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Amb. Dermer: U.S. Jerusalem Recognition Is "Shock Therapy" for Palestinians
(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - President Donald Trump's recent moves on Jerusalem constituted "shock therapy" against Palestinian rejectionism, which is the real obstacle to peace, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said in Washington. Dermer was speaking at an event in the Senate on Tuesday where former Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold gave a presentation on "Jerusalem: What's at Stake." Dermer said, "The Palestinians try to deny any historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem because to admit this connection is to admit that the Jewish people aren't foreign colonialists in the Land of Israel." The minute the Palestinians recognize a Jewish connection to Jerusalem, he said, the whole edifice of Palestinian rejectionism would begin to collapse because it would mean that the Jewish people are in Israel "not merely by might, but by right." Dermer said he does not understand why the world tolerates Palestinian denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, as it did when it adopted UN Security Council Resolution 2334 in December 2016, stating that the Western Wall is occupied Palestinian territory. "To advance peace, you must confront this Palestinian rejectionism." Gold, the head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said U.S. recognition effectively put to rest the idea of internationalization of Jerusalem. It also corrected decades of diplomatic distortions at the UN and fulfilled the Jerusalem Embassy Act from 1995, which was supported across the American political spectrum.