1/Both Trump and Netanyahu have everything to gain and little to lose by the upcoming "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and we plan to move the embassy but not right now" declaration. Both score major points with a rightist/religious base ...
2/ Both need that base to stay solid as they and their cronies face ongoing police/FBI/congressional investigations. And Jerusalem story keeps the media's attention, at least for a while, off of scandals and forces them to talk about them as leaders, however flawed ...
3/ If it blows up, and there is some kind of violent reaction, it will be easy to blame the Palestinians/Arabs for it, not any miscalculations on their part. It's an easy political win that benefits both of them and (most importantly?) will thrill Sheldon Adelson and co ...
The Adelson-funded Republican Jewish coalition is already gushing with praise even before the speech has happened. As for the Kushner peace process - Netanyahu will love if this kills it, and Trump has not spoken of it too enthusiastically lately ...
5/ This could be a rather elegant way of putting it all on hold given Kushner's legal woes, without it looking as if the son-in-law "failed" (god forbid) or gave up or Israel was too uncompromising. Shifts the blame to the Palestinians. They'll be the ones who walked away.
6/ And the combo of declaring Jerusalem the capital rhetorically, while, on a practical level, continuing to issue the waiver that stops the embassy move from happening NOW, makes them look careful and shields them a bit from charges of being rash and impetuous.
7/ From their perspective, given their priorities (I always say that Netanyahu has put the "I" in ideology and I'd say it about Trump too) it's a move that makes total sense for them. For the rest of us ... well, that's another thread.
