Trump’s pick for Israel envoy signals break on US policy
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s selection of a hard-line pro-Israel advocate as his U.S. ambassador to the Jewish state could signal the end of decades of American support for the establishment of an independent Palestine.
The president-elect’s transition team already has asked the State Department to assess how to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, according to one official, underscoring Trump’s commitment to back Israel in ways no American leader has before.
Trump isn’t the first incoming president to promise to move the embassy from Tel Aviv. But his team’s State Department request and comments from aides and advisers suggest he will be the first to charge into what promises to be a diplomatic and political minefield.
The ambassador-designate, David Friedman, has long ties to Israel’s settler movement and has supported stances on the far-right of Israel’s political spectrum, well beyond those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Orthodox Jewish lawyer from New York has suggested Trump would support Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, effectively eliminating the possibility of a Palestinian state. He has served as president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions, which supports a settlement.