RALPH PETERS: Why the ‘Arab street’ didn’t just explode.

In the wake of President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last week, the “experts” crowding the media predicted strategic calamity: Vast, violent protests and a wave of terror would sweep the Muslim world in the coming days.

Instead, the largest demonstration anywhere this weekend was the funeral procession for Johnny Hallyday, the “French Elvis.” Nothing in the Middle East came close.

We have witnessed, yet again, the carefully phrased anti-Semitism of the pristinely educated; the global left’s fanatical pro-Palestinian bias; and the media’s yearning for career-making disasters.

Rather than waves of protest, the waiting world got tepid statements of disapproval from otherwise-occupied Arab governments; demonstrations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that, combined, barely put a thousand activists in the streets; and yes, four deaths: two demonstrators and two Hamas terrorists hit by an Israeli airstrike.

I wrote at Hot Mic the other day:

The most important two Arab states are Egypt (population) and Saudi Arabia (wealth), and neither seems likely to retaliate beyond a pro forma protest. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman can’t afford to derail his modernization effort by emboldening a bunch of reactionary hotheads, and Egypt can’t afford to do much that isn’t bankrolled by the Saudis.

Erdogan would probably love to stir up a mess for Israel, but the Turks aren’t exactly loved in the Arab world. And Iran was going to continue arming Hezbollah whether Trump recognized Jerusalem or not.

Trump’s move ought to have been seen for the low-risk no-brainer it was, but those kind of things always seem to shock Washington.