Introduction - Jude

As a lot of you know, there is a conflict, at the moment, between Israel and Palestine in who
should control Jerusalem. Trump has recently announced his plans to move the US
embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but before we delve into more current geopolitics and
why both have a reasonably fair right to Jerusalem, we must first go back in history in to see
how this conflict began so that we can analyze the reasoning behind Trump’s motives and
see the reasons for those who agree and disagree with his actions.

Ancient Israel - Jude

Israel, a country which, a surprise to many, didn’t officially exist until 1948, is known to many
as a country in the middle of a conflict with Palestine in which bloodshed and havoc prevails
but to understand why, we must look at Ancient Israel and how both, the Palestinians, AKA
the Arabs, and the Israelis, AKA the Jews both have a religious and sentimental right to
Jerusalem. In both cultures, if you look back far enough, you’ll see that it all starts with
Abraham roughly 4000 years ago, a name which suitably means “Father of many nations” as
according to the old Testament, God told Abraham to settle his people in a land called
“Canaan”, which is now approximately substituted as “Modern day” Israel, and then years
later, King Saul, roughly in 1000 BC, started and established a functioning Israeli-like
monarchy which carried on and transcended until King Solomon, son of King David, who
built the famous first Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which is now visited by of Jewish and
Christians alike; This chunk of land, with its societal and religious power, would be continued
to be invaded and taken over by many nations, with the most notable being the Ottoman
empire, in 1516, who then called the region “Palestine”.

Modern Palestine - Natan

It would be visited and be seen as sacred by many cultures including Jews and Muslims,
until 1920 where roughly 900,000 Jewish people would be expelled from Islamic countries;
The Arabs included Palestine in this group of “Islamic countries” and hence, expelled all
Jews from Palestine where they’d become middle-class working immigrants in other
countries where, for example in Europe, they’d face oppression and discrimination, which
forced the Jews, in 1880, to decide to emigrate back to the Promised land, despite it being
controlled by the Ottoman empire; By 1914, there were roughly 75,000 Jews back in
Palestine, a number which continued to grow until after WW1, where the Great British
empire decided to seize control, doing what they normally do, and cause even more
geopolitical chaos.

The partition of Israel and Palestine - Natan

In 1920, the British empire decided to create a declaration that promised two lands, for both
Arabs and Jews, which wouldn’t actually be fulfilled until 20 years later where, in 1947, they
split the area into a Jewish state, called Israel, and an Islamic state, called Palestine. Now
whereas, Israel decided to agree to the partition, where they quickly and suddenly decided to
draw out borders, the Arabs were less than pleased who stated that the partition was biased
towards the Jews but, the British who disregarded the Arabs, and decided to do it anyways,
hence the two countries of Israel and Palestine.
The Start of War - Jude

I could spend all day listing and explaining the multiple wars and outcomes that surround this
area of land, but I’ll start with the first war and how it, eventually, transcended into the
present with, the focus of the video, Jerusalem. The first major conflict between both Israel
and Palestine started due to the partition which, like aforementioned, was a victory for the
Jews but a loss for the Muslims; Due to this, a group of Islamic countries, including Lebanon,
Iraq, Iran and many others, decided to join together and attack Israel; This war had many
names with it being translated to “The War for Independence” in Hebrew or “The
Catastrophe” in Arabic. Many wars followed after this and with tensions growing between
both countries, it is no surprise that this whole situation for who has the right to own
Jerusalem has become so complicated, so to fully comprehend the importance of
Jerusalem; We must first understand the religious significance of it to both the Muslims and
the Jews.

The importance of Jerusalem - Jude

Jerusalem is important to both religions, Islam and Judaism, for a number of reasons but
starting with Islam, it is important due to it being known as a sacred location that was visited
by many previous prophets, including Muhammad but also due to it being the land which
contains the Islamic sacred shrine, “The Dome of the Rock” ,which was built on the Temple
Mount; It is believed to be the location in which Muhammad ascended into heaven and was given
the second pillar of Islam which is to pray five times a day. On the contrast, Jerusalem is
important to Jews due to it having such historical value with it being, since the 10th Century, the
holiest Jewish city with it being the original ancestral homeland for the Jews; So much so, that
thousands of years ago, Jerusalem was considered by many as the Jewish center of the world
where God resided. Another more materialistic reason for it’s Jewish importance is it being the
land where the Temple Mount is, which is, like aforementioned, one of the first Jewish temples
created by King Solomon.

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - Natan

So now that we are caught up on why there are tensions between the two countries, the
ongoing and long history of both and how it all started; I will finally get into explaining
Trump’s recent decision in moving the US embassy, in Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem but
before we look at those who agree and disagree with his actions; We must first look at why
this is such a big deal. So, as we have already established, Jerusalem is a huge deal for
both countries, Palestine and Israel for historical and religious reasons and with Trump’s
new decision, it seems like he is trying to push the agenda in which side the US is
supporting; Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is
incredibly important because the moving of an embassy is the establishment of a new capital
city, so in other words, Trump is trying to tell the Middle east that he is, in favor, of
establishing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel hence finalising the fact that Jerusalem is
apart of Israel and not Palestine, which again is a huge win for Jewish culture and a loss for
Islamic culture which is the reason why recently, there have been many celebrations by
Israeli citizens and upset Palestinian protesters; So now that we have established why the
move is so important, let’s look at who is supporting Trump’s new controversial idea and who
isn’t and try to analyze the reasons for their beliefs.

Why would Trump do this? - Natan

Many people have attempted to speculate why Donald Trump would want to do this and
while researching, I came upon a couple main reasons; With a superpower, like America,
being the first major party to lead the charge or at least the one to make it contemptible for
other nations is an incredibly strategic move - Some people claim that Trump doing this and
immediately pushing this pro-Israeli agenda without much warning as an attempt to solve an
issue that has been ignored for many presidents before not only makes Trump look
somewhat progressive, even if you don’t agree with him, but it makes the comparison of
what many other presidents were too scared to do to his sudden action more drastic and
yes, some could argue that doing nothing in some situations is better than doing something
that could stir up even more political chaos in the middle east and this would be a fair
argument to almost any other nation but when it comes to America or any large superpower,
being the first to go over the edge, even if seen as radical or risky by some, is incredibly
strategic as, like aforementioned, it can convince other countries, who are in a position out of
the spotlight, to do the same with a few added perks; One is being on the same side as
Trump or, better yet, America. Now, like aforementioned, this could be seen as a pretty
radical move but it all comes down to something in Political science, called the Overton
window.

What is the Overton window? - Jude

The overton window is a political theory that comes down to a few simple principles; One
being that in the centre of extremely radical to some and extremely radical to others, there is
a gold spot in between known as the Overton window, which is a group of policies that even
if not liked by some, are policies which are easy to get used to and that most can agree to; A
smart politician uses this to their advantage and will attempt to move the overton window to
fit their political agenda hence making the public, which is important in any democratic
country, agree with their policies so… How do you move the Overton Window?
- The simple way to do it is to not start with things that are just seen as radical but start with
things that are seen as “extreme” - This is probably the most used example when talking
about the Overton Window, but for example, Gay marriage was unthinkable years ago but
many left-wing politicians, in means of, making the public more acceptant of it didn't start
with just incorrect but all the way to Extreme; The whole philosophy works like this, due to
you starting with what was seen as extreme at the time, Gay marriage, people will obviously
at first disregard that but then they’ll find a political compromise like Domestic Partnerships,
then Civil unions until the public has already gotten so used to it that they just decide to
accept Gay marriage and hence; The overton window has moved. So going back to Trump,
how is this related; Well, Trump, knowingly or unknowingly, is using the Overton window
philosophy as he is starting with the most extreme idea of immediately moving the US
embassy to Jerusalem but slowly and surely, the public will get used to this and, like
aforementioned, this will convince other nations to consider the action also.

Who is for Trump’s Actions? - Natan

There is a significant correlation between the religious aspect of the feud and the West’s
decision with Israel and Palestine. As Israel is a Jewish state, whereas Palestine isn’t, the
Christian western countries, such as the US and UK have mainly been pro Israel and against
the arabic, Muslim Palestinians. In some situations, beliefs can be a key factor as to how
people make their decisions and this is exceptionally shown in this feud. Most Western
countries also agree with Israel’s right to Jerusalem due to the fact that in 1920 many Jews
were expelled from Islamic countries. This discrimination was anti-democratic therefore
modern Western countries sided with the Jews.

Who is against Trump’s actions? - Jude

When answering, on the contrary, an enquiry such as who is against Trump’s decision to
move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the first thing that will logically spring to
mind is the fundamental opposition, who is getting negatively affected by this decision are
the Palestinians so let's talk Pro- Palestine arguments on the two main factors; One being
why Palestine should, instead of the Jewish Israelis, have access to Jerusalem and the
second being an attempt to refute the general public ideology of it being a perfectly morally
acceptable decision and why it’s completely flawed. So let’s begin...

An important argument for Palestinians are the Pro-Jewish Israeli laws set in place in
Jerusalem in means of discriminating the Palestinian demographic, even if they have Israeli
citizenship and now, at first many of you could question the question’s necessity as it doesn’t
seem to have any direct correlation with the US embassy being moved from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem, however Israel having laws that discriminate against Palestinians is of crucial
importance in whether Israel is truly a reasonable candidate out of the two to have full
geographical access to Jerusalem as it’d give further insight into Israel’s future position with
the middle east after this transitional period.

The vastness of laws that are discriminative against Palestinians is evidence of Israel’s
blatant system of apartheid; A system of apartheid is a group of deliberately discriminative
political policies created in means of oppressing another racial or ethnic group, which in this
case, are the Palestinians. Some examples of laws such as these include the lack of free
speech, the right to vote, the right to search their houses with no warrant and the inability to
vote for government policies despite them taking roughly 20% of the population of Israel.
Now, in means of bringing the correlation back to Donald Trump, many Arab countries,
especially, use Israel’s system of apartheid against the Palestinians to demonstrate the
unlikeliness of Israel making a peace treaty after Donald Trump’s decision has been fully
undertaken which would be a huge US political contradiction as it is hugely in the US’s
interest to quickly and efficiently create a peace treaty between the two countries; This is
apparent from how many presidents before have stated that the lack of urgency of moving
the US embassy has been down to the one main principle that they believe a peace treaty
could occur between the two countries without the US getting involved however one of
Trump’s main assumed reasons for not doing this comes down to the fact that