[Jpost] Three visual elements caught the eye when US President Donald Trump announced his decision on Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin plans to move the embassy.The first were the Christmas trees in the room. The second was the manner in which Trump ‐ famously known as someone who ad libs during speeches ‐ appeared to be reading this announcement word for word from a carefully crafted script. And the third was the presence over his shoulder of Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence, an Evangelical Christian, is an unabashed, unapologetic supporter of Israel who ascribes religious meaning to the rebirth of the Jewish state.
Those who say that Trump’s decision removes the United States as an honest broker in the Middle East peace process and who see the removal of this "honest broker" tag from the Americans as something that is a negative, should consider what Pence said three years ago in Jerusalem.
At a town hall event put together by Republicans Abroad Israel, Pence ‐ then the governor of Indiana and a possible 2016 presidential candidate ‐ said that America should not aspire to be an "honest broker" in the Middle East, but rather communicate to the world that while it wants an honest and fair solution to the conflict, "we are on the side of Israel."
...Interestingly, Trump’s proclamation about correcting a historic anomaly and letting Israel enjoy the right, like every other country in the world, to decide where its capital is, was only one of two significant developments in Washington this week touching upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
True, that proclamation garnered banner headlines, triggered condemnation from European states-people, sparked furious responses from Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leaders, and led to the declaration of three "days of rage."
But another significant development took place on Tuesday when the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Taylor Force Act, named after the US citizen stabbed to death by terrorists in Tel Aviv in 2016.
That bill, which is likely to pass easily in the Senate and be signed into law by Trump, would significantly cut the annual $280 million in US assistance to the Palestinian Authority unless it stops paying subsidies to jailed terrorists and their families.
And knowing Trump, we can suspect that the timing of the embassy proclamation is not incidental