Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

Support the Forward

Funded by readers like you DonateSubscribe
Fast Forward

White House Chaos Throws Trump Israel Trip Into Turmoil Too

Team Trump is causing chaos for Israeli officials as they prepare for the U.S. president’s first visit to Israel, according to a report in the Israeli news site Ynet.

The American team sent to Israel is “considered junior, lacks the authority to make decisions and frequently changes its mind,” said Ynet. The Israelis have chalked up the lack of organization to “first visit symptoms.”

The biggest problem is last minute changes to Trump’s itinerary. Trump was originally planning to speak at Masada, the ancient desert fortress that is a highly nationalistic site in Israel. Team Trump changed the visit from Tuesday to Monday of next week because of predicted hot weather, and then scrapped the Masada speech altogether. Trump will speak at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem instead.

Israelis and Americans disagreed over the pomp around Trump’s landing at the airport. The Israeli team proposed a an airport reception with speeches by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump, but the Americans were “resolutely opposed” to the idea, proposing quick handshakes and the Israeli and American national anthems.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff

Engage

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.