Did White House Tell Palestinians Embassy Isn’t Moving to Jerusalem Anytime Soon?
Palestinian officials were told that the Trump administration is in no rush to move the U.S. embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, according to reports in Israel’s Haaretz and the London Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
The assurances were reportedly a relief to the Palestinian leadership, which had warned that such a move would undermine negotiations over the final status issues in talks over a Palestinian state, and possibly lead to a violent flareup in the region.
An Israeli official told Army Radio that Israel understands that such a move could take time. Israel is “sitting in the bleachers,” Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said.
A Palestinian official later sought to deny the report that Ramallah had been told the move was on the back burner.
President Donald Trump had promised to make the embassy move a major priority in his first days in office, turning it into a campaign issue.
But he may be getting cold feet on the explosive issue.
Earlier in the week White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the U.S. was in the “very early stages of that decision-making process” over the embassy move.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!