Our goal is to have intelligent discussion of the topics of the day. We realize everyone has their opinion and they should be allowed to express it in a discussion forum without calling each other names. We learn from discussion and not from name calling or argument.We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. See details
Contact Form
Showing posts with label US Embassy move. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Embassy move. Show all posts
A draft United Nations Security Council resolution could seek to override Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Reuters reports.
The resolution, drafted by Egypt, “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council,” according to the text.
The one page draft has already been circulated around the 15-member Security Council.
Advertisement - story continues below
The move comes after Trump announced that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which — as The Hill notes — no U.S. administration has done in the seven decades of the Jewish state’s existence.
Trump’s directive isn’t just symbolic. According to CNN, it would involve building a new embassy in Jerusalem as — as Trump put it — “a magnificent tribute to peace.”
While Jerusalem is the administrative capital of Israel for all intents and purposes, most nations recognize Tel Aviv as its official capital, as the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, too — should they ever actually form a state. Thus, it’s considered impolitic in liberal circles to officially say that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state.
However, the Trump administration calls the recognition long overdue.
Advertisement - story continues below
“This is just a reality check,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on CNN last week regarding the decision. “This is nothing that anybody didn’t already know.”
Reality checks aren’t usually en vogue among the Palestinians, which is why they’ve been rioting since the decision was announced.
Another place where reality checks aren’t usually en vogue: the United Nations, which is why you see this sort of draft resolution circulating.
At the moment, the move is mostly symbolic. The United States can and will use its veto vote should the resolution go before the full Security Council.
However, keep in mind that this is just because the Trump administration is in power.
If a Democrat is elected in the future, such a move by the U.N. could be used to reverse the decision without incurring the political firestorm that would come from making the decision openly. Democrats in power in the White House could just let the U.N. make the decision for them — the same way that the Obama administrationlet the Security Council condemn settlements.
The very fact that nations in the Arab world are already looking for a way to delegitimize and overrule the Trump administration’s decision should be incredibly worrying to both friends of Israel and those concerned about American sovereignty.
That’s because the United Nations has become a grave enemy to both. While the U.N. is supposed to foster peace, we instead see it being used increasingly used as an instrument against both us and the most persecuted state on earth.
Advertisement - story continues below
It’s not enough for the U.S. delegation to veto this resolution. The United States needs to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.
Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you agree.
How do you think the Trump administration should react to this draft resolution?
“When the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their sins—declares Hashem—and I will make it a desolation for all time.” Jeremiah 25:12 (The Israel Bible™)
After a Biblically significant 70-year gap since an American president first recognized the state of Israel, White House sources announced on Wednesday that President Donald Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and that the US State Department will begin making plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump will recognize that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” White House officials announced to the media.
“While President Trump recognizes that the status of Jerusalem is a highly sensitive issue, he does not think it will be resolved by ignoring the truth that Jerusalem is home to Israel’s legislature, its Supreme Court, the Prime Minister’s residence, and as such, it is the capital of Israel,” one of the officials said.
The official said that Trump will officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but will delay the opening of the embassy for at least six months.
The decision was sealed after President Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, and Saudi King Salman to inform them of his upcoming announcement.
MK Yehudah Glick called the move “historically significant”, noting that Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as a capital comes exactly 70 years after his predecessor President Harry Truman recognized Israel as a state.
“I think this is as historically significant as President Truman recognizing the state of Israel 13 minutes after [Prime Minister David] Ben Gurion declared a state exactly 70 years ago. This is not just for Israel but is part of a universal process. God willing, other nations will follow suit. Our dream is that the entire world will recognize Jerusalem as the city of God,” he told Breaking Israel News.
Incredibly, the White House announcement comes on the Hebrew date the 17th of Kislev, the same date on which the UN General Assembly adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine creating the state of Israel in 1947.
Seventy years is Biblically significant as the length of the Babylonian exile.
For thus said Hashem: When Babylon’s seventy years are over, I will take note of you, and I will fulfill to you My promise of favor—to bring you back to this place. Jeremiah 29:10
The prophesied 70-year timeline is figured according to the Jews return to Jerusalem, beginning with the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and ending when the Jews dedicated the Second Temple. Just as the Jewish exile to Babylonia did not end until the connection with Jerusalem was reestablished, the current return to Israel will not be considered complete until the connection with its eternal capital is set firm.
Marc Zell, head of the Republican party in Israel, was optimistic that the move would be beneficial to the region.
“This is a step towards reality,” the Trump insider told Breaking Israel News. “For 70 years, America has been deluding itself that an unratified UN Security Council resolution declaring Jerusalem as an international city will somehow bring peace. The reality is that all of Israel’s government is in Jerusalem. Trump is trying to change the direction of Israel-Palestinian relations by changing a policy that has failed horribly all this time.”
Like Glick, Zell sees a larger, underlying motive behind the move, one that he believes will be successful to an unprecedented degree.
“This is changing the paradigm for the entire Middle East, not just for Israel’s sake,” Zell said. “This comes from a need to confront Iran which is the major source of instability and the major obstacle to peace in the region. This is going to prevent Iran from exerting hegemony over the region and is part of a larger plan to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”
The announcement kicked off a strong negative response from the Palestinians and Arab world in general, with many leaders threatening violence and terror. Abbas responded to the development by warning ominously that President Trump’s actions would have “dangerous consequences”. The PA announced three ‘Days of Rage’ with major demonstrations being planned on Wednesday in Jenin and on Thursday in Ramallah.
However, while Hamas called for an intifada should Trump change Jerusalem’s status, a senior Palestinian official told Haaretz that “the Palestinian Authority is interested in carrying out marches of rage and protest, but there’s no intention to break the rules or lead to a frontal confrontation with Israel like the one that took place during the Second Intifada.”
In response to the threats, the US State Department issued a travel warning to government employees in Israel restricting them from entering Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jericho.
Zell understood the Palestinian reaction as an expression of a direct threat to the US.
“Abbas clearly threatened the president, which has been the Arabs’ strategy all along,” Zellsaid. “Sometimes they do make good on their threats. This intimidates people from taking a stand, but this time, they don’t know who they are dealing with now.
“This is a president who has been threatened by other, more dangerous despots, like Kim Jong Un, with much more steel behind their threats. Unlike others before him, this president is totally unmoved by these threats.”
The announcement comes in the wake of President Trump missing the Monday deadline for signing a waiver that prevents moving the embassy. While authorizing the move, the Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed in Congress in 1995, allowed for a presidential waiver, to be renewed every six months. Since the law was passed, every president has signed the veto preventing the move. Trump signed the waiver in June.
Though the administration plans to move the embassy soon, Trump will sign the current waiver in the coming days, according to reports. If he left it unsigned and the State Department did not immediately enact the law by establishing an embassy in Jerusalem, it would lose 50 percent of its budget for “Acquisition and Maintenance of Buildings Abroad” until it complies, though this is unlikely to happen.
Until 1973, 16 countries had their embassies in Jerusalem. Currently, the only embassy to Israel in Jerusalem is the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ). There are currently at least six embassies to Palestine in Jerusalem, including the Vatican Embassy.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/98959/president-trump-end-jerusalems-70-year-exile-recognition-capital-embassy-move/#EWTyx3LYPtG0d155.99
“Bid Yerushalayim take heart, and proclaim unto her, that her time of service is accomplished, that her guilt is paid off; that she hath received of Hashem’s hand double for all her sins.” Isaiah 40:2 (The Israel Bible™)
The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv (Photo: Wiki Commons)
Just a few days prior to US President Donald Trump’s first official visit to Israel, a White House official announced that Trump has decided not to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem for the moment. The official who had asked not to be identified told Bloomberg News that the new decision was aimed at avoiding any and all provocations that could jeopardize peace talks with the Palestinians.
“We are talking here about a delay for half a year, so nothing is definite,” Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan told Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “I think President Trump will come here and get a feel of what united Jerusalem is really like and I am convinced that he will see that the city belongs to the State of Israel and that our demand is legitimate and important.”
Ben-Dahan argued that the US administration officials who had placed pressure on Trump regarding the embassy and the administration’s position on Jerusalem were remnants of the Obama administration, which had adopted a clear pro-Palestinian stance.
“What is most important on Israel’s part is for Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu make clear to President Trump that Israel expects the embassy to be moved to Jerusalem when Trump visits next week,” continued Ben-Dahan. “Once President Trump understands our determination and unequivocally takes a stand in favor of the move, his administration and all the other countries will follow.”
Senior officials at the State Department and Defense Department had recently demanded that Trump prevent the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem and had even asked the White House not to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, claiming it would harm the peace process. According to the official quoted on Bloomberg News, the US administration considers its discussions with both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to be promising, with the Palestinians in particular agreeing to talk without preconditions.
“I am very sorry about this decision,” Chairman of the Knesset Lobby for US-Israel Relations and Zionist Union MK Dr. Nachman Shai told TPS. “The US embassy and the other embassies ought to be in Jerusalem. This is their place.”
“The question of the location of the embassy should be separate from politics,” continued Shai. “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.”
On Sunday, after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made statements that Trump was still debating the issue, Prime Minister Netanyahu contended that moving the embassy would not harm the peace process, rather that it would do the opposite.
President Trump sent envoy Jason Greenblatt to the region in March to begin talks on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and met with both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the White House. He is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Abbas in Bethlehem during his visit to the country.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/88336/official-white-house-announces-us-embassy-will-not-move-jerusalem-now/#ovd5mGkOuWRMKkom.99
