Trump, Jerusalem and International Law
By
Lawrence Davidson
The Relevance of International Law
December 20, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- It is not easy to write anything new
about President Trump’s 6 December 2017
announcement that he – and supposedly the
U.S. as a nation – was recognizing Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel. After all, plenty
of very smart and attentive people have
already commented on this decision. I
particularly like those who pointed out that
Trump’s move replicated that of Arthur
Balfour. As Balfour had assumed in 1917 that
he could promise Palestine to the Zionists,
so Trump seems to have assumed he could
legitimize Jerusalem as Israeli territory.
The connection seems to support the
philosopher George Santayana’s observation
that those who know no history are bound to
repeat it.
As was the case with Balfour, neither Trump
nor the U.S. Congress (whose edict the
president has so eagerly carried out) has
any legal authority to proceed in this
fashion. In the case of Trump and the
Congress, what should get in their way is
international law – which, when represented
in signed treaties, is incorporated into
U.S. law. The Geneva Conventions are such a
case. Part of these conventions (again, now
made U.S. law) makes it illegal to conquer
territory and then absorb it by moving your
own citizens in while ethnically cleansing
the original population. One can also cite
the 2002 Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court declaring apartheid policies
a crime against humanity. This is not U.S.
law but reflects international consensus.
Israel is in violation of aspects of the
Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute, as
well as a host of United Nations
resolutions.
Trump, along with the Republicans and
Democrats in Congress, seems to be ignorant,
or perhaps just callously unconcerned about
international law – even when it has become
their law! Nowhere is it referenced in
Trump’s announcement. It is doubtful that he
and those in Congress give it any thought at
all. It is this shameless stupidity that
concerns me. For, to the extent that we
ignore international law, the world returns
to the conditions that led to World Wars I
and II, and of course, to the Holocaust.
Part II – “Open Eyes and Fresh Thinking”
Trump: “When I came into office I promised
to look at the world’s challenges with open
eyes and very fresh thinking.”
Comment: This state of mind cannot be
completely achieved because we all are
shaped by culture and personal past
experiences. However, it can be approximated
if one is (a) conscious of one’s biases and
assumptions and (b) knows enough relevant
history to recognize what is indeed
relatively “fresh” and original. I think it
is safe to say that President Trump is
nowhere near this level of consciousness.
Rather than clear-headed and original, he
behaves erratically and is very much in the
grips of cultural prejudices and personal
biases.
President Trump, though a particularly
outrageous example of this impaired
condition, is not the only American leader
to mistake his own ignorance for
clear-sightedness (George W. Bush comes to
mind). It is perhaps because it is so
difficult to really see the world’s problems
“with open eyes and fresh thinking” that
wiser men and women than Mr. Trump have laid
down international laws designed to prevent
nation-states from taking actions that have,
beyond doubt, proven to be disastrous.
Part III – “Alternative Facts”
Trump: The announcement on Jerusalem “marks
the beginning of a new approach to conflict
between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
and relocating the U.S. embassy there will
“advance the cause of peace.” We know this
to be so because putting off this step for
the past 20 years has not advanced that
cause.
Comment: Trump’s reasoning here is, well,
unreasonable, and historically mistaken.
Previous presidents did not delay moving the
U.S. embassy because they thought not doing
so would help bring about
Palestinian-Israeli peace. First, they
promised to make this move for domestic
political reasons during election campaigns
– a nod to the Zionist lobby’s funding
potential. Afterward, they held back because
to actually take this step would only make
things in the Middle East worse, and not
only for the Palestinians and the Israelis.
The United States has other Muslim rulers in
the region who are its “allies.” Trump’s
predecessors, or at least their advisors,
knew that the men who ruled Saudi Arabia,
Jordan, Egypt, and the like had populations
with significant numbers of people who would
be quite agitated over just the move Trump
has now undertaken. The U.S. leaders feared,
not without reason, that ceding Jerusalem to
the Israelis would destabilize those allies
and boost the threat of terrorism.
No doubt aided by an abiding ignorance,
President Trump has replaced the facts which
held back the hand of his predecessors with
“alternative facts.” For instance, he has
replaced the facts that make up the history
of Jerusalem as related to both Islam and
Christianity, and the millennia-old emotions
that go along with it, with the reality of
an illegal fifty-year occupation of the
entire city by Israel. Having rendered truth
in this fashion, the president concludes
that his decision must be in the interest of
both the U.S. and peace because it is
“nothing more or less than the recognition
of reality.”
How simple is President Trump’s world!
Simple as only the ignorant can see it. No
wonder Secretary of State Tillerson (who is
not without his own short-sightedness)
called President Trump a “moron.”
Part IV – Don’t Misunderstand Me
Much of the rest of the president’s speech
was an attempt to assure the world that what
he had just declared was not as “fresh” and
new as he at first claimed.
Trump: “I want to make one point very clear
…. The United States remains deeply
committed to helping to facilitate a peace
agreement that is acceptable to both sides.”
We are “not taking a position on any final
status issues.”
Comment: It is at this point that you have
to ask just what world the president is
living in. Actually, the answer is not that
hard to come by. It is a personal world that
is singularly egocentric. As such it has no
real relevance to U.S. national interests
and certainly not to Palestinian-Israeli
conflict resolution. Its only reference
point is Trump’s own, largely unrestrained,
self-serving urges and needs.
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According to reports coming from inside the White House, Trump was interested in the alleged prestige of being the president who actually went through with the promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. “While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today I am delivering.”
He
sought out those who would encourage his
goal – those who are hardly any more
knowledgable then he – his Christian
Fundamentalist Vice President Mike Pence,
and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is a
family friend of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump is also reported
to have been encouraged to take this step by
the Senate minority leader Charles Shumer, a
man whose only foreign policy interest is in
supporting Israel. Trump ignored the advice
of his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson,
and Secretary of Defence, James Mattis, both
of whom thought the move ill-advised. So now
we have the Zionists and Christian
fundamentalists standing behind Trump,
patting him on the back. The rest of the
world stands in front of him, aghast.
Typical of the self-serving type he is,
Trump only cares about the blandishments
pushing him in the direction he wants to go.
That direction is decidedly backwards. Back
in the direction of no rules, no
international law, not even any binding
treaties to bother with. Just free rein for
the whims of the leader.
Part V – Power and the Will
One gets the sense that Trump feels he can
simply create a new reality by the exercise
of his will. I want to emphasize the word
“feels” here because I do not think the
president reasons out these actions. He
experiences a feeling that suggests to him a
way he can change things. He does not weigh
this feeling against history or contemporary
reality. For example, take his description
of the eventual new U.S. embassy in
Jerusalem as “a magnificent tribute to
peace.”
This equating of what one feels or wills
with what will actually be is a sign of a
delusional personality – someone who can’t
tell the difference between his own opinion
and hard facts. To have such a person in a
position of power is dangerous indeed. We
know this from experience. The only things
that may keep such impulsive people in check
are rules – rules that are at once humane
and based on historical lessons learned, and
rules that are enforced.
Such rules exist. They were introduced in
the form of a growing body of international
law as nations confronted the consequences
of modern warfare and brutality.
Unfortunately, today these rules are rarely
enforced – and never done so when it comes
to superpowers and their close allies.
So Donald Trump, with his alleged “open
eyes” and “fresh thinking,” pays no
attention to the rules. Announcing his
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital, he leads us all backwards toward
disaster.
Lawrence Davidson is a retired professor of history from West Chester University in West Chester PA. His academic research focused on the history of American foreign relations with the Middle East. He taught courses in Middle East history, the history of science and modern European intellectual history.
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