A nation must think before it acts.
The view has set in among Westerners that President Donald Trump’s choice to recognize the Israeli capital in Jerusalem isolated the U.S. diplomatically, cost Washington its role as an Israeli-Palestinian mediator and damaged prospects for a peace settlement overall. The evidence: violence in Palestine and Iran-dominated Arab enclaves, protests and official condemnation in other Muslim countries and a counter-resolution at the UN General Assembly.
Here in Morocco, many observers hold a different view: Whatever the president thought he was doing, both the decision and its fallout exposed a political dynamic in the region that holds new possibilities for an eventual settlement. While the position of foreign powers remains essentially the same, Arab countries, historically a guarantor of strategic depth for Palestinian rejectionist forces, are increasingly a bastion of support for compromise.