Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would benefit President Donald Trump’s peace push.
“Israel’s position has been stated many times to the U.S. government and to the world,” Netanyahu said. “Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem will not only not harm the peace process, it will advance it by correcting a historical wrong and by shattering the Palestinian fantasy that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel.”
The prime minister’s comments followed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s remark Sunday, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that Trump “is being very careful to understand how such a decision [to move the embassy] would impact the peace process.”
The secretary of state also asserted any potential move would be based on feedback from all sides, including “whether Israel views it as helpful to a peace initiative or perhaps a distraction.”
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, Sunday urged Netanyahu to push for the embassy’s move to Jerusalem, also insisting the move would assist peace efforts and solidify the city’s unity under Israeli sovereignty.
“Any agreement based on dividing Jerusalem is doomed to fail,” said Bennett.
This article was originally published at jns.org. Used with permission.
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