Writing as Spengler, the wise analyst of civilizational conflict, David P. Goldman, offers a provocative interpretation of the Manchester Arena massacre: that it was timed as a response to President Trump visiting, touching, and leaving a prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The first rule of intelligence work is that there are no coincidences. A horrifying terror attack at a pop concert Monday night at the Manchester Arena followed by hours the first-ever visit by a sitting American president to the Western Wall of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem. ...

The importance of President Trump's visit to the Western Wall--in Hebrew, the Kotel--cannot be overestimated. Even though the United States announced the visit as a personal rather than an official one, and even though Israeli officials were excluded from the visit, the image of an American president standing in awe before the embodiment of the three-thousand-year Jewish presence in Jerusalem was a diplomatic gesture on the grand scale. It came on the eve of Israel's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the unification of its ancient capital during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the president of the United States touched the ancient stones in reverence, his Jewish daughter Ivanka prayed a few meters away at the women's section.

The fact that there are pictures is key. Literacy is not a universal in the Middle East, outside Israel. Trump touching and praying at the Wall is a clear endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, and in particular the Al Aqsa Mosque that stands above the Wall. With his Jewish family members behind him. The Muslim and Arab worlds notice this and read deep meaning into it. Remember that religion is a huge part of their lives, and that they are obligated to help Islam spread.

Whether or not the Manchester bombing was a response, Spengler is right that Trump was sending a clear message, that it is time to concede that the Jews own Jerusalem. Who owns Mecca and Medina is an issue of far greater importance right now. When the Saudis saw the images, it visually confirmed the understanding they had reached and communicated to the Muslim heads of state in Riyadh.

Trump was openly reversing President Obama's historic upending of U.S. policy at the U.N.:

With this gesture, President Trump buried years of diplomatic maneuvering to deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple, which is a synecdoche for the Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Jerusalem is the tipping point for American diplomacy. Last December 23 the outgoing Obama administration refused to veto UN Resolution 2334, which called Israel's presence in East Jerusalem an illegal settlement. The decisive phrase, which America's veto had suppressed until then, referred to "Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem," including the Western Wall. Israel rightly regarded Obama's abstention as a stab in the back.

President Trump has now reversed the reversal, and then some. He is signaling a new era, and the message is being received by Arabs and Muslims. This is bold diplomacy of the highest order. If it works, it will be a masterstroke.

Even as our own media remain focused on Russia, still with no evidence or even a crime.