Erdogan and Jerusalem

The U.S. has had a long-standing commitment to move our embassy in Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Candidate, and President, Trump — has repeatedly pledged to PM Netanyahu — that he will remove the official “pause” on this project, and finally get the move underway.

The Palestinians, who want Jerusalem for THEIR capital, have long fought this move.

Interestingly, they have a new ally in Turkey’s president Erdogan, who recently weighed in on this issue, urging the U.S., NOT to move the embassy.

Erdogan recently survived a coup attempt, after veering in a big way, toward the Islamic Brotherhood (IB) in his country.

This turn toward the Islamic factions in Turkey, as coalition partners for Erdogan — was purely a practical move by Erdogan.

Erdogan was mired in a corruption scandal for years — that threatened his hold on power – before he got religion.

Erdogan has also pushed through the Turkish Parliament, with the help of the IB — a bill giving him near dictator like power – for life of course.

Turkey is one of our most important allies in this region and for all of the reasons listed above, some satisfactory deal with Erdogan must ultimately be reached. It’s too bad this embassy issue is now on the discussion agenda with Erdogan, because I don’t see an easy resolution to this one.

The other thing he wants, is the U.S. government to hand over the man he holds responsible for the coup attempt — who happens to be living in Pennsylvania. I don’t see that happening either.

Last but not least, one of our best allies in the Middle East, the Kurds, are locked in a death struggle with Erdogan, for political power, a homeland, and civil rights within Turkey. Frankly I don’t see any of this happening either.

We have a lot of work to do with Turkey and Erdogan.