President-elect’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says Trump has every intention of living up to his promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital • “It’s something that our friends in Israel would appreciate,” she says.
By Yoni Hersch and Shlomo Cesana, ISRAEL HAYOM
Moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “is a very big priority for President-elect Donald Trump,” his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in an interview Monday.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to the statement. However, a government official said that Israel is generally prepared to discuss any potential matter with the new American administration.
Many American presidential candidates in recent years have promised to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, although this has never eventuated.
According to Conway, however, Trump has every intention of living up to his promise, made many times during the his election campaign.
“He made that very clear during the campaign,” she said in the interview. “And as president-elect, I’ve heard him repeat it several times privately, if not publicly.”
Conway also expressed dismay that moving the embassy had not been pursued sooner.
“It’s something that our friends in Israel, our great friend in the Middle East, Israel, would appreciate,” she said. “It’s something that a lot of Jewish-Americans also have expressed their preference for.”
Moving the embassy, she said, would be “a great move, and it’s an easy thing for him [Trump] to do.”
Regarding her own future in Trump’s administration, Conway revealed that she had “politely declined” an offer to be White House press secretary.
Meanwhile, Channel 2 news reported Monday that representatives of Trump and the U.S. government in Israel have begun looking for a possible site to which to relocate the embassy. The original plan was reportedly to move to the capital’s Diplomat Hotel, a privately owned building that was previously leased to the American Embassy but now houses around 500 senior citizens.
According to the report, representatives of the Foreign and Immigrant Absorption ministries are debating a solution that would enable them to move the current residents to another location. The building has been leased until 2020, and the government officials reportedly plan to approach the owners to try to devise a solution.
Moving the embassy to East Jerusalem would be more politically efficacious
Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but I’d rather have the Trump administration acknowledge that: (a) the Oslo Accords, the Two-state solution, are part and parcel of an internationally sanctioned strategy to render Israel’s borders indefensible; (b) that the PA has no interest or intention to recognize or reach an accommodation with Israel and that their goal is making Judea and Shomron Judenrein; and would rather see the U.S.,as Israel’s steadfast ally support legalized, cohesive and contiguous Jewish settlement in Judea and Shomron before we see the Israeli Embassy in Western Jerusalem where, if it is ever built or moved, it would no doubt be established.