Monday, October 9, 2017

Trump Backs Away from Promise to Move U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

President Donald Trump told former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in an interview broadcast on TBN Saturday that he would not move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem until he had tried to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The statement marks a significant walk-back of Trump’s campaign promise in 2016 to relocate the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “fairly quickly.”
In March 2016, in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a prominent pro-Israel lobby group, Trump committed to moving the embassy to Jerusalem, explaining that it would increase the chance of peace with the Palestinians:
But when the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially. That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States.
We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.
And we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel.
The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely, totally unbreakable.
They must come to the table willing and able to stop the terror being committed on a daily basis against Israel. They must do that.
And they must come to the table willing to accept that Israel is a Jewish state and it will forever exist as a Jewish state.
In his interview with Huckabee, Trump appeared to dump that logic in favor of the conventional wisdom that the chances for peace would be hurt by affirming Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem.