After Trump, Guatemala first nation in the world to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu on Monday hailed Guatemala’s decision to relocate its embassy to
Jerusalem, saying other countries will soon follow suit.
 |
| President Jimmy Morales, of Guatemala, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu |
With the move of its embassy in
Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Guatemala will become the first nation in
the world to follow President Donald Trump’s lead in ordering the change.
All
the major U.S. mainline newspapers have run headlines on Guatemala recognizing
that Jerusalem belongs to Israel. This is an historical event for Latin America
and the world.
While Czech Republic had briefly
suggested it could follow Trump’s example, it quickly reversed its position,
and by last week had contented itself with merely abstaining in a UN general
assembly vote that overwhelming criticized Trump’s move. The Czech Republic
declined to support directly Trump.
Guatemalan
President Morales said on his official Facebook account on Sunday that after
talks with Netanyahu, he decided to instruct his foreign ministry to move the
embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
On Monday, Israeli President
Reuven Rivlin, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, and Deputy Minister for
Diplomacy Michael Oren applauded Guatemala’s announcement.
“Viva
Guatemala! It takes courage for a superpower to stand up for justice and
recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital. But it takes even more —
immense guts — for a small nation to do that,” Oren wrote on Twitter. “People
of Guatemala, the people of Israel will never forget your support and bravery.”
“Guatemala
have shown they know very well that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel! I
welcome their decision to bring their embassy to Jerusalem and thank them for
their deep friendship,” said Rivlin. “We look forward to welcoming you to
Jerusalem!”
Guatemala was one of nine nations
that voted last week with the United States when the U.N. General Assembly
overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump’s recognition
of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The 128-9 U.N. vote was seen as a victory for
Palestinian invaders.
President Donald Trump recognized
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Dec 6, reversing decades of unfulfilled
promises of U.S. Democratic and Republican presidents who talked about
officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but kept their talk
eternally in an unofficial realm.
On
Thursday, 128 countries defied Trump by backing a
resolution, by U.S. ally Turkey, at the U.N. General Assembly condemning Trump
for his recognition of Jerusalem.
Several major US allies abstained
from supporting Trump at the UN, among them Australia, Canada, Mexico and
Poland. Strong U.S. allies, such as Britain, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia,
voted against Trump denouncing his decision on Jerusalem.
Guatemala
was one of the first nations to recognize the state of Israel upon its
establishment in 1948.
On
Nov. 29, 1947, when the U.N. voted to partition the British mandate of
Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, the countries did not vote in
alphabetical order starting with “A.”
Instead,
the U.N. put the names of all of the member countries in a hat — then picked
one, started with that country and went in alphabetical order from there.
By
sheer chance, the country picked out of the hat, and thus the very first
country to vote for the creation of the modern state of Israel, was Guatemala.
Prior to 1980, Guatemala maintained
an embassy in Jerusalem. But after an Israeli law in June 1980 proclaimed
Jerusalem its “indivisible and eternal capital,” the U.N. called upon Guatemala
to move its embassy to Tel Aviv. Guatemala complied.
Even though Guatemala has long had
close security cooperation with Israel including being a purchaser of Israeli
arms, closer relations with Israel were only made possible with President Jimmy
Morales, an evangelical Christian.
It is
no coincidence that, according to analysts, Guatemala will be the first mostly
Protestant nation in Latin America.
No
other religion is closer to Israel than evangelicalism. Any nation or president
who is a practicing evangelical is closer to Israel.
So it is just natural that the
first nation that is becoming evangelical in Latin America is also the first
nation in Latin America to recognize the obvious reality that Jerusalem belongs
exclusively to Israel. Evangelicalism and pro-Israel
support go hand in hand.
Trump is closer to Israel because
he is closer to evangelicals. In fact, he is himself an evangelical, even
though not much practicing.
Jimmy Morales is closer to Israel
because he is an evangelical and because he is closer to evangelicals in
Guatemala, which is home to an increasing Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal population
who loves Israel.
With its
decision to return its embassy to Jerusalem, Guatemala abandons the old
cowardly diplomacy, which removed its embassy from Jerusalem in 1980.
Even
though Brazil is the largest nation in Latin America, its diplomacy is largely
dwarfish. Brazil, which is the largest Catholic nation in the world, has
consistently taken, even during the military rule, anti-Israel stances for many
decades in its diplomacy to Israel, especially at the U.N.
The
increasing Brazilian Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal population is fervently
pro-Israel, but they are a minority in the Brazilian population and in the
government. Even though they have protested that Brazil has voted against Trump
at the U.N. and even though they recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the
Brazilian government has paid no attention to them.
Just as Guatemala needed an
evangelical president to correct government injustices against Israel, Brazil
will also need an evangelical president.
By having
Guatemala recognize again Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, evangelical Morales
took a gigantic step for Guatemala, a step that will certainly prosper
Guatemala and put to shame the dwarfish act of the “gigantic” Brazil of
following U.S. allies Britain and Saudi Arabia that voted against Trump.
“So the last will be first, and the
first last. For many are called, but few chosen.” (Matthew 20:16 NKJV) How
right are these Jesus’s words regarding Latin America! Tiny Guatemala is in the
first place by supporting Israel. Brazil is in the last place by opposing
Israel.
Nevertheless,
both Trump and Morales didn’t set any specific timetable for moving their
embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
With information from Times of
Israel, Fox News, The Guardian, Reuters, Associated Press and New York Times.
Portuguese
version of this article: Depois de Trump, Guatemala é o primeiro país do mundo
a reconhecer Jerusalém como capital de Israel
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