No Golan? White House Video Shows Unprecedented Israel Map
By Dan Friedman May 20, 2017
A White House video designed to promote the first trip abroad by President Trump seemingly portrayed a shocking change in American policy and the Trump administration’s beliefs. But it was pulled almost immediately.
The video was intended to promote the trip to four countries. A slide in the video showed a map of Israel with 1967 borders and described the trip to Israel made three crucial diplomatic assertions.
- The map excluded the Golan, annexed by Israel in 1981, seeming to discredit the annexation.
- The map excluded the West Bank, a source of friction in Israel and the international community but generally considered to be Israel by the Trump administration. This would cast in doubt any U.S. help in shoring up Prime Minister Netanyahu’s support for settlements.
- The slide included a visit with Mahmoud Abbas on the Israel slide, apparently showing that the White House believes that the Palestinian Authority is part of Israel.
The White House pulled the video and remained silent about the slide, and outlets have assumed that this was lower level incompetence that has angered both Israelis and Palestinians, rather than the dramatic shift in policy that it seems.
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 still need 300 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.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
