Israel and the Holy See

For many years, the Jewish people of Israel have been effectively paying the taxes of the Catholic Church and other churches in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel. It is high time not only for the churches to start paying the taxes they owe the State of Israel but to restore the vast troves of property looted from the Jewish people and stolen from their heritage by the church over a period of centuries.

The King of Jordan’s Upcoming Visit to Washington: Implications for Jerusalem

King Abdullah will be visiting President Joe Biden at the White House on July 19. By granting the Jordanian monarch the honor of being the first Arab leader to visit the new president, the US administration is putting wind in Jordan’s sails as it seeks to fend off Saudi claims regarding custodianship of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

To Ensure Sovereignty over Jerusalem, Arab Residents Must Be Equally Protected

More important than achieving international recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is the necessity of ensuring Israeli sovereignty over the city itself. This means prohibiting Palestinian Authority officials from residing in Jerusalem, especially those involved in surveillance and intimidation of Arab residents and the organization of protest and incitement against Jewish residents. Establishing a liaison office at the Israeli police department in Jerusalem would allow Arab Jerusalemites to report harassment.

Saudi Religious Diplomacy Targets Jerusalem

A United Arab Emirates-backed Saudi effort to wrest control from Jordan of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem signals a sharper, more overt edge to Saudi religious diplomacy. The kingdom’s quest for regional hegemony risks deepening divides in the Muslim world.

Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem: Righting a Diplomatic Wrong

Jerusalem has been the capital of the state of Israel since 1949. Most states, however – including the US – chose not to recognize Israel's capital and located their embassies in the Tel Aviv area. There has never been any reason to deny recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, either before or after the 1967 Six-Day War. The failure to recognize Israel’s capital is thus a unique diplomatic anomaly. In election campaigns, successive American presidents have promised to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but failed to live up to that commitment. Congress demanded recognition and transfer but to no avail. President Donald Trump dramatically changed this pattern by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordering that the US embassy be moved there.

Jerusalem, Israel’s Capital, Is a Peaceful City

Mention the word “Jerusalem,” which is derived from the word “peace,” and anything but peace comes to mind. Yet the city of Jerusalem is safer by far than San Francisco, thanks to good policing and traditional life among both the Jewish and Arab populations.

Trump’s Jerusalem Statement Shakes Up the System

The Trump Declaration should be examined from a point of view that goes beyond questions of cost and gain. Prevailing interpretations are trapped in a Western perception of the nature and logic of a strategic process.

The Trump Peace Plan

US President Donald Trump has referred to his peace plan as “a good deal,” but unlike in the business world, agreements between peoples are only valid for the moment. Agreements are always temporary, awaiting a strategic shift in which everything is reconsidered.

Assessing the Islamic World’s Ho-Hum Response to Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration

Arab and western leaders alike responded to President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital with dire warnings of imminent uproar. That uproar didn’t materialize, probably because the Islamic world is too mired in its own domestic problems to mobilize over Jerusalem.

Trump’s Recognition of Jerusalem: The View from Beijing

While he was on the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and start plans to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On December 6, 2017, he made good on that promise. Like media elsewhere around the world, Chinese newspapers – which express the positions of the central government in Beijing – had much to say on the matter. The Chinese responses cast light on two areas: Israeli-Chinese relations and Chinese foreign policy towards the greater Middle East.