Trump’s decision on Jerusalem al-Quds is ‘a rash, unwise move’: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital is “a rash, unwise move,” but that is “the fulfillment of a decades-long policy on both sides of the American political spectrum,” according to American writer and political analyst Daniel Patrick Welch.

In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, Trump officially declared Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital, saying his administration would also begin a process of moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to the holy city, which is expected to take years.

Welch told Press TV on Friday that there aren’t two sides in the United States and there never have been “when it comes to Israel.”

“And in this as in many other things Trump is merely the iron fist that is in the velvet glove--whose crazy, rash decisions serve to advance and normalize the reactionary position that has already been part of the fabric, and it’s just a matter of time in terms of implementing them,” he said.

“And, as I said before, I think this is a general trend on behalf of the ruling class. I think, they really used Obama to the hilt. He was the smile in the suit—the slick hustler who made it all look good, and they took it as far as they could go,” he noted.

“Now they need a brute. Everyone can make fun of him as much as they want, but he, so far, is doing exactly the bidding of the ruling class – with this gargantuan, awful tax bill domestically and this signaling a new phase of imperialist wars in the Middle East,” Welch said.

Why now?

"So, the question is why or why now? Obviously he is catering to his base. These are Christian evangelical Zionists – real whackjob zealots.  Most of the Zionists in the United States are not Jewish at all. They’re fundamentalist Christians who believe literally in the fulfillment of the Scriptures. They are literally ‘raising the fatted calf’ and looking for the red heifer to be slaughtered on the Temple Mount so that they can all go to heaven after Armageddon and the rapture and all this,” the analyst stated.

“It’s really crazy and dangerous stuff, but they have a lot of money and they vote. So he has beholden himself now to, you know, the 40 percent of the electorate or something like that who would never ever turn on him because he is like the representative of Jesus on Earth in fulfillment of the Scriptures,” he said.

“This is how crazy this stuff is in the United States.  And the international implications be damned,” Welch said. “So it is a very, very dangerous thing. You know his kind of crocodile tears over Israel’s reaction I think are just that. They have to have known that this would happen.”

‘US has given up in Syria’

“And, I think that there are a couple of upsides, if you can call them this. I think this is the clearest indication yet that the US has given up in Syria. You know, they’ll mess around for a long time but in general they are moving on to a new chapter. The imperialists never give up. They just move on to new chapters. So that may not be an upside but that’s what’s happening now. And they can move on to target Iran and Russia and China,” Welch said.

“The other upside potentially again is--it’s a very dark time, and I am trying count a few positives in this-- The reaction from allies, the Germans in particular, [German Foreign Minister] Sigmar Gabriel said the relationship with the US will never be the same and specifically said even after Trump leaves the White House,” he said.

“I think this is a huge development that is being underplayed by analysts internationally. You know this is something that is what the resistance axis has been looking for a long time to split the Atlantic alliance,” he emphasized.

“These people are whackjobs. And this is not just Trump. Trump is the latest tip of this iceberg, that he is enough of a clown face that has forced the people to say: ‘Look, we have got to go our own way.’”

Final taming of US imperial war juggernaut?

"And, again on the upside. Americans will clown their way through. They have a huge military-industrial complex. They are not going to stop bombing, but, you know, Russia and China are increasingly integrating their economic and military spheres,” Welch said.

“China’s One Belt One Road project is just going to zoom ahead with trillions of dollars of investment that are going to better the lives of billions of people. They are going to increasingly defend other members of the resistance axis like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria -- you know China and Russia,” he stated.  

“And from my point of view this can only a good thing – the most positive thing.  And I know this is a little bit out there, but maybe this will lead to a true End Times, in geopolitical terms, in this life, not in fulfillment of the Scriptures, but the end of endless wars, the final taming of the American imperial war juggernaut. And then we’ll live in peace. What can I say? I can dream too,” the commentator concluded.

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