There are many good writers here, but none of them wrote the article I’ll point to. There are many good writers, often with specialized knowledge found in our mainstream Newspapers & Magazines.
None of them wrote this piece I shall link here.
It is found over at Balloon Juice. It is by Adam Silverman.
It calmly recites the various reasons, beyond idiocy, incompetence and the danger with which this is fraught that would still make this a bad choice — from a foreign policy & negotiating, lerage standpoint.
Before I lay out the various reporting, let me provide my bottom line up front.
It is absolutely silly to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and/or move the US Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem in exchange for nothing. It is poor strategy, it is bad policy, it is a pointless and ultimately self defeating tactic, and it is diplomatically backwards. The reason the US hasn’t moved it’s embassy to Israel to Jerusalem and/or recognize Israel as Jerusalem’s capital isn’t just the security concerns. It is because either of these potential changes in US policy are most effectively used as motivational carrots to cajole the Israelis into negotiating in, if not good faith, then better faith. Unilaterally giving these to the Israelis removes very valuable and effective leverage from the US’s diplomatic tool kit.
There is much more to Silverman’s piece, but that bolded section gets to the heart of an ironic truth. The world’s self-declared best negotiator has given up every ounce of leverage he had with Bibi, all to please his fundie base (and Adelson).