December 10, 2017

Beneath the raging protests in Palestinian communities on the West Bank and in Gaza, and the harsh criticism levied by America’s closest European and Arab allies, many were left wondering why President Trump last week turned decades of U.S. foreign policy on its head to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and order the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to there.

In his own statements, Trump said the move merely recognized the “reality” of where Israel already operates its government. Senior administration officials insisted that the decision was meaningless in the context of hoped-for Middle East peace negotiations and emphasized that most issues disputed between Israel and the Palestinians remained on the table.

None suggested a concrete U.S. national security objective that was furthered by the move, or indicated that it was part of a strategy for achieving the peace deal that Trump has said is a primary foreign policy goal. Instead, a decision on which players in the region said they were not consulted, and many of his own senior aides advised against, fulfilled a campaign promise and buttressed a reputation for unconventional thinking that Trump clearly sees as an asset.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-foreign-policy-driven-by-campaign-vows-instinct-and-unconventional-thinking/2017/12/10/7682bd8a-dc4e-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_trump-fp-640pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.331bad7f7eda