Trump’s move on Jerusalem: Is this the end of US diplomacy in the Middle East?

The so-called peace process, two-state solution, “land-for-peace formula” and all the other tired clichés have been long dead and decomposing. But Trump’s announcement yesterday to officially recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel has also laid to rest the illusion that the US was ever keen on achieving a just and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbours.

What is left to be said by those who have placed the Palestinian national project of liberation on hold for nearly three decades, waiting for the US to fulfill its self-designated role of an “honest peace broker”?

The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared a “day of rage” in response to Trump’s announcement. Way to deflect attention from the real crisis at hand: the fact that the PA has miserably failed by leasing the fate of Palestine to Washington, and, by extension to Israel as well.

“I have determined that it is time to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Trump said in Washington. The embattled president has done what many had asked him not to do. But the truth is, US foreign policy has been bankrupt for years. It was never fair, nor did it ever intend to be so.

Trump’s words from Washington were a tamed version of his statement before the Israel lobby last year.