President Trump Could Recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital

An unnamed official says President Trump could recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and will deliver a speech on Wednesday doing just that. 

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to deliver a speech on Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a senior U.S. official said on Friday, according to Reuters.

The official was not named.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. speaking in Jerusalem as President Trump looks on. Photo Courtesy Assist News

For Zion Ministries (https://forzion.com/) says that the comments follow a report on Thursday that Trump was considering recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel as a gift to Israel on the occasion of its 70th Independence Day.

Two administration officials said, however, that even as Trump was considering the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he was expected to again sign the waiver delaying the move of U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv.

On Wednesday, Hahadashot (formerly Channel 2 News) reported that senior officials in Jerusalem said that the Israeli government expected an announcement from the White House in the coming days, announcing the embassy move and the formation of a special team to implement the move.

However, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later denied that any such announcement was imminent.

“This is a premature report,” said Huckabee Sanders. “We have nothing to announce.”

The present US Embassy in Tel Aviv. Photo Courtesy Assist News

Still, according to Michael Wilner, the Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for The Jerusalem Post , “It would be an unprecedented move which Palestinian Authority officials are already warning would kill the burgeoning peace process in the womb. The Trump administration plans on rolling out a detailed proposal for peace in the coming months.

“Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser leading the administration’s peace effort, will speak on their plans at a Brookings Institution forum over the weekend.

“US media separately reported on Friday that Kushner may be embroiled in the indictment and ultimately plea agreement of Michael Flynn in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the US election. The reports claim that Flynn lied to the FBI about contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the US over a UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank last December, on which he was allegedly in communication with Kushner.”

Wilner also said, “The Israeli government asked Trump’s team to intervene as that resolution was making its way toward a vote, and as the Obama administration was signaling it would allow its passage. It was before Trump’s inauguration, and thus Kushner and Flynn were still private citizens.”

Dan Wooding presenting his “Front Page Radio” show at KWAVE in Santa Ana, California. Photo Courtesy Assist News

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 76, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist, who was born in Nigeria, West Africa, of British missionary parents, Alfred and Anne Wooding, who then worked with the Sudan Interior Mission, known today as SIM. Dan now lives in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for some 54 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren, who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder/president of the ASSIST News Service (ANS), and is also the author of numerous books, and has a radio show and two television programs, all based in Southern California.