Speaking with Reuters, Senior Resident Scholar Hussein Ibish commented on U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s decision to allow the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel to move to Jerusalem and announce Jerusalem as Israel’s capital: “I think it’s pretty catastrophic, frankly.” He added, “Trump did not distinguish in any meaningful sense between West Jerusalem and occupied East Jerusalem.”
He additionally appeared on i24 News and commented on the issue for CNN: “I haven’t heard anyone articulate a single national security interest as to why now.” He continued, “It hasn’t been done. Everybody knows why it hasn’t been done. It’s a bad idea and it remains a bad idea.”
Speaking with the Times of Israel, Ibish commented, “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.”
Commenting for Arab News, Ibish discussed the Trump administration’s comments that Jerusalem’s Western Wall would remain part of Israel in a final status agreement: “These comments make a bad situation worse by adding to the uncertainty about Washington’s policies and by foreclosing the idea many were clinging to that the White House would clarify that it is not preempting East Jerusalem issues.”
Ibish appeared on Al Jazeera to discuss the U.N. resolution on the status of Jerusalem.