Following President Donald Trump’s official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, some pro-Israel observers in the U.S. expressed optimism that other countries would follow Washington’s lead.
Though the Arab world widely condemned the decision, a handful of European and African countries signaled openness to recognizing Jerusalem and, like the U.S., eventually moving their embassies to the disputed city sometime in the relatively near future.
The Czech Republic became the first country to issue a similar proclamation last week, saying it considered West Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel and would consider moving its embassy there. The new Czech policy was made easier by Trump’s leadership on the issue, according to Rev. John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel.
“America acts and the world takes notice,” Hagee told the Daily Signal, the news operation of the conservative Heritage Foundation. “We’ve already seen the Czech Republic recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
Hagee also pointed to supportive remarks by legislators in Tanzania and Ghana, the latter of which has deep economic ties to Israel. Ghanaian speaker of parliament Aaron Mike Oquaye told Israel’s i24 News last week that, in terms of Jerusalem, “whatever Israel wants, we in Ghana will go by that, because that is essentially an internal decision.”
Other countries expressing sympathetic positions to Israel’s claims on Jerusalem are Hungary, which last week blocked an EU resolution condemning Trump’s decision, and Russia, which earlier this year said it considered West Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.
Those deviations from the international consensus on Jerusalem have been cheered by pro-Israel groups, but they aren’t likely to be imitated by many other countries, according to Eran Etzion, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
“There won’t be any significant follow up on Trump’s statement from other countries,” he told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email. “With some possible minor exceptions such as the Philippines, no reputable country is expected to follow Trump’s lead.”
Etzion went on to point out that the Czech Republic’s position on Jerusalem doesn’t go nearly as far as Washington’s. The Czech statement recognizes only the part of Jerusalem controlled by Israel before the 1967 Six Day War, and it opens the door to moving the Czech embassy there only in the context of a negotiated peace settlement.
Russia’s position on the contested city similarly considers West Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, while East Jerusalem, annexed in the 1967 war, is the capital of a future Palestinian state. Likewise, Hungary has reiterated its support for a two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.
In the near term, the most likely effect of Trump’s decision will be a temporary pause in the warming of relations between Israel and Arab governments, according to James Phillips, a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at The Heritage Foundation. Phillips told the Daily Signal that the move could “delay public reconciliation” between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have been covertly cooperating to limit Iranian influence in the region.
Etzion concurred with that assessment, telling TheDCNF that Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem might cause “some minor and temporary cooling effect in terms of public gestures and rhetoric, but that’s the extent of it.”
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