Before and after the statement read by President Donald Trump about Jerusalem last week, senior administration officials from the White House, the National Security Council and the State Department briefed reporters off-camera and preferred to be mentioned as ‘senior administration officials' to talk about the President's decision and explain his announcement. Acting Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs David Satterfield, who has served at the State Department for about 40 years, was the first official to brief on camera the day following the President's speech. The Ambassador said: “What I am stating is an affirmative. The President's decision was a recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The President made clear issues that touch upon the boundaries of sovereignty or final status issues are not addressed by his decision.” Satterfield added, “I will only address one more point on this. What were the words the president used? It was a very simple statement: recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. There are words you might want to put in there; he didn't. There are words you might want to take out; he didn't. That statement was very carefully made, as was the comment we are not prejudicing addressing by this decision final status issue.” When Ambassador Satterfield was asked by a reporter to “identify one national security interest of the United States that this recognition has served,” the ambassador responded: “The president is committed to advancing a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. In his view upon reflection, this step, he believes, assists in that process. Full stop.” Satterfield later noted: “The president and his peace team have been engaged, as you all know, for many months now in discussions with the two parties, with regional states, with other key actors, to try to advance a peace. This is not an easy process; it's a difficult one. But he believes this step assists in that process. I am not going to elaborate on that further.” The frequent description used by administration officials for Trump's decision was ‘recognition of reality'. They also indicated in their briefings that they expected the angry reactions in the region to fade over days. A leading Republican Senator, Tom Cotton (R-Ark), told the Washington Examiner, “The Arab world has changed over time... and it is now in a situation where the greatest threat to stability and security in the Middle East is Iran.” He continued, “and therefore you have a strong alignment of interests between Arab nations and Israel. While they might not prefer this choice [to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital], they understand that their main enemy — that Israel shares — is Iran.” Soon after the decision, CNN reported, senior administration sources told the network that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defence Secretary James Mattis, and CIA Director Mike Pompeo had all protested the decision in private. The Wall Street Journal reported on December 7 that “Evangelical Christians lobbied hard for Trump's move on Jerusalem” and that their sustained push began before he was in office. The Journal wrote: “While the American Jewish community has been split in its support of recognising Jerusalem as the capital — a politically fraught issue, with far-reaching implications for any peace agreement with the Palestinians — evangelicals have been almost uniform in their support of the move, which many see as a biblical imperative.” Last Sunday, December 10, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley was on the Sunday talk shows defending, justifying and explaining the significance of President Trump's decision. “No President — not Clinton, not Bush, not Obama — actually had the courage to make that move and listen to the will of the American people,” Ambassador Haley said on CNN's State of the Union. “The president did the will of the people. When it comes to those people upset, we knew that was going to happen. But courage does cause that.” On that same show Haley also stated: “And what this [decision] does just say what is real. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. What is wrong with saying it?” When she was asked about East Jerusalem, Haley answered: “We did not talk about boundaries or borders for a reason. And that's because whatever is East Jerusalem or any other part, that's between the Palestinians and the Israelis. That's not for the Americans to decide. The Americans just said, we want our embassy in the capital. And that capital in Jerusalem.” As is generally the case for any administration official appearing on talk shows, the talking points are the same and repeated — this time by Ambassador Haley. She said on the Fox News Sunday: “It's the right thing to do. We didn't set any parameters, we didn't say this is the final status,” and added “we are as committed to the peace process as we ever have been in the past.” Appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, Ambassador Haley said, “what he did was take it off the table. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Take that off the table. Tell both sides to come together and say, ‘OK, you decide how you want to split up Jerusalem. You decide if you're going to create boundaries or borders there.' And let them decide.” The talk of Washington these days is full of more questions and fewer answers about Trump's decision. What is next for the administration? How will Vice President Mike Pence be received in his upcoming trip to the region — to Israel and Egypt? What he is going to stress on and what he is going to ignore in his public statements and private talks? What will be the future of the Peace Team headed by Jared Kushner and what was described as ‘Ultimate Deal'? How much more we will learn about Dina Powell's decision to leave Trump's White House next month? The coming weeks are full of social gatherings and holiday parties. It is the season of speculation, gossip and — why not? —‘fake news' too.
