Mike Pence’s Self-Serving Trip to the Holy Land

When Mr. Pence announced his first trip to the Middle East, he initially hoped to draw attention to the persecution of Christians in the region, as well as nudge Israelis and Palestinians toward peace.

.. Mr. Pence wrapped up the trip to Israel, Egypt and Jordan on Tuesday, having been rebuffed by top Christian leaders in those countries in protest over Mr. Trump’s decision last month to break with decades of American policy — and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

.. It’s still mysterious just how Mr. Trump believes he has advanced the cause of peace, or fortified America’s standing in the world, with that decision. Its costs in terms of American isolation, on the other hand, were evident throughout the trip. Mr. Pence also didn’t meet with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who flew instead to Brussels to ask European leaders for protection from Mr. Trump’s bad decisions. Neither did Mr. Pence sit down with other Palestinian leaders, any Israeli-Arab citizens, or Israeli opposition members.

.. One place Mr. Pence did strike an enthusiastic chord was in Parliament in Israel, where a hard-line government is largely hostile to a two-state solution. Members interrupted him with standing ovations. His address was replete with biblical references to Jewish ties to the Holy Land. He referred to God’s promise to the Jews that “he would gather and bring you back to the land which your fathers possessed” and to “the Jewish people’s unbreakable bond to” Jerusalem.

.. He further played his political and religious cards by inviting West Bank settlers as his guests at the event. The contrast could not have been starker to Parliament’s Israeli-Arab members, who held up signs saying, “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.” They were forcibly removed by security as Mr. Pence began speaking.

.. He has weakened the Palestinians by cutting millions of dollars in aid for health and education projects for Palestinian refugees and then fanned new tensions with his one-sided decision on Jerusalem. At the same time, the gulf between the United States and Europe, once close partners in the peace process, is growing. Such divisions only serve to make good outcomes harder to achieve.