Trump's Pick For Ambassador To Israel

[AbbaLove]

Oded Revivi, the chief foreign envoy of the Yesha Council, said David Friedman has a "deep love for all of the land and people of Israel, including those in Judea and Samaria" — using the West Bank's biblical names — and would offer a welcome change to decades of American envoys who viewed the settlements as an obstacle to peace.

Friedman, an Orthodox Jewish attorney from Long Island, and close friend of Trump has long ties to Israel's settler movement and has supported positions on the far-right of Israel's political spectrum. He has previously suggested that Trump would support Israel annexing parts of the West Bank. Friedman has also served as president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions, which provides support for that settlement. Like Trump he wants to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bibi has good reason to be dancing this Shabbat, next Shabbat and throughout Hanukkah.

 

[AbbaLove]

In an interview with Haaretz, J Street CEO Jeremy Ben-Ami said that his organization will lobby senators from both political parties to vote against approving Friedman’s appointment.

“We will be lobbying all Democrats and Republicans that this is a nomination that simply should not go through,” Ben-Ami told Haaretz. The orthodoxy of the Republican party in the mainstream of American foreign policy has been recognition that there has to be a Palestinian state. George W. Bush was the first president to call for the creation of a Palestinian state,” said Ben-Ami. “Will our Republican senators stand up and be counted, and say ‘this is counter to American interests, and we’re going to take a stand’?”​

It also comes as no surprise that those on the right are celebrating Friedman’s nomination.

“My friend David Friedman has the potential to be the greatest U.S. Ambassador to Israel ever,” said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told Haaretz. “He thoroughly understands the detailed tragic reality of the Arab-Islamic war against Israel. He has a powerful grasp of Israel’s defense needs, the dangers they face, and the danger now of a Hamas-Palestinian Authority State,” said Klein. “No previous ambassador appreciates the political, historic, legal, and religious rights of the Jews to Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem like David.”​

David Friedman with President-elect Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka
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[AbbaLove]

President-elect Donald Trump and David Friedman have both said they are looking forward to representing the United States from “the U.S. Embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.” The Israeli legislature, the Knesset, and the Israeli Prime Minister's office are already located in Jerusalem. Friedman, a proud hawk has donated tens of millions of dollars to the West Bank settlement project.

On the other hand Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters Friday, "I look David Friedman and Trump in the eye and tell them -- if you were to take these steps of moving the embassy and annexing settlements in the West Bank, you are sending this region down the path of something that I call chaos, lawlessness and extremism." These moves, Erekat said, would "destroy" the peace process.

J Street, a liberal pro-Israel advocacy group that supports a two-state solution, said it was "vehemently" opposed to Friedman's confirmation in the Senate. They noted that Friedman had likened liberal pro-peace Israelis to "kapos," Jewish prisoners who were forced to assist the Nazis in World War II concentration camps ... Home - J Street: The Political Home for Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Americans

"His nomination is reckless, putting America’s reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street​

So, Orthodox hawkish is David Friedman that Chemi Shalev, U.S. editor of Israel's Haaretz newspaper expressed his firm opinion that Friedman “makes Netanyahu seem like a left-wing defeatist.”

 

[DennisTate]

Oded Revivi, the chief foreign envoy of the Yesha Council, said David Friedman has a "deep love for all of the land and people of Israel, including those in Judea and Samaria" — using the West Bank's biblical names — and would offer a welcome change to decades of American envoys who viewed the settlements as an obstacle to peace.

Friedman, an Orthodox Jewish attorney from Long Island, and close friend of Trump has long ties to Israel's settler movement and has supported positions on the far-right of Israel's political spectrum. He has previously suggested that Trump would support Israel annexing parts of the West Bank. Friedman has also served as president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions, which provides support for that settlement. Like Trump he wants to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bibi has good reason to be dancing this Shabbat, next Shabbat and throughout Hanukkah.

OK... I am impressed... although my first choice in the following poll was Mitt Romney for Ambassador to Israel.... but after I found out about this appointment ... I changed my vote for where to put Mr. Mitt Romney over to Ambassador to Canada.


What would be the best office for Mr. Mitt Romney?