JERUSALEM--OFF THE TABLE?

March 6, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Off the table?

Did I hear this wrong? I thought to hear your Trump claim, in a press session with Netanyahu, that by sanctioning the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, he had take Jerusalem “off the table” in the interminable peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. I searched for the exact quotation in vain in the New York Times and elsewhere. Perhaps I did mis-hear.

Even so, that reckless announcement some months ago could hardly have been better calculated to throw a wrench in an already badly mishandled situation. Mishandled, it must be said, on all sides. Years ago, at the time of the Oslo accord, there seemed to be some glimmer of hope. Since then, good faith seems to have been abandoned. On the Palestinian side, the persistence of violence and threats of violence have been helpful only to extremist Israeli arguments; on the Israeli side, the provocation of the settlements and the intransigence of the religious right has been abetted by the hawkish Netanyahu.

Now, with the thumb of the bellicose Trump firmly placed on the Israeli side of the scale and the assignment of American policy to a hardly neutral, naïve, and wholly inexperienced son-in-law, the prospect of peace is further than it ever was. Trust, the indispensible ingredient, is understandably shattered by an American president who is not only a transparent liar and reckless opportunist, but also a man of unabashedly declared favoritism.

May we know where you stand on this issue, Congressman? Do you support peace talks, conducted in good faith on either side? Or do align yourself with those who support Israel at any cost?

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.