Trump’s Bizarre Belief That Taking Jerusalem “Off the Table” Makes Peace More Likely

[homersapien 11,453]

Assuming this was one of the major points of contention preventing progress, how does making a unilateral decision on behalf of the Israelis serve to facilitate the future of negotiations?

I am not following the logic here.

 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/trumps-bizarre-belief-that-taking-jerusalem-off-the-table-makes-peace-more-likely.html

One of President’s Trump’s more mystifying recent assertions is that his decision to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel over the objections of Palestinians and every other government in the region will make Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations easier. He elaborated on this idea to reporters ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Davos Thursday:

He argued that in declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, he’d taken the issue off the negotiating table – a move he said would make peace talks easier.

“We took Jerusalem off the table so we don’t have to talk about it anymore,” he said.

 

I may not have written The Art of the Deal, but I’m pretty sure that this is not how negotiations work. If I were applying for a job and negotiating salary, benefits, and vacation days, then told that I would be getting no vacation days at all so that the issue would be “off the table,” I don’t think this would make me more willing to compromise on salary and benefits.

(Read the rest at the provided link)