He's just begging for an attack

[dendrast]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jerusalem-american-embassy-trump-1.4434783

Mr Trump is delivering on that stupid promise. It'll not only please his religious right moron base, but could quite easily provoke an attack in the US. Nothing would suit him better than something spectacular. Lots of Americans who can't stand would rally behind him just like they did for George Bush after the World Trade Centre Attack. Getting a second assured in the first year of his presidency would be quite a coup.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Well, I bet the religious leadership in Iran are quite happy about this for propaganda purposes. So at least Trump made them happy too.

 

[funinspace]

Sure there could be a few more motivated individuals that may decide it's time to 'harm' America. But, another 9/11 would be much harder to do today with our much upgraded internal security posture.

It will be worth watching the Saudi response. Will they just spout meaningless words to placate their people's feelings of support for Palestinians? Or will they consider this something serious. I'm betting on empty words. Syria and Iraq are now irrelevant. I can't see Egypt's military government giving a rats ass. Israel can handle Palestinian uprisings/attacks, whether I like the situation or not.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics...-friends-really-about-his-jerusalem-move.html

Virtually every country in the Middle East, except for Israel, has condemned President Trump’s planned announcement that he is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, including Saudi Arabia’s King Salman
<snip>
Saudi leaders will doubtlessly continue to publicly condemn Trump’s move and deny any acquiescence to Israeli claims on Jerusalem. They could hardly do otherwise given public sympathy for the Palestinian cause and how quick their enemies will be to portray them as tools of the Americans and the Zionists. (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this morning that certain leaders in the region, a clear reference to the Saudis, are “dancing to America’s tune … Whatever America wants, they’ll work against Islam to accomplish it.”) But it will be worth watching what form this response takes for clues on both Saudi Arabia’s current priorities and how the Trump administration is conducting U.S. foreign policy.

SA is a royal dictatorship. Sure the new young guy (MBS) is gaining power (but not quite yet the king) and is working to consolidate his power. But they have a messy bombing campaign going on in Yemen. They have a few thousand citizens that joined ISIS; and with ISIS collapsing I would expect many to come home. Even if the SA police state tactics contain most of them, I would expect some to blend back into their society. Ignoring the passions of their people on this issue as well, could add to internal stress. And the US has hitched a large portion of the ME police to the survival of the SA regime. Kind of like the US did with the royal dictator we placed on the throne in Iran. That sure worked out well, when our pet dictatorship fell apart...
http://time.com/4739488/isis-iraq-syria-tunisia-saudi-arabia-russia/

The Saudi kingdom, an active promoter and sponsor of Wahhabism, the fundamentalist strain of Islam that serves as the backbone of modern Islamic extremism, is the second largest source of foreign fighters for ISIS — roughly 2,500 have joined. It’s also a terrorist target itself. In July 2016, it suffered a triple suicide-bombing attack across three cities; in May 2015, an ISIS bombing killed 21 people.

The kingdom came into being when tribal leader Abdulaziz al-Saud conquered the land we now know as Saudi Arabia in 1932 and struck a deal with clerics to solidify his rule; al-Saud and his descendants (today’s royal family) manage the security, politics and foreign affairs of the country, and the clerics have charge of religious matters. The marriage remains troubled, because the royal family is more open to dealing with the West than its clerical counterparts. That’s why ISIS considers modern Saudi Arabia a perversion of Islamic statehood. And that isn’t going to change.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jerusalem-american-embassy-trump-1.4434783

Mr Trump is delivering on that stupid promise. It'll not only please his religious right moron base, but could quite easily provoke an attack in the US. Nothing would suit him better than something spectacular. Lots of Americans who can't stand would rally behind him just like they did for George Bush after the World Trade Centre Attack. Getting a second assured in the first year of his presidency would be quite a coup.

Things like this are blamed for attacks, they don't cause attacks. Attacks are caused by capability, they then pick some incident to blame for them.

 

[AdamWho]

This is all about Pence and the christian end-time death-cult

You can bet there are some plans to foment violence to have an excuse to start a religious war and Christian death-cults working to blow up and Dome of the rock mosque.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

So a bunch of oppressive dictators are opposed to something. I don't like being on Trump's side for anything, but I'm finding it difficult to work up half a shit's worth of outrage over their response.

 

[dendrast]

So a bunch of oppressive dictators are opposed to something. I don't like being on Trump's side for anything, but I'm finding it difficult to work up half a shit's worth of outrage over their response.

Dude, no other country is moving their embassy to Jerusalem or recognising it as the capital, not just Moslem countries. Canada's Trudeau government publicly stated both things today. Just like the Paris Accord, the whole world's out of step with Mr Trump and his version of the US.

The Canadian announcement isn't in this article, but you'll find brutal regimes like Britain, Germany, and even the Vatican have spoken out against it, as well as shining examples like Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, and so on. The world-wide consensus is that this is a foolish and destabilising move.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/world-reaction-trump-jerusalem-1.4435037

 

[Elixir]

this is a foolish and destabilising move.

Oxymoron.
If it's destabilizing, it can't possibly be foolish - for Cheato purposes. The only thing that is going to let him hang on is an attack on the US.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It does make one have to ask questions. The US gives Israel lots of US Military Industrial Complex welfare bucks. Has for decades. Does recognizing Jerusalem make that much more of a difference? I doubt Iran will say 'this is the final straw!'

The other side of the mirror, does it actually matter if the rest of the world doesn't do it? Does this destabilize the Middle East more, or does it just make the importance of the US on the global stage smaller? Is America's importance in jeopardy by this decision. The irony... that if nothing happens, if things don't destabilize, does that actually indicate the US means less now than it did, and people don't really care.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

This is all about Pence and the christian end-time death-cult

You can bet there are some plans to foment violence to have an excuse to start a religious war and Christian death-cults working to blow up and Dome of the rock mosque.

I don't think that is the sole or primary reason. I think there are some other factors such as: support for Israel right-wing's position, the Christian idea that Jerusalem is so holy it HAS to be the capital, and a distraction from Trump's legal troubles. I will add that they may believe they want to win a religious war but not necessarily (for some) think that is end times stuff...some may just want to win...

 

[dendrast]

It does make one have to ask questions. The US gives Israel lots of US Military Industrial Complex welfare bucks. Has for decades. Does recognizing Jerusalem make that much more of a difference? I doubt Iran will say 'this is the final straw!'

The other side of the mirror, does it actually matter if the rest of the world doesn't do it? Does this destabilize the Middle East more, or does it just make the importance of the US on the global stage smaller? Is America's importance in jeopardy by this decision. The irony... that if nothing happens, if things don't destabilize, does that actually indicate the US means less now than it did, and people don't really care.

Sometimes symbolic moves are more of a provocation. We are talking about the cradle of the three Abrahamic religions, and they are all pretty grumpy. It doesn't take much to set them off killing their neighbours,

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It does make one have to ask questions. The US gives Israel lots of US Military Industrial Complex welfare bucks. Has for decades. Does recognizing Jerusalem make that much more of a difference? I doubt Iran will say 'this is the final straw!'

The other side of the mirror, does it actually matter if the rest of the world doesn't do it? Does this destabilize the Middle East more, or does it just make the importance of the US on the global stage smaller? Is America's importance in jeopardy by this decision. The irony... that if nothing happens, if things don't destabilize, does that actually indicate the US means less now than it did, and people don't really care.

Sometimes symbolic moves are more of a provocation. We are talking about the cradle of the three Abrahamic religions, and they are all pretty grumpy. It doesn't take much to set them off killing their neighbours,

True. Sharon visited a site and then a lot of suicide bombings. We'll see.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Maybe in response, we should open both an Israeli and Palestinian embassy in Jerusalem. How would that go over?

 

[Trausti]

This just proves that Trump is an antisemitic Nazi.

 

[J842P]

This is all about Pence and the christian end-time death-cult

You can bet there are some plans to foment violence to have an excuse to start a religious war and Christian death-cults working to blow up and Dome of the rock mosque.

This certainly seems more likely than some grand strategy to provoke an attack to rally the populace.

Regardless, I don't think Pence has much to do with it. I seem to recall that all throughout the campaign he was very Pro-Israel, and indeed, on this very issue specifically:

http://www.jpost.com/US-Elections/Trump-pledges-to-move-US-embassy-from-Tel-Aviv-to-Jerusalem-442091

 

[Elixir]

This just proves that Trump is an antisemitic Nazi.

Oh. Thanks. I was wondering if he was an antisemitic Nazi.

 

[Opoponax]

So a bunch of oppressive dictators are opposed to something. I don't like being on Trump's side for anything, but I'm finding it difficult to work up half a shit's worth of outrage over their response.

It's not their stated outrage that matters.

Trump has been able to fire up the worst people in America via conspiracy theories, absurd mischaracterizations, etc. Therefore, it's easy to imagine terrorist organizations being able to recruit anew in large numbers with this move. And will ME governments help out those organizations after expressing public outrage over this? You betcha.

Several POTUS's have promised to do the same thing, including good ol' Bill Clinton. However, they didn't follow through because either:

1) They were full of shit in the first place and understood it was a promise they really didn't need to keep, but it was effective at getting votes; or

2) They got into office, saw what a potential clusterfuck it could be, and decided not to do it because there's lots to lose and absolutely nothing to gain by it.

Now Trump may have embroiled the U.S. in yet another ME shitstorm. He's already despised there, but hasn't taken any significant action.

Until now.

 

[Trausti]

This is all about Pence and the christian end-time death-cult

You can bet there are some plans to foment violence to have an excuse to start a religious war and Christian death-cults working to blow up and Dome of the rock mosque.

This certainly seems more likely than some grand strategy to provoke an attack to rally the populace.

Regardless, I don't think Pence has much to do with it. I seem to recall that all throughout the campaign he was very Pro-Israel, and indeed, on this very issue specifically:

http://www.jpost.com/US-Elections/Trump-pledges-to-move-US-embassy-from-Tel-Aviv-to-Jerusalem-442091

So he is fulfilling a campaign promise. That bastard.

 

[TSwizzle]

I would like to think there is more to this than Trump just wanting to piss people off but he's such an idiot.

 

[Trausti]

I would like to think there is more to this than Trump just wanting to piss people off but he's such an idiot.

He's just advancing the Democratic platform.