Washington – President Donald Trump is giving “serious consideration” to moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday, they day before a scheduled White House visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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Trump is also “personally committed” to becoming the U.S. president who finally ends the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pence said.
Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is a politically charged act that would anger Palestinians who want east Jerusalem, which was captured in 1967, as a future capital and part of their sovereign territory. Such a move would also distance the U.S. from most of the international community, including its closest allies in Western Europe and the Arab world.
Trump had pledged during the presidential campaign to move the embassy, if elected. The White House says the idea is still under discussion.
“The president of the United States, as we speak, is giving serious consideration into moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Pence said, uttering his biggest applause line during remarks at the Israel Independence Day Commemoration event in an ornate room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House.
“To be clear, the president has also personally committed to resolving the Israeli and Palestinian conflict,” the vice president added. Pence also sought to reassure the audience that, while compromises will have to be made, Trump “will never compromise the safety and security of the Jewish state of Israel — not now, not ever.”
Trump and Abbas are expected during their meeting on Wednesday to address options for pursuing peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Trump broke with longtime U.S. policy in February when he withheld clear support for an independent Palestine, saying he could endorse a one-nation solution to the conflict.
At a White House news conference in February with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump was asked whether he was ready to give up on the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict. Trump said he was “looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”
He also asked Israel to “hold off” on Jewish settlement construction in territory Palestinians claim for their future state.
Ain’t gonna happen, read my lips
People this is what a Banana Republic looks like, it has to bow to its master. Money always has strings attached, Bibi keep on bowing to your master.
The move would be a very bad move pilitically and the culprit can be G D forbid be more Jewish blood chas vesholom. Dear VP, you can show solidarity to Jews in general and that does not mean the Jewish State. It has no connection to authentic Judaism. We pray for POTUS to make the right decision. MOVING THE EMBASSY IS PLAYING WITH BLOOD.
Wasn’t the move one of the things President Trump promised on Day One? Perhaps it was in his first one hundred days.
Uh, so what is the capital of Israel? Tel Aviv? Tsvat? Monsey?
The embassy belongs in the capital. This is not a halacic debate.