“There will be no breakthrough in the peace process if there is no American commitment to support a solution to the Palestinian issue.” King Abdullah of Jordan
For the first time in five years King Abdullah of Jordan has been to Ramallah to meet with the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and discuss efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process which has been stalled since 2014.
While the misery in Gaza has not captured international headlines, the clashes on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have, especially in Jordan, because Jordan is custodian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. Opposition to certain Israeli security measures at the site, occupied by the al-Aqsa Mosque, have for many months provoked demonstrations and violent clashes, even deaths on the site, and a diplomatic crisis in Jordan.
During the volatile situation in Jerusalem, an Israeli security guard shot dead two Jordanians at Israel’s embassy in Amman. Thousands of Jordanians then protested, demanding their government expel Israel’s ambassador, close the embassy and revoke the peace treaty between the two countries. (Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries who have diplomatic relations with Israel.)
Until now we don’t know what Abdullah and Abbas said to one another or any plan they might have made. What we know is what Abdullah said, speaking on the subject with the speaker of the Jordanian parliament and leaders of parliamentary committees.
“The future of the Palestinian issue is at stake and reaching a solution is becoming more difficult. . . There will be no breakthrough in the peace process if there is no American commitment to support a solution to the Palestinian issue.”
Whatever the source of this strange power America has to make peace possible or not, even if it exists primarily in the dreams of the Arabs and Israelis, it is a frightening responsibility. And here we sit with a president whom fewer than 40% of us trust, according to the polls. A talkative president who is exchanging taunts about nuclear weapons with another leader whom we also don’t trust.
Here we sit with no Department of Peace. Just a State Department with numerous links to the Department of Defense that is totally prepared for war. And of course we have whomever Trump might send to mediate. Jared Kushner?
Is America committed to peace in the Middle East? Clearly King Abdullah is uncertain. Is America committed to peace anywhere? A lot of us are uncertain.
We could give the world a convincing answer to these questions by establishing a governmental department devoted to pursuing peace at home and abroad: between us and our neighbors, between Middle Eastern neighbors, between North and South Korea, between the fearful and the people they are afraid of, between white Americans and the rest of us.
Let us each do whatever we know to do.
- Pray.
- Vote for a Department of Peace on the home page of this website.
- Imagine it. Talk about it.
- Vote for leaders who are committed to peace.
- Share this blog with someone else.
“Whoever would love life and see good days………..
He must seek peace and pursue it.” I Peter 3: 10-11.