Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, has hailed US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
President Trump had, Wednesday, December 6, formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and setting in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City.
In statement released immediately after Trump’s speech, Netanyahu said: “This is a historic day. Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years. It’s been the capital of Israel for nearly 70 years.
Netanyahu observed “Jerusalem has been the focus of our hopes, our dreams, our prayers for three millennia. We’re profoundly grateful for the president for his courageous and just decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to prepare for the opening of the US embassy here.”
The prime minister called on “all countries that seek peace to join the United States in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move their embassies here”.
He pledged no change to the status quo at Jerusalem’s highly sensitive holy sites in the city sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Meanwhile, Trump in his speech recognizing Jerusalem as Israeli’s capital noted, “Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” Mr. Trump said from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. “This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.”
Trump cast his decision as a break with decades of failed policy on Jerusalem, which the United States, along with virtually every other nation in the world, has declined to recognize as the capital since Israel’s founding in 1948. That policy, he said, brought us “no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”
“It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result,” Mr. Trump declared.
Recognizing Jerusalem, he added, was “a long overdue step to advance the peace process.”
Trump called for calm and tolerance after Jerusalem the decision.
Source: The New York Times
