Only one other country has followed the US move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump campaigned on this promise and it is considered a major victory for Bibi Netanyaho.
“One reason was that Jerusalem was key in his attempt to win over the coveted evangelical vote — already a growing part of his political base thanks to his enlistment of Mike Pence, the devout, born-again Christian, as his vice president.”
“Netanyahu also hailed the embassy move as a “great day for Israel.”
Evangelicals in the US including megachurch pastors John Hagee and Robert Jeffress attended the ceremony and praised the move.
But a year later only one other country, Guatemala, followed the US lead and moved the embassy. European countries were opposed to the decision as was the United Nations and all Arab countries. Australia initially supported the move but backed off. A number of Latin American countries also backed out of commitments to move after the Trump administration threatened them to cut off US aid because of immigration issues.
The countries that were initially supportive of the move tend to have large christian evangelical populations but even those countries such as Brazil are opting not to move their embassy under pressure from the business community that fears backlash from their Arab trading partners.
This week marks not only the anniversary of the embassy move to Jeruselum but also May 15 is when Palestinians mark the Nakba catastrophe. The Palestinians are organizing a large march to commemorate Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the War of Independence in 1948.
This is all going on when Israel is hosting the large Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv. The US is warning American tourist to stay away from protest areas and to be diligent about safety.
Will Trump learn that he is not the king of the world and just because he announces something that doesn’t make it so? I doubt it. This is still a popular move with his evangelical base and he needs them for the 2020 election. But, like all of the Trump administrations Mideast policies, this one appears to be not winning.
