As per 9/13/17 Business Insider report by Allan Smith,  “Last January, Trump told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that, if elected, he would “be able to get along well with Chuck Schumer.”

“I was always very good with Schumer,” Trump said. “I was close to Schumer in many ways.”

“One way, at least on paper, was Trump’s past donations to Schumer’s campaigns.’

“Schumer is the sitting member of Congress to whom Trump personally donated the most money, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Over the past three decades, Trump donated roughly $9,000 directly to the New York Democrat’s campaign. Three of Trump’s children — Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka — donated a combined $6,800 to Schumer. Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband and a White House senior adviser, donated $4,000 to Schumer.”

“I mean, I’ve contributed to Schumer, I contribute — I’ve known Schumer for many, many years,” Trump said last year. “And I have a good relationship with him. The fact is, that I think it is time maybe that we all do get along.”

“And at last year’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York, Trump joked that Schumer “used to love me when I was a Democrat.”

Schumer has worked to downplay any appearance of a relationship between the two. But entering the Trump presidency, he did leave the door open to making deals on issues where Democrats found themselves closer to Trump’s outlook than they did congressional Republicans’.

“He was not my friend,” Schumer told Politico last fall following Trump’s election. “We never went golfing together, even had a meal together. He’s called me — we’ve had civil conversations a couple of times. But I’ve got to see what he does.”

“When we can agree on issues, then we’re going to work with them,” Schumer said last fall. “But I’ve also said to the president-elect on issues where we disagree, you can expect a strong and tough fight.”

As per a 10/8/17 JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency report,  “President Donald Trump said he will not move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv until after his administration’s peace plan has a chance to be implemented.”

“Trump made the remark Saturday on a Christian Trinity Broadcast Network talk show hosted by Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate”

“Trump said during the interview that a decision on moving the embassy would be made “in the not too distant future” before adding it would not be implemented before the peace proposal was given a chance to succeed.”

“I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” Trump told Huckabee.”

In short, as of October 2017, the republican President Donald Trump had clearly signaled his intent not to publicly assert that the USA considered  Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and to not move the US embassy located in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem until he gave the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks/ negotiations a chance to succeed especially as his son-in-law and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner was heading up this process.

According to a 10/11/17 Daily Caller article, “the democratic US Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer has been long calling for the president to announce Jerusalem in its entirety, is the capital of Israel and for the US embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Senator Schumer’s thinking was disclosed in a Times of Israel article published on 10/10/17 and then followed up by a 10/11/17 NY Daily Caller report, and then a 12/5/17 Hill report.

As per the 12/15/17 Hill report, Schumer himself told JTA that he supported the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem, and criticized Trump over his “indecisiveness” on the issue.”

“President Trump’s recent comments suggest his indecisiveness on the embassy’s relocation,” Schumer told the news agency. “As someone who strongly believes that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel, I am calling for the US Embassy in Israel to be relocated to Jerusalem.”

And so, the question is why did President do an about face stance regarding his advertised plans as of October. Two months later he is doing the exact opposite of what he previously shared by announcing his plan to declare that Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel and that he intends to eventually relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem especially as he is departing  from past US policy established by both republican and democratic presidents going back to President Harry Truman. These moves have longed been considered by diplomats around the world to be a major carrot to get both the States of Israel and Palestine to work something out.

I don’t see the logic for Sen. Schumer’s stance in pushing hard for the president’s change of heart by deciding to act now, unless he absolutely doesn’t care about the probable resulting outrage by the Muslim community throughout the middle east. Could it be that his views are colored by the fact that his election coffers are well endowed by NorPac (also the “North Jersey PAC”), a very conservative group backing President Trump’s current thinking on Jerusalem and also strongly advocating the end of the Iran Nuclear deal? They have donated $120,368 to Sen. Schumer for last election cycle. Incidentally, Senator Chuck Schumer was the one democrat who voiced his strong opposition to the US Iran-Nuclear deal in 2015.

But it looks like President Donald Trump is splitting the baby on December 6, 2017 by announcing that Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel while delaying the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and signing off on the 6 month’s waiver related to delaying the move due this month of December 2017.

In Israel President Netanyahu, considered to be far right, is no longer popular and he wants this, bigly.

The vast majority of leaders around the world are voicing their strong opposition to the president’s plans regarding Israel. The president’s foreign policy staff have been advising the president not to take these actions. The president is choosing to undermine his own senior adviser and son-in law Jared Kushner efforts to succeed in leading the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

It disheartens me that they are wanting to do this and the heck with status of peace talks and the backlash from Israel’s Muslim neighbors in the area. This makes me question the seriousness of Israel regarding the peace talks. Israeli leaders have been long complaining that Palestinians were not acting in good faith. It looks like the Israeli’s hard right wants things to be done on their terms and nothing less will do.

There is a reason that US presidents since Harry Truman have not taken this step. The president had planned to abide by past presidential precedent as of October 2017. The question is why he is deviating from this AND WHY NOW?

None of this bodes well.

As per 12/6/17 a Boston Globe Fast Forward report by Teresa Hanafin, “Trump (is pandering) to his shrinking group of supporters while jeopardizing the US role as an honest broker in Mideast negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians when he officially declares that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel at 1 p.m. at the White House, making the US the first nation in the world to do so.”

“The Palestinians have eyed East Jerusalem as a capital for a future Palestinian state, and negotiations over creation of that state could still make it so. But those negotiations are now far more difficult with the US firmly siding with Israel on such a controversial subject, further eroding any trust the Palestinians may have had that negotiations would be fair.”

“Arab leaders — as well as Pope Francis — had asked Trump not to make the move, worried about inflaming tensions in the region, but Trump continues to set important policy based on politics. Setting policy based on a sound, thoughtful, comprehensive strategy would be refreshing. Next president, maybe.”

Source: “Chronological Reference Points.” Middle East Insight, January-February 1999.