Pence: Israel embassy move under 'serious consideration'
President Donald Trump is seriously considering moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, according to Vice President Mike Pence; the announcement comes ahead of the scheduled meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
President Donald Trump is giving "serious consideration" to moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday, the day before a scheduled White House visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Trump is also "personally committed" to becoming the US president who finally ends the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pence said.
Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem is a politically charged act that would anger Palestinians who want east Jerusalem, which was captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, as a future capital and part of their sovereign territory. While the move would be welcomed in Israel,
it would represent a departure from longstanding US policy and potentially cause its Western allies to reconsider their own positions.
Trump had pledged during the presidential campaign to move the embassy, if elected. The White House says the idea is still under discussion.
"The president of the United States, as we speak, is giving serious consideration into moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Pence said, uttering his biggest applause line during remarks at the Israel Independence Day Commemoration event in an ornate room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House.
"To be clear, the president has also personally committed to resolving the Israeli and Palestinian conflict," the vice president added. Pence also sought to reassure the audience that, while compromises will have to be made, Trump "will never compromise the safety and security of the Jewish state of Israel—not now, not ever."
Trump and Abbas are expected during their meeting on Wednesday to address options for pursuing peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Trump broke with longtime US policy in February when he withheld clear support for an independent Palestinian state, saying he could endorse a one-nation solution to the conflict if the warring parties could agree on it.
At a White House news conference in February with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump was asked whether he was ready to give up on the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict. Trump said he was "looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one."
He also asked Israel to "hold off" on Jewish settlement construction in territory Palestinians claim for their future state.
