Giuliani to ‘Post’: Trump backs embassy move to J’lem, but reality is complex

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has long supported moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and is an adviser to US President Donald Trump, told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday he believes the issue is being considered actively.

He stepped back, however, from saying whether or not it will happen. “That is something that the president will have to decide. It is under active consideration.”

Asked in an interview with the Post whether he feels that Trump – who was a strong advocate of moving the embassy during the campaign – has changed his mind, Giuliani responded: “I think that now that he is in office there are a lot more facts and arguments and people you have to consult with before you make a final decision and it is a more deliberative process. I don’t think his position has changed in any way.”

Giuliani, whom Trump recently named as his cybersecurity adviser, said he has spoken with the president about the embassy issue, though he would not say when or what he said. He did indicate, however, that he would advise that the move “be worked out carefully with the Israeli government so that it is done in a way they are comfortable with.”

This, he said, means that it be done in a way that does not “interfere with anything they are doing or have in mind. It will have a big impact on them, and it should be a decision coordinated with the government of Israel.”

Giuliani is in the country for a few days on business as the global chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s cybersecurity, privacy and crisis management practice. The international law firm has an office in Israel. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit, as he does whenever he is the country. Last year, he visited three times.

Regarding the White House’s lack of a comment Tuesday to the government’s announcement of plans to build 2,500 additional housing units beyond the Green Line, mostly in the large settlement blocs, Giuliani said this was “different than the response that used to happen, a couple of weeks ago,

which was almost uniform condemnation of Israel” any time there were announcements about settlement construction.

“No comment is a lot different than saying you shouldn’t do it, or that it is wrong or hurts the peace process,” he said. “This shows you that there is a different position in Washington than there was before.”

Giuliani said the “rest of it,” such as the thinking and strategy behind the move, is “best left to a private discussion between the president and the prime minister, which can now take place because there is a much closer relationship.”

Unlike when Barack Obama was in office, he said now Netanyahu “can explain to the president exactly his own views on these different settlements, where they help, where they hurt, what he really thinks.”

And the president, he said, “can relate to the prime minister what he really thinks, rather than communication by press release, which is the way it happened in the past. Israel would do a settlement, and the Obama administration would almost reflexively condemn it.”

The new administration heralds a significant change of attitude in Washington that is more favorable toward Israel, Giuliani said.

“Just exactly what that means and how that is going to play out over the course of maybe 10 different issues might not be exactly what some people who have the most extreme views may want, but I think it is safe to say that there is a much more understanding and supportive attitude in Washington toward Israel than there was before,” he said.

Giuliani added that there is also “a much clearer understanding that there is not a moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which was something that strongly influenced the Obama administration.”

As to those worried that the “Put America First” theme of Trump’s inaugural address may not augur well for Israel, since an argument could be made under this rubric that the $3 billion a year spent on military aid for Israel could be better spent domestically, Giuliani had a simple answer: supporting Israel “fits into [putting] America first.”

“We are talking about an area of the world that has an impact on the US domestically because of the nature of terrorism and the fact that if we don’t spend the amount of money we are spending, and maybe even more on this part of the world, that will have domestic implication for the United States,” he said. “This is part of America first, because of the attacks that occur in the United States, because of the impact of terrorism on the United States.”

Giuliani said Israel is currently in a position in Washington where “it has a president who is favorable, and I can’t think of anyone around him that isn’t in roughly the same position regarding Israel.”

He said the new secretaries of defense and state, James Mattis and Rex Tillerson, both of whom are largely unknown in Israel, “are keenly aware of the importance of the alliance between the United States and Israel.”

Based on conversations he has had with the two men, Giuliani also said both “realize that a lot of damage was done to the relationship during the Obama years that has to be repaired.”

Acknowledging that most American Jews did not vote for Trump, Giuliani said this demonstrates a dramatic shift regarding the reason for America’s strong support of Israel.

“It used to be that some of America’s policies with regard to Israel were based on the domestic power of the Jewish vote, but since September 11, and increasingly over the last 16 years, that has changed to a more solid basis – a geopolitical understanding of why we have allied interests, why Israel is important to us,” he said.

Giuliani said that while this understanding was “almost universal among Republicans,” it is also a view shared by more than half of the Democrats. “The only place you get disagreement is with the progressive Democrats,” he said.

Addressing the degree to which he thinks Trump will make the Mideast diplomatic process a priority, Giuliani said that from Trump’s brief comments on the matter during the campaign, he realizes how difficult it is going to be because so many have tried to solve it and have failed.

“He has a personality of being challenged by doing the impossible so I think it will get a high priority just because it is impossible,” Giuliani said. “He doesn’t like the word ‘impossible,’ and I think that presents a challenge to him.”

Giuliani characterized Trump as a “great” negotiator who will bring this to bear on this issue. And he said the fact that he has named his son-in-law Jared Kushner to be his point man on the issue “is important because they are so alike; it is almost like giving [this portfolio] to himself.”

Kushner, according to Giuliani, is “in many ways an extension of the president” who will surely brief Trump on everything happening in the process. “They have an extremely close relationship,” he said. “Jared has complete access to the president, so a lot of what he will be doing will be executing what the president thinks.”

Giuliani dismissed the notion that Kushner cannot be an effective broker because he is an Orthodox Jew whose family has contributed in the past to the settlements. His role, Giuliani said, should not really be one of being a broker, but rather as one whose job is to get the Palestinians to be more realistic and not think that they can get the world to impose a solution on Israel.

Stressing that on this issue he was speaking for himself and not the new administration, Giuliani said: “Someone has to get the Palestinians in the world of reality as opposed to the unreal world that they have created with the European and left-wing publicity.

“What I mean by that is that I have never seen it in the interest of my country to create a terrorist state,” he said.

“If you are going to create a state, you want to create a healthy one, not a dangerous one. A lot of the burden of this is on them,” he said, adding that the Palestinians needed to take major steps to stop terrorism, reduce corruption and make strides toward establishing responsible government by the rule of law.

“By using the UN and using publicity in an artful way, they have come to make it seem like there really is no burden on them, and they should just be given the land they want and that’s it,” Giuliani said. “From the point of view of the United States, that makes no sense. It makes no sense for us to create another terrorist state.” •