It is rare for a United States ambassador to challenge his superior, the secretary of state. And it is even rarer for the ambassador to succeed. But that is exactly what David Friedman, the top U.S. diplomat to Israel, did recently. Taking advantage of his close ties to President Trump, Friedman took issue with the…
The murder of an Israeli father of six in a drive-by shooting Tuesday night in the West Bank led the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, to issue an unusual statement. “An Israeli father of six was killed last night in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists,” Friedman wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning. “Hamas praises…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Reports that the U.S. ambassador to Israel asked the State Department to stop calling the West Bank “occupied” are misleading, a department official said. Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported on Tuesday that David Friedman asked the State Department to stop calling Israel’s control over the West Bank an “occupation” in official documents….
The United States’ ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, tried earlier this year to get the State Department to stop using the word “occupation” when referring to Israel’s presence in the West Bank. As first reported by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority on Tuesday, Friedman asked career diplomats at the State Department to seek alternatives for the…
(JTA) — Israel Ambassador David Friedman’s comments on the West Bank and Israeli settlements do not indicate a change in U.S. policy, a State Department spokeswoman said. Friedman told the Israeli news site Walla on Thursday that Israel was occupying only 2 percent of the West Bank, that the two-state solution “had lost its meaning”…
Breaking with longstanding American policy, the U.S. ambassador to Israel sought to legitimize Jewish settlements in the West Bank and minimized the extent of the Israeli occupation. In excerpts published from an interview with Israeli website Walla!News, Friedman claimed that Israel is “only occupying 2 percent of the West Bank.” The excerpts did not provide…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, said Trump’s reaction to the deadly violence at a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va. “wasn’t fine,” but he also faulted the media for being unfair to the president. Trump is doing a “great job,” Friedman told Israel’s…
(JTA) — The State Department characterized the inclusion of the U.S. ambassador to Israel in meetings with Palestinian officials as an “upgrading” in relations. David Friedman joined Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, at a meeting Tuesday with Palestinian officials in Jerusalem. The Palestinian peace negotiators reportedly requested that the…
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