President Donald Trump’s plan to delay moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem until his administration attempts an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal won’t help to make peace, MKs Yehudah Glick and Tzipi Hotovely told Breaking Israel News after the president revealed his vision in interview with Trinity Broadcast Network’s (TBN) Mike Huckabee on Saturday.
“I don’t think that transferring the embassy to Jerusalem should happen after we achieve peace but as part of achieving peace. Any delay will not get us closer,” MK Glick told Breaking Israel News while touring Rachel’s Tomb with the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF).
“We all want peace. But real peace will be when the world recognizes Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Trump said he would recognize this and we expect him to do it.”
MK Tzipi Hotovely agreed, arguing that a unified Jerusalem was the best way to encourage peace.
“If you really would like to give peace a chance, move the embassy to Jerusalem in order to make sure Jerusalem will never be divided and to make sure Jews and Arabs can live peacefully together,” she told Breaking Israel News on the IAF tour.
“In the Middle East, where we live, the fact that terrorism is here is not because we gave up the idea of a peace process, but because they would like to remove Israel from the map of the Middle East.”
Trump’s campaign promise to open an embassy in Israel’s capital was a major appeal to Evangelical Christian voters, but the president has hesitated since taking office. He told the Christian media network that the decision over the move to Jerusalem would be made “in the not too distant future.”
“They say the toughest deal of all is peace between Israel and the Palestinians, so we’re going to work off that, and if that doesn’t work, which it’s possible that it won’t, to be totally honest,” he said. “I’m not making any predictions, but I want to give that a shot before I think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem.”
Maayan Hoffman contributed to this report.
