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Visit connectsontario.ca. Big stories and even bigger guests. This is the Roy Green Show on the Chorus Radio Network. Not everyone heard the last hour of the program, and I have to confess that I was wrong.
I said Al Franken has resigned. And on Thursday announced his intention to step down over the next couple of weeks. As was pointed out to me, and in my stubbornness, I insisted he was gone. So, somebody go get that crow, and I like it medium well.
I won't like it at all, but yeah, you're right, I'm wrong. I'm a big man. Yes, I am. So, a lot of talk, a lot of news, a lot of activity, a lot of response to a decision made by the United States government, particularly by the President of the United States, to move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Now, it's not going to happen imminently, because it takes a long time for these things to take place, but the response has been instant in the least, and it's been very strong. But how much staying power does it have, and really, what are the implications of the decision made by the United States and by its President? Joining me is Abdel Rahim Foukara. He's the Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Shazeera.
Abdel Rahim, thank you very much for the time. Was this a surprise decision from Mr. Trump, or was this telegraphed? I mean, it's been telegraphed, but did you expect it when it came?
Well, kind of, because remember that the decision wasn't known the day that Donald Trump announced it. It had been incrementally leaked, for example, to the New York Times. The outlines of the plan had been leaked to the New York Times. There'd been quite a bit of debate about what it's actually going to be, who's going to support it here in the United States, but also in the Middle East.
Nonetheless, when President Trump announced it, because he is the President, and because he finally settled to everybody who was wondering about the formula that he was going to use, yes, the way he stated the case, it came as a big shock, even to people who'd known more or less what he was going to say, but didn't know what he was actually going to say. Jerusalem is not just any city, whether it's obviously to the Israelis, or to the Palestinians, or to the wider Arab and Muslim world. It carries a huge significance to the Jews, Muslims, the Christians. And although the argument by Donald Trump is that he's just stating the obvious, a decision that had been made before, restated by Congress last June, and he said he was just making good on something that U.S.
presidents in the past should have done, although he said all that, as you know, there's been a lot of protests in the Palestinian territories, in Jerusalem, and in the wider Muslim world. Where is it all going to go? It really is hard to predict how long will these protests and this pressure from the Arab and Muslim world, and from many others, such as the Europeans, how long is it going to last? And anybody's guess, but it's quite a big shock, obviously.
I was thinking that as the embassy is constructed, and this is going to take some time, they're not just constructed overnight, that's going to be the most telling time for me, and you're far more conversant with the situation than I am. But as that goes on, the building takes shape. I would expect that if there's going to be some really significant negative reaction, we'll see it then. Is that a fair assessment?
I mean, it depends on many different things. One thing is, it depends on what he, the president, and people in charge of the plan at the White House, such as his advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, it depends what they've actually heard from leaders of the region, especially the main countries, such as Saudi Arabia. Obviously, leaders in the Middle East, there's a long tradition of these leaders saying one thing in public and saying something different in secret. So if he's hearing in secret from the leaders in the region that, yes, there will be protests, we'll ride them out, and at the end, it'll be a good decision that you've made, then I guess he'll want to press on with that decision, even as he tries to revive the talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
But if those leaders in the Middle East are, in one way or another, forced by public opinion in their own countries, if there's a lot of street movement, if there's a lot of coordination, if there are protests, if there's violence, and it's sustained, then obviously we could find ourselves in uncharted territory, both in the Middle East and here, where the decision was made in Washington, D.C. Abdelrahim, thank you so much for the time. Short notice, I really appreciate it. Thank you.
All the best. Abdelrahim Fouqara, the Washington Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera, on the Roy Green Show on Chorus Radio Network. You can send your emails to Roy at RoyGreenShow.com, and tweet me at the RoyGreenShow, follow me there. And remember, you can listen back to anything or download anything that we hear, just by going to the Roy Green Show page on the website of the Chorus Radio Station you're listening to now.
When we come back, he spent 23 years in prison, convicted of rape and murder. He committed neither. He was offered release opportunity several times. If only he plead guilty, he refused.
He's the subject of so many national stories. David Milgard will join us.