
A. Shumilin (mideast@bk.ru),
Institute of the USA and Canada Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2/3, Khlebnyi Per., Moscow, 123995, Russian Federation
Abstract. As to the Israeli-Palestinian settlement, a commonly shared vision of the West Bank and Gaza Streep areas passed under Palestinian control to lay out a territorial basis for the upcoming Palestinian state remains to be the prevailing trend within the U.S. political establishment. That is not the case with Jerusalem regarded by Israelis as a “united and indivisible capital of the Jewish State”. Palestinians, on their part, along with overwhelming majority of the Arab elites across the region do insist that the Eastern part of the Holy City should belong to them as a capital of their emerging State. The later vision enjoys total support in terms of international law expressed in a number of the UN resolutions. For decades-long span, the Jerusalem issue has been a point of divergence between the American Congress (under the constant pressure of the Pro-Israeli lobby) and the White House (executive administrations) responsible for the U. S. Foreign policy management. The issue of the American embassy’s move from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem emerged as a key one for Israel’s supporters in Congress since the year 1950. The law adopted in 1995 was to oblige the U.S. government to finally move the embassy to the West Jerusalem largely acknowledged as Israel’s capital. But the subsequent American governments preferred to postpone the implementation of this law first and foremost out of fear to see the Arab anger implying the U.S. to lose its unique mediator positions in the region. Even the most devoted Israel’s advocates among the American presidents have preferred to refrain from this politically risky step. Barack Obama’s approach to the pivotal issues between Israel and Palestine has even enraged the Israeli politicum, which facilitated the Pro-Israeli lobby support for Trump on his way to the White House. Nevertheless, even Trump did not dare to implement his electoral promise in respect of the embassy move. But the chances to see his promise come true are greater than ever before.
Keywords: Middle East, Israel and Palestine, Donald Trump’s visit, “Jerusalem Factor”, Israel’s capital, U.S. embassy
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