Sunday, January 22, 2017

Report: Trump To Announce U.S. Embassy Move To Jerusalem, Israel Pushes Ahead With Settlements




Report: Trump to Announce U.S. Embassy Move to Jerusalem Monday



Numerous unconfirmed reports are circulating in the international media that President Donald Trump intends announcing Monday that he will relocate the U.S. embassy to Israel from the coastal city of Tel Aviv to the capital city of Jerusalem.


Jerusalem has been Israel’s capital city since its founding in 1948, but most countries have deferred moving the embassy there because the original UN partition plan for the British Mandate proposed Jerusalem as a city under international sovereignty.
Jordan, the Palestinians, and all surrounding Arab nations rejected the UN plan, and the Jordanian army took over the eastern half of Jerusalem in 1948, expelling the Jewish inhabitants of the Old City, where Jews had lived for several millennia.
With that part of the UN plan effectively rejected by Jordan and the Arab world, Israel established its capital in western Jerusalem. Though Palestinians, in theory, claim all of Jerusalem for themselves, the part of Jerusalem west of the 1949 armistice line (the “1967 lines,” or the “Green Line”) will unquestionably remain part of Israel in any peace agreement.
The core of the Arab and Muslim rejection of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a rejection of Jewish claims to religious and historical connection to the city itself. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat once turned down an offer of shared sovereignty over the Temple Mount because, as he told then-President Bill Clinton, he saw the Jewish claim to the holy site as fictitious.

In 1995, Congress mandated that the U.S. move the embassy to Israel through the Jerusalem Embassy Act. The law, however, contained a waiver that allowed the president to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv, acknowledging the supremacy of the executive in determining the foreign policy of the U.S. Trump’s pledge on Monday — if it comes to fruition — would decline that waiver.

Opponents of the decision to move the embassy have warned that it would set off violence in the Arab world. But it would also inspire joyful celebrations in Israel and around the world, as the U.S. would likely inspire other countries to follow its example, and would help Israel cement its national vision of “a free nation in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”









The municipality of Jerusalem granted final approval Sunday for the construction of hundreds of new homes in east Jerusalem, while a hard-line Cabinet minister pushed the government to annex a major West Bank settlement as emboldened Israeli nationalists welcomed the presidency of Donald Trump.
After eight years of testy ties with President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is looking forward to a new era of close relations with the U.S. under Trump. The two were scheduled to talk on the phone later Sunday.
At his weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu thanked Trump for his friendship and his inauguration speech pledge to battle radical Islamic militants. He said they would discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the situation in Syria and the Iranian threat, among other issues.
More hawkish elements in his coalition, however, are already calling for concrete action given Trump’s perceived acquiescence to Israeli settlement building.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home Party, was pressing the government to back legislation that would annex Maaleh Adumim, a sprawling West Bank settlement just east of Jerusalem. He also urged Netanyahu to abandon his stated position in favor of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Netanyahu, a longtime supporter of the settlements, has nonetheless been cautious about expanding them in the face of strong opposition from the U.S. and other Western allies. With Trump signaling a much softer line toward the settlements, Israeli hard-liners say there is no longer any reason to show restraint.
“For the first time in 50 years, the prime minister can decide: either sovereignty or Palestine,” Bennett wrote on Twitter.
Annexing Maaleh Adumim would be seen as undermining negotiations. It is also in a strategic location in the middle of the West Bank that could impede the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
In the meantime, the Jerusalem municipal housing committee granted building permits for 566 new homes in east Jerusalem. The permits had been put on hold for the final months of the Obama administration.
Building is planned in the neighborhoods of Ramot, Pisgat Zeev and Ramat Shlomo.

“We’ve been through eight tough years with Obama pressuring to freeze construction,” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. “I hope that era is over and we now we can build and develop Jerusalem for the welfare of its residents, Jews and Arabs alike.”
Deputy Mayor Meir Turjeman, who heads the committee, said an additional 11,000 homes were planned in east Jerusalem. He said he hopes to get the plans approved by the end of the year and begin construction in the next two to three years.

Israel clashed frequently with Obama over construction in areas it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war, and last month, the Obama White House allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning settlements as illegal.


In a sign of the changing times, a delegation of West Bank settler leaders said it was invited by Trump administration officials to attend the inauguration.




9 comments:

Caver said...

Humpffff.....anybody else get the opinion that President Trump has absolutely no fear in stuffing a lit stick into a hornets nest? Not just that, he enjoys & uses it...while the media is running around making a fuss, he's out solving more issues than the last guy did in an administration. At least two commentators are now suggesting this may be an opening strategy, something akin to Cassius Clay's (Mahammad Ali) Rope-A-Dope.

Before the other side stops yelling about the crowd size he will have legitimized Israel's capital, seriously cut funding to the UN, renegotiated NAFTA, negotiated UK trade, convinced a half dozen countries to pay their part of NATO, and thrown Planned Parenthood and citizen funded abortion under the train.

If its true and the firm order is issued to relocate the US Embassy to Jerusalem CONCURRENT with NATO negotiation, AND the realization that Europe needs us a lot more than we need them....its going to be interesting. Lots of folks may be in a rush for the choice Jerusalem Embassy lots. OH my....I'll get the wings and soft drinks.Maybe we can have a Prophecy Party watching the Scurry 2-Step as the rats slither for cover.

Unknown said...

You can call Trump a lot of things, but procrastinator ain't one of 'em.

Dee mac said...

Will it cause uproar and trigger a war, will it cause chaos for that political leader we have all been waiting on, to come and make a peace treaty with isreal. I can not beleive the amount of prophecy books written and sold all over the years for it all to have unfolded this way. Who would have thought 1 of Trump's top advisors was an orthodox jew :)

Praying America and Britain can be used through Israels tribulations yet to come.

Dee mac said...

Will it cause uproar and trigger a war, will it cause chaos for that political leader we have all been waiting on, to come and make a peace treaty with isreal. I can not beleive the amount of prophecy books written and sold all over the years for it all to have unfolded this way. Who would have thought 1 of Trump's top advisors was an orthodox jew :)

Praying America and Britain can be used through Israels tribulations yet to come.

Mrs.C said...

Forgive me Sister Dee, but we are not "waiting on" the ac to come, but rather Jesus, our awesome Bride Groom to come. Scripture tells us that Israel will suffer greatly, and do so, completely alone without any help from the U.S.,Britain or anyone on this Earth for that matter. The ONLY one that will step forward will be God Himself, which is exactly how He Plans it :) We His Church will be gone, and will also will not know who the ac is...we can guess, surmise, but wont know and IMHO, it is a waist of time trying to figure it out. We need to be focused on Serving God by leading those who are Lost, to the Saving Grace of Jesus before its too late.
As Jesus made clear in Matthew 24 what we are to be doing with His example of the Good Servant and the Evil Servant...

Unknown said...

We certainly surmise don't we lol

Scott said...

Just posting the news thats circulating

Unknown said...

Thank you Scott I appreciate you my friend.

Scott said...

FWIW - I think they are using the move to Jerusalem as leverage for future use, which may be a good thing - we'll see