A dramatic rift was created between Washington and Jerusalem as US President Donald Trump's team as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's team both issued harsh statements on Monday evening less than a week prior to the president's much-expected visit to Israel.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 and claims the entire city as its undivided capital. Klein elaborated that in recent meetings at the White House he told Trump aides, Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, that "moving the embassy would make the Palestinians and the Arab world understand that Trump is serious and doing what's right and that the jig is up".
According to Channel 2, the same official told members of Netanyahu's team that Trump's visit to the Western Wall was a private visit and also added: "No way, why is this your business?" The Palestinians and the Arab world fiercely oppose a move, and the worldwide community has warned that it could spark fresh unrest.
Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, which called on the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move its embassy there. "They do not reflect the US position and certainly not the president's position".
Trump will have to decide by the beginning of June whether to continue with the policy of his predecessors and again block the embassy's transfer by renewing a rolling presidential waiver. "If Trump wants to hang a "closed for the season" sign on the peace process before it ever gets started, he should fool around with the Jerusalem issue".
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Trump confidants say Bannon has been marginalized on major decisions, including Comey's firing, after clashing with Kushner. Furthermore, said the Times , Spicer has "failed to use the self-protective tools that savvier Trump aides have adopted".
David Friedman, the newly minted USA ambassador to Israel who has long argued for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and was slated to begin living and working in Jerusalem from the start of his tenure, is expected to begin his post this week working out of the USA embassy in Tel Aviv, according to sources familiar with his plans.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump is weighing how moving the embassy to Jerusalem - a pledge the Republican made during the his election campaign - would affect the peace process.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vehemently denied a report on Monday that claimed he had requested of President Donald Trump that he not move the USA embassy to Yerushalayim.
At a "lunch meeting at the White House, "the PM was asked about the embassy and explained [that moving it] would not lead to bloodshed in the region, as some were trying to intimidate [President Trump] into believing". "The embassy - the PM supports moving it", a summary of the Oval Office meeting read.
Trump has said he hopes to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table to reach a final status agreement to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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