Trump Announces Jerusalem as Capital of Israel to Please His Base of Evangelical Voters
By Julio Severo
President Donald Trump affirmed
Wednesday that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and promised to begin a fast
process of relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Last May, approximately 60
evangelical leaders, representing 60 million Christians across America, signed
a letter that was delivered to President Trump calling on him to move the U.S.
Embassy to Jerusalem and thus recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“King David established Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago. It has been, is and shall remain the
capital of Israel. It is time America recognized the obvious. I am pleased with
President Trump’s announcement. He is the only president who has kept his
word,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, President of
Christians in Defense of Israel, and Founder and Chairman of Covenant Journey.
“Today we finally acknowledge the
obvious,” Trump said, emphasizing that he wouldn’t follow past presidents who
did not fulfill their promises to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Trump’s announcement did specify if
the whole city of Jerusalem or only a part is the capital of Israel. Last week,
Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post said that if “Trump formally recognizes
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he is likely to make clear that the recognition
is only of west Jerusalem in order to keep the final status of the entire city
something to be determined in negotiations. Russia announced in April that it
recognizes west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, becoming the first country in
the world to do so.”
“After more than two decades of
waivers… I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel,” Trump said from White House Wednesday.
Under American law, the president
must sign a waiver every six months that leaves the embassy in Tel Aviv. In
June, Trump renewed the waiver, as a string of predecessors has done to
postpone indefinitely the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
In his speech Wednesday, Trump made
no reference to signing a waiver that officially delays any move of the U.S.
Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but the White House confirmed he signed the
waiver before the speech. It means there will be no embassy move for at least
another six months. Establishing quickly a Jerusalem embassy was a major
campaign promise of Trump to his powerful evangelical base.
If
Trump uses the next waivers the way past U.S. presidents used them to postpone
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the process of moving the U.S.
embassy might take many years.
Trump’s speech not only recognized Jerusalem,
but, according to the Associated Press, “Trump did appear to endorse the
concept of an independent Palestine existing alongside Israel… as he said he’d
promote the ‘two-state solution.’”
A
two-state solution is impossible, because God gave the Promised Land only to
the Jews, not to Islamic Palestinians, who are a majority in “Palestine.” Even
Ronald Reagan did not believe and support such “solution.” There will be no
peace for the U.S. if Trump follow the “two-state solution.”
Trump’s
announcement produced immediate results in other nations. According to the
Jerusalem Post, the Czech Republic on Wednesday followed Trump’s lead by
announcing it recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Czech Republic thinks that it
is ok for Israel to have West Jerusalem as its capital while the Palestinian
Authority has East Jerusalem as its capital. This is a “two-state solution.”
Pro-Israel
evangelicals are in the dark if Trump’s announcement covers the whole city of
Jerusalem or just West Jerusalem, and they do not know if Trump will keep using
waivers to delay moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
With
information from Liberty Counsel, Charisma News, Associated Press and Jerusalem
Post.
Portuguese version of this article: Trump anuncia Jerusalém como capital de Israel para
agradar à sua base de eleitores evangélicos
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