But in 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel captured the eastern section of Jerusalem, which Jordan presided over, and declared Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration would be applied to the whole city. Gone is the talk of brokering peace in the biggest deal ever, proving his bona fides as a dealmaker by being “sort of a neutral guy” or “honest broker”, as Trump himself put it in the campaign. “It would be so great”.
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Prior to the election, Friedman also penned an opinion piece in the “Jerusalem Post”, a daily newspaper, writing, “under president Trump, Israel will feel no pressure to make self-defeating concessions, America and Israel will enjoy unprecedented military and strategic cooperation, and there will be no daylight between the two countries”.
Friedman, with 35 years of experience in bankruptcy law, served as counsel to Trump in his investments in Atlantic City casinos and subsequently advised him through their multiple bankruptcies.
Trump sent a clear signal with his choice of Friedman. Is there an alternative narrative after the two-state solution?
The New York Times reports that during a sermon in the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem-one of the holiest sites in the world for Sunni Muslims-senior Palestinian cleric Sheikh Ikrama Sabri said that if the USA moved their embassy to Jerusalem, “the U.S.is declaring a new war on the Palestinians and all Muslim Arabs”. Many states formally adhere to the United Nations proposal that Jerusalem should have an worldwide status and do not view Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, Trump’s advisers have insisted in recent days that the president-elect will follow through on his call for moving the embassy.
Representatives for Donald Trump on Friday said it was too soon to say when the Republican U.S. president-elect would make good on his controversial campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Like any president-elect, Mr. Trump is within his rights to nominate whomever he pleases”, the paper said.
It’s important to note that his potential boss – secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson – has spent decades working in the Arab world and is likely far more sympathetic to the widespread concerns among its leaders about the settlements. Friedman’s other statements suggest little inclination to change that. He is a settler, a Jewish Israeli who moved to the West Bank in order to stake a claim to rocky hills that are also home to some two million Palestinians.
Oded Revivi, mayor of the Jewish settlement of Efrat and chief foreign envoy for the Yesha Council, said he met with Friedman two weeks ago in Washington.
Among the complaints Thomas Friedman had about the pick was David Friedman support of moving the USA embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In an August column for the Israeli news website Arutz Sheva, which is identified with the settler movement, the Orthodox Jew described the two-state solution-“a policy that even Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu endorses”, left-leaning Americans for Peace Now pointed out-as “an illusion”. He has tangled with my colleague Peter Beinart, saying that reading his work would drive one to vote for Trump.
Friedman, meanwhile, has said supporters of J Street are “worse than kapos”, the Jews who oversaw fellow concentration camp prisoners under the Nazis during World War II. The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty and who knows what any of us would have done under those circumstances to save a loved one?
During a June interview with Tablet, Friedman said that he dedicates the majority of his non-professional time to Israel-related projects: he funds various education and first responder-related philanthropies in the country, and said he owns property there as well.
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The statement sparked anger from liberal Jewish groups and such a move would distance the United States from most of the worldwide community, including its closest allies in Western Europe and the Arab world. “Trump’s pick of Friedman for Israel Ambassador is anathema to values that underlie US-Israel relationship”.
