THIS YEAR IN JERUSALEM
After decades of promises, US opens embassy in Israeli capital
The US opened its Israeli embassy in Jerusalem yesterday, a move promised since 1995, and greeted with protests by tens of thousands of Palestinians.
President Trump made good on a campaign promise Monday by relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare, “Remember this moment! This is history!”
“The US will always be a great friend of Israel and a partner in the cause of freedom and peace,” Trump told 800 dignitaries in a video message played at the opening ceremony.
“We extend a hand in friendship to Israel, the Palestinians and to all of their neighbors. May there be peace. May God bless this embassy. May God bless all who serve here and may God bless the United States of America.”
Netanyahu lauded Trump for the “courage to keep your promises” and credited him for being the first world leader to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“What a glorious day. Remember this moment!” Netanyahu told the jubilant crowd.
“President Trump, by recognizing history, you have made history. All of us are deeply moved. All of us are deeply grateful.”
Moments after Trump’s address, the president’s daughter Ivanka, who led the White House delegation to Jerusalem, unveiled a dedication plaque and the US Embassy seal at the facility.
“On behalf of the 45th president of the United States of America, we welcome you officially and for the first time to the Embassy of the United States here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel,” she said, standing next to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who pulled the curtain away.
Netanyahu took the gathering through the history of the “Eternal City,” from David declaring it the capital 3,000 years ago to Israeli soldiers taking back the
Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney slammed an evangelical pastor who delivered a blessing at Monday’s US Embassy opening in Jerusalem as a “religious bigot” unfit for such an honor.
“Robert Jeffress says ‘you can’t be saved by being a Jew,’ and ‘Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.’ He’s said the same about Islam,” the exMassachusetts governor, who is Mormon, tweeted Sunday night.
“Such a religious bigot should Temple Mount during Day War in 1967.
“We are in Jerusalem, and we are here to stay!” he announced.
Symbolically, the ceremony was the Six- not be giving the prayer that opens the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.”
Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas and a member of President Trump’s evangelical advisory board, has called the Mormon church a “cult” and said that Islam is “based on a false book” and that those who follow its tenets “will end up in hell.” The pastor hit back on Twitter. “Historic Christianity has taught for 2,000 years that sal- held on the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment.
But the anniversary also marks what the Palestinians refer to as the “Nabka” — or catastrophe — vation is through faith in Christ alone,” he wrote Sunday night.
“The fact that I, along with tens of millions of evangelical Christians around the world, continue to espouse that belief, is neither bigoted nor newsworthy.”
White House spokesman Raj Shah said he didn’t know how Jeffress was picked for the blessing but noted he has a strong relationship with Republicans, the faith community and administration members. when they either fled or were forced from the lands in the war after Israel’s creation in 1948.
As the inauguration was under way, 50 miles away in the Gaza
Strip, Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops, leaving scores of protesters dead and hundreds injured.
Despite the explosion of violence and the controversy surrounding his decision to move the embassy, Trump said he is committed to a “lasting peace”
“As I said in December, our greatest hope is for peace. The US remains fully committed to facilitating a lasting peace agreement,” Trump said.
“Israel is a sovereign nation with the right like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital,” he continued. “Yet for many years we failed to acknowledge the obvious, the plain reality that Israel’s capital is Jerusalem.”
He announced in December that the US would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate its embassy there from Tel Aviv. The decision ignited outrage from Palestinians who claim East Jerusalem as their own capital.
Speaking at the dedication ceremony, Trump’s son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner said the protesters were “part of the problem.”
“As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution,” said Kushner, whom Trump has charged with negotiating a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Kushner also praised his father-inlaw for following through on his pledge to move the embassy and said Trump’s actions had increased the trust between the two countries.
“By moving our embassy to Jerusalem, we have shown the world once again that the US can be trusted,” he said. “We stand with our friends and our allies, and above all, we’ve shown that the US will do what’s right, and so we have.”
Kushner drew a standing ovation when he mentioned Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear agreement.
“Last week, President Trump acknowledged another truth and kept another promise. He announced his intention to exit the dangerous, flawed and one-sided Iran deal,” Kushner said.
The ceremony ended with a prayer from pastor John Hagee, who founded Christians United for Israel.
“Let the word go forth from Jerusalem today that Israel lives. Shout it from the house tops, that Israel lives. Let every Islamic terrorist hear this message, Israel lives. Let it be heard in the halls of the United Nations, Israel lives. Let it echo down the marble halls in the presidential palace in Iran, Israel lives,” Hagee said to cheers.
The US Embassy has always been in Tel Aviv, but in 1995, Congress passed a law requiring it be moved to Jerusalem.
Since then, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama used a waiver every six months to circumvent the move, citing national-security interests.