Trump ‘considering’ US Embassy Jerusalem move: VP Pence
Israel sentences 3 Palestinians to life over Tel Aviv attack
NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump is “actively considering when and how” to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his vice president said Tuesday, evoking a campaign promise that the administration had sidelined.
Mike Pence made the remarks in a keynote address at an event in New York commemorating the 70th anniversary of the UN vote for partition of Palestine, which led to the creation of the state of Israel.
“President Donald Trump is actively considering when and how to move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Pence told the gathering of UN ambassadors, diplomats and Jewish leaders.
On June 1, Trump shied away from what was a major campaign promise by signing a legal waiver that keeps the embassy in Tel Aviv. The next six-month waiver is due to be signed this week.
“It’s a question of when, not if,” a US official said on June 1.
During his campaign for the White House, Trump expressed support for moving the embassy but did not renew the call — which would anger Palestinians and Arab states — when he visited Jerusalem this year.
In 1995, Congress passed a law making it US policy to move the embassy to Jerusalem, symbolically endorsing Israel’s claim on the city as its capital.
But the law contains a clause that has allowed each president since to issue and renew a six-month waiver on carrying out the move.
Pence, who is to visit Jerusalem next month, said he would address the Israeli Parliament during the trip and “bring a message of resolve and commitment to draw the United States and Israel even closer together, and to stand together in defense of all that we hold dear.”
He said the UN had “too often” become “a forum for invective in the form of anti-Semitism and hatred” but vowed “the days of Israelbashing at the UN are over.”
“I’m pleased to report today that America’s support for Israel’s security is at a record level today,” he said.
The administration was “committed” to bringing peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said. Trump would “never compromise the safety and security of the Jewish State of Israel,” he added.
Pence on Tuesday attended a symbolic re-enactment of the Nov. 29, 1947 UN General Assembly vote, on the eve of its 70th anniversary.
The event was held at the Queens Museum, where the General Assembly partition vote took place. The main building of the museum served as the temporary home of the UN shortly after its founding, from 1946 to 1950.
Meanwhile, an Israeli court on Wednesday sentenced three Palestinians to life in prison over a gun attack that left four people dead at a popular Tel Aviv nightspot in 2016.
Cousins Mohammad Makhamrah and Khaled Makhamrah, the gunmen, and accomplice Younes Zein were found guilty last month of four counts of murder and 41 counts of attempted murder over the June 2016 attack at Sarona Market, a restaurant and shopping complex.
On Wednesday, the Tel Aviv district court sentenced each to four consecutive life sentences, one for each death, and an additional 60 years for the 41 counts of attempted murder.
The three were also ordered by the court to pay the families of the deceased and wounded compensation, the sentencing read.
Israeli security officials said the two gunmen, 20 and 21 at the time of the attack, were inspired by Daesh.
In the incident at the Sarona Market, the Makhamrah cousins walked into a busy cafe wearing suits and carrying briefcases, blending with the crowd before opening fire on customers at random.
Three people were shot dead, while a fourth died of a heart attack. Four people were seriously wounded, while another 37 suffered lighter injuries or shock, the court said.
Zein supplied the weapons and helped plan the assault, the court said.
The Shin Bet domestic security agency which interrogated the men has said they wanted to carry out “a revenge attack against Israel in the name of Daesh” during Ramadan.
A wave of violence that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of at least 303 Palestinians or Israeli Arabs, 51 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, one Eritrean, one Sudanese and one Briton, according to an AFP count.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.
Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.