaled, condemned Trump for his remarks, saying they resembled those of “real estate men and thugs.” Khaled claimed that Trump’s remarks were in the context of his attempt to “market his goods.”The PLO official also condemned remarks made by US National Security Advisor John Bolton concerning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees during an interview with Reuters.“UNRWA is a failed mechanism,” Bolton said. “It violates standard international law on the status of refugees. UNRWA’s program is the only one in history based on their assumption that refugee status is hereditary, and I think it’s long overdue that we have taken steps to reduce funding.”Hamas also lashed out at Trump, calling his remarks on Jerusalem “shameless and dangerous.” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the PA’s response to Trump’s statements should be revoking Palestinian recognition of Israel, halting security coordination between the PA security forces and the IDF in the West Bank, and severing all security ties with the US.<doc-sep>
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday night that Israel will pay a "higher price" in peace negotiations with the Palestinians after his decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Trump, speaking at a political rally in West Virginia, said that the Palestinians will "get something very good" in return for the embassy move, "because it's their turn next." Trump didn't offer any details on what the Palestinians will "get" in return. >> Hamas chief: Trump's peace plan 'clinically dead' ■ U.S. split on Israel: Netanyahu favorite leader of Republicans, unpopular among Democrats U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday that the administration is continuing its work on Trump's plan for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, noting however that no timetable has be set for announcing it. Bolton said there has been "a lot of progress in the region." Bolton said that Trump's comment, was "not an issue of quid pro quo," adding that he and anyone else would expect Palestinians to say "so we didn't get that one, now we want something else," adding that "ultimately this is something the parties are going to have to agree on." The statements by Trump were made during the last minutes of the political rally, which mostly focused on other issues. The rally was held hours after both his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and personal attorney, Michael Cohen, were found guilty of serial financial crimes. Toward the end of the rally, Trump began listing what he considers to be his foreign policy achievements. When mentioning the embassy move, Trump said that since Jerusalem is now "off the table," Israel will have to give something in return to the Palestinians. "If there's ever going to be peace with the Palestinians, then this was a good thing to have done," Trump said about the embassy move. "We took it off the table. In past negotiations, they never got past Jerusalem. Now Israel will have to pay a higher price, because it's off the table. The Palestinians will get something very good, cause it's their turn next." Trump also said that he "now understands" why previous American presidents didn't follow through on their promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, saying he has received endless phone calls from world leaders urging him not to go through with his decision. "But I approved it, and it should have been done years ago," he said. Trump also repeated what he has said in the past, that the Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is "the toughest of them all."