What’s Going To Happen To Jerusalem Now?

The Middle-East is boiling yet again, quite like the regular state of issues in that bit of geography in the world that is often besieged by some geopolitical crisis. Clearly, the focus is on Israel and Palestine, with Jerusalem being the common link associating two nations that have, for over half a century, been at loggerheads with one another.

It’s a bit of a situation, truth be told. US President Donald Trump declares Jerusalem to the capital of Israel and not Tel Aviv. Along comes the announcement of the US Embassy in Israel to be shifted from the economic capital to Jerusalem and there one sees an entire Middle East erupting with violent protests.

Israel’s closest neighbours, not necessarily in regard to peaceful or harmonious relations- Lebanon, Egypt, Iran haven’t taken to the recent issue any warmly. Nor have other nation-states that don’t necessarily enjoy a great equation with the Jewish homeland, such as Jordan, Syria and Turkey. The rift between two of the most beautiful and ancient cultures- it can be seen- is only being emblazoned with political differences and contrasting views on geography.

That said, in lines with Donald Trump’s vehement support toward Jerusalem, which led to USA’s formal recognition of Israel’s new ‘capital city’, there have been an unprecedented spate violent protests across the Muslim world.

Particularly in the Palestinian territories in the wider world, such as Morocco, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia- Israel and Donald Trump have received a lot of flak from the muslim communities. As the hours go by, the tension is mounting with political pundits and social commentators rallying behind the idea to formally recognize the idea of a ‘two-state’ solution to end the tension or rift whatever one might call it between Israel and Palestine.

But is the two-state idea, a supposedly pragmatic solution to end the rift between two neighbours backed by political stalwarts like Jimmy Carter and luminaries like Shimon Peres and perhaps an entire Palestine as we speak workable? Who is to know?

We have amidst us perhaps what now seems an irreconcilable geographical and political problem that threatens to plunge the Middle East- already stifled with civil war- into a new labyrinth of political upheaval. Following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Europe to defend President Trump’s proclamation, violent protests have been launched across the Middle East. Jerusalem continue to be straddled on a thin line, burning at both Israeli and Palestinian ends. Meanwhile, wide-scale demonstrations in Turkey scream, “Israel is a terrorist state”. Surely, this isn’t the finest of ends to 2017. One can’t even imagine what 2018 might have in store as far as the Jewish homeland is concerned.