Internal Security Minister says he’s not surprised by President Trump’s apparent backpedaling on embassy move, push for negotiations.
ed note–In other words, despite all Trump’s noises and gestures about him being cut from the same cloth as his predecessors viz a viz Israel, Jews, Zionism, etc, the shrewder elements making up Judea Inc didn’t ‘buy it’, and all can rest assured that Erdan wasn’t the only one.
Israel National News
Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) spoke out Sunday evening, following comments by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Meet the Press regarding President Trump’s campaign pledge to relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Speaking with Army Radio, Erdan said President Trump’s plans for brokering a peace deal in the region are destined to fail, and suggested many on the Israeli right had unrealistic expectations for Trump.
“I’d agree that in the present era, there is nothing to talk about in terms of peace and real rapprochement, because our neighbors have not abandoned the idea that the State of Israel as the Jewish state will disappear from the map,” said Erdan.
“There were some in the nationalist camp who had excessive expectations for President Trump – I never had them.”
Earlier Sunday, Tillerson said the president was “being very careful” in weighing the possible implications of the embassy move for his plans to reboot peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, adding President Trump was taking input from “all interested parties in the region”.
“The president, I think rightly, has taken a very deliberative approach to understanding the issue itself, listening to input from all interested parties in the region, and understanding…in the context of a peace initiative, what impact would such a move have.”
“As you know, the president has recently expressed his view that he wants to put a lot of effort into seeing if we cannot advance a peace initiative between Israel and Palestine.”
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) responded warily to Tillerson’s comments, writing on Twitter that it was incumbent upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to speak out now and make Israel’s position clear to the Trump administration, that the Israeli government fully expects the White House to follow through on Trump’s campaign promise to implement the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which requires the move be made.
“I call on the Prime Minister to make it clear that we expect the American government to move the embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel,” Bennett wrote.
