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Moving the Australian Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem Will Advance the Peace Process

(Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council) IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser was interviewed by Australia's ABC News on October 31, 2018: Q: What difference would it make if Australia moves its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem? Kuperwasser: This is going to tell the Palestinians that they have to realize that the world is moving forward and they have to adjust their position. The U.S has moved its embassy to Jerusalem, Brazil is now planning to move its embassy to Jerusalem, and Russia has admitted that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Pragmatic elements inside the Arab world are telling the Palestinians, "Listen, stop putting obstacles in the way toward cooperation with Israel." Australia, as a very important member of the liberal democracies, would be telling the Palestinians, "Listen, we are going to base our policy on the real situation, which is that Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people for ages and has been the capital of Israel for the last 70 years. And let's move forward toward peace." Q: There were a lot of protests when Donald Trump said he was going to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Kuperwasser: Maybe in some Western capitals there were some protests. But in the Middle East there were no protests, with the exception of Gaza where they were already protesting so they added this as an excuse for their protest. But in my mind, most of the Arabs are ready to accept it. They know that Jerusalem is our capital. It is not something that is an obstacle on the way to peace. On the contrary. Once people send this message to the Palestinians, that they have to accept it, this is going to remove this impediment on the way to peace. Even though the Arabs may publicly criticize it, they know that this is necessary in order to enable movement forward on the peace process. Brig.-Gen. Kuperwasser, former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Research Division, is Director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2018-11-09 00:00:00
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