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Politics

Ron DeSantis Pushes Trump to Keep Campaign Promise and Move Embassy to Jerusalem

November 25, 2017 - 6:00am
Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantis

U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., is keeping the pressure up on President Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise and move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 

This week, DeSantis, a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2018 and the chairman of the U.S. House National Security Subcommittee, sent a letter to Trump on the matter. Twelve fellow representatives--including Florida Republican U.S. Reps. Brian Mast and Dennis Ross--signed off on the letter.  

"The president has been an unwavering advocate for our friends and allies in Israel," DeSantis said earlier this week. "However, Israel remains the only nation in the world where an American embassy is not located in its chosen capital city. Rectifying this error and moving our embassy to Jerusalem will strengthen the positive relationship that President Trump has cultivated with Israel. President Trump has promised that it is a question of when, not if, he will chose to relocate the American embassy and it is my sincere hope that the president fulfills this promise in December."

DeSantis has been increasingly active on this front in recent weeks. Earlier this month, DeSantis held a subcommittee meeting and insisted moving the embassy would not pose a security threat and he met with members of the Knesset to talked about American-Israeli relations. 

"It has been an honor to meet with the Israeli members of the Israel Victory Caucus this week and discuss the cherished friendship between our two nations,” DeSantis said after that meeting. “We agree that the greatest obstacle to peace is the refusal of Palestinians to acknowledge that Israel is the legitimate national home of the Jewish people. America can help remove that obstacle by relocating our embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel and a symbol of the Jewish people’s historic connection to the land. I am encouraged by President Trump's promise that it is a question of when, not if, he will chose to relocate the American embassy and I applaud his administration for standing strong by Israel."

DeSantis has been focused this year on urging the Trump administration to move the embassy in Israel. At the start of the year, DeSantis rounded up more than 100 fellow members of Congress to send a letter Trump on the matter. DeSantis’ effort won the support of some of the members of the Florida delegation including U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who chairs the U.S. House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee. Other members of the Florida delegation who signed the letter were Republican U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Carlos Curbelo, Mast and Ted Yoho. Also at the start of the year, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., teamed up with former presidential primary rival U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., to bring out the “Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act" which would move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In March, DeSantis visited Israel where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leading Israeli officials. During his tour, DeSantis scouted out four sites in Jerusalem where the embassy could be relocated and stopped by the current embassy in Tel Aviv. Back in May, DeSantis, one of the founders of the Israel Victory Caucus in Congress, led the charge to let American  citizens born in Jerusalem designate Israel as their birthplace on passports and other documents. DeSantis rounded up more than 50 members of Congress to send a letter to U.S. Sec. of State Rex Tillerson, urging the State Department to let citizens born in Jerusalem say there were born in Israel. With the U.S. having recognized Jerusalem as a divided city, the State Department has not allowed Jerusalem born citizens to claim Israel as their birthplace. Jerusalem-born American Menachem Zivotofsky took this all the way to U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 but the Court ruled in 2015 that he could not list Israel as his birthplace in a 6-3 ruling as Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samiel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia dissented. 

 

Comments

Frank C. shows his ignorance of the legality of Jerusalem under International Law as should be held by the United Nations. In the 1920's, the League of Nations, passed a resolution stating that the whole of post 1st World War Palestine be held as a British Mandate for the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish People. In it's Charter of Foundation in 1945, the United Nations under Chapter 80, confirmed that all decisions taken by the League of Nations would be considered valid by the new United Nations. Thus, as no decision has as yet been taken by the United Nations Security Council to invalidate this decision, it is still valid. Also, this decision was ratfied by the US Congress which is the reason that the present congress deems it fit to implement the decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is not the capital of Jerusalem, and no nation in the world recognizes it as such. Israel has diplomatic relations with 162 nations. In recognition of the UN designation of Jerusalem, all foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv. Israel has no legal basis for sovereignty in Jerusalem. UN resolution 181, under whose aegis Israel declared statehood, declared Jerusalem to be an international city, corpus separatum, managed under UN auspices. Israel occupies the city illegally. For Israel to build there is a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, and breaches of articles of the Convention can be considered a war crime, prosecutable before the International Criminal Court in the Hague. In 1980 the Knesset passed the Basic Law which declared Jerusalem complete and unified the capital of Israel. UNSC 478 declared the Knesset Basic Law null and void.

Jerusalem is not the capital of Jerusalem, and no nation in the world recognizes it as such. Israel has diplomatic relations with 162 nations. In recognition of the UN designation of Jerusalem, all foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv. Israel has no legal basis for sovereignty in Jerusalem. UN resolution 181, under whose aegis Israel declared statehood, declared Jerusalem to be an international city, corpus separatum, managed under UN auspices. Israel occupies the city illegally. For Israel to build there is a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, and breaches of articles of the Convention can be considered a war crime, prosecutable before the International Criminal Court in the Hague. In 1980 the Knesset passed the Basic Law which declared Jerusalem complete and unified the capital of Israel. UNSC 478 declared the Knesset Basic Law null and void.

Horrible idea. All of the presidents since Harry Truman and every Congress also has rightfully not taken this action. Jerusalem was not part of the partition which created Israel. We need to stop this "Israel First" policy Congress is constantly pushing.

"Nice work Boys"!!!.... There's nothing like " a sharp stick in the eye" to get your "enemy's" attention "while ALL your work" in America is YET UNDONE; "All good things come to those who wait"..... (A lot of the "dusting & cleaning" here at home is STILL left to be done... GET TOO IT BOYS & GIRLS "DOWN IN THE SWAMP ! ") --- There's no real need to create more problems for our Allies, in the area, just yet....or UNTIL they are "on board" with another "front"...

Strengthening Israel strengthens America. That is the reason that most leftists are so anti Israel. Israel is on the front line of the war on terror

“israel contributes a lot of ... intelligence.” Israeli intelligence is highly overrated and contributes nothing of value to the US. Israel was a valuable as a US ally during the Cold War. Mossad was effective in nations with a large Jewish community. Consequently, Mossad had a highly productive agent in Moscow and a valuable one in Warsaw in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Israel shared their intelligence production with CIA. Israeli intelligence was also valuable because it permitted the US to examine and exercise with Soviet military equipment captured from Soviet proxy Arab armies (Syria and Egypt). That all ended with the Cold Ward. With the end of the Cold War came a lessening in the value of Israel as an asset to the US. And many will argue that Israel became a liability. The US intelligence focus is on international terrorist organizations, and Israel is not a player in that war. Most intelligence professionals consider Mossad, small, under-financed and second rate. There aren’t many Jews in Islamic terrorist organizations. Mossad Chief Meir Dagan, summed it up well when he told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in June last year, that “Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden. Dagan acknowledged that Israel’s strategic value to the U.S. has declined in the wake of the Cold War, saying “Israel’s importance was greater when there was conflict between the blocs, while this year there has been a decrease (in Israel’s importance).” After the Iraq invasion, the US Senate Intelligence Committee stated that most of the intelligence Mossad had passed to the US was false. A former CIA officer who was part of the CIA representation at intelligence exchange liaison meetings with Israel said: “Israeli intelligence assistance is of dubious value, and CIA is appalled at the lack of quality. Mossad doesn’t know its Arab enemies. Its Arab political intelligence reporting is lousy, laughably bad, gossip stuff mostly. They often pass faulty, misleading intelligence.” Mossad has conducted some professional operations, mostly against the US target, but they can not be compared with the major intelligence services in the world. They are not effective against international Islamic terrorist organizations. They are not a threat to Israel,so it makes sense that Mossad doesn’t devote resources to target them. CIA doesn’t consider Mossad a player in that field.

“israel contributes a lot of ... intelligence.” Israeli intelligence is highly overrated and contributes nothing of value to the US. Israel was a valuable as a US ally during the Cold War. Mossad was effective in nations with a large Jewish community. Consequently, Mossad had a highly productive agent in Moscow and a valuable one in Warsaw in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Israel shared their intelligence production with CIA. Israeli intelligence was also valuable because it permitted the US to examine and exercise with Soviet military equipment captured from Soviet proxy Arab armies (Syria and Egypt). That all ended with the Cold Ward. With the end of the Cold War came a lessening in the value of Israel as an asset to the US. And many will argue that Israel became a liability. The US intelligence focus is on international terrorist organizations, and Israel is not a player in that war. Most intelligence professionals consider Mossad, small, under-financed and second rate. There aren’t many Jews in Islamic terrorist organizations. Mossad Chief Meir Dagan, summed it up well when he told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in June last year, that “Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden. Dagan acknowledged that Israel’s strategic value to the U.S. has declined in the wake of the Cold War, saying “Israel’s importance was greater when there was conflict between the blocs, while this year there has been a decrease (in Israel’s importance).” After the Iraq invasion, the US Senate Intelligence Committee stated that most of the intelligence Mossad had passed to the US was false. A former CIA officer who was part of the CIA representation at intelligence exchange liaison meetings with Israel said: “Israeli intelligence assistance is of dubious value, and CIA is appalled at the lack of quality. Mossad doesn’t know its Arab enemies. Its Arab political intelligence reporting is lousy, laughably bad, gossip stuff mostly. They often pass faulty, misleading intelligence.” Mossad has conducted some professional operations, mostly against the US target, but they can not be compared with the major intelligence services in the world. They are not effective against international Islamic terrorist organizations. They are not a threat to Israel,so it makes sense that Mossad doesn’t devote resources to target them. CIA doesn’t consider Mossad a player in that field.

“israel contributes a lot of ... intelligence.” Israeli intelligence is highly overrated and contributes nothing of value to the US. Israel was a valuable as a US ally during the Cold War. Mossad was effective in nations with a large Jewish community. Consequently, Mossad had a highly productive agent in Moscow and a valuable one in Warsaw in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Israel shared their intelligence production with CIA. Israeli intelligence was also valuable because it permitted the US to examine and exercise with Soviet military equipment captured from Soviet proxy Arab armies (Syria and Egypt). That all ended with the Cold Ward. With the end of the Cold War came a lessening in the value of Israel as an asset to the US. And many will argue that Israel became a liability. The US intelligence focus is on international terrorist organizations, and Israel is not a player in that war. Most intelligence professionals consider Mossad, small, under-financed and second rate. There aren’t many Jews in Islamic terrorist organizations. Mossad Chief Meir Dagan, summed it up well when he told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in June last year, that “Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden. Dagan acknowledged that Israel’s strategic value to the U.S. has declined in the wake of the Cold War, saying “Israel’s importance was greater when there was conflict between the blocs, while this year there has been a decrease (in Israel’s importance).” After the Iraq invasion, the US Senate Intelligence Committee stated that most of the intelligence Mossad had passed to the US was false. A former CIA officer who was part of the CIA representation at intelligence exchange liaison meetings with Israel said: “Israeli intelligence assistance is of dubious value, and CIA is appalled at the lack of quality. Mossad doesn’t know its Arab enemies. Its Arab political intelligence reporting is lousy, laughably bad, gossip stuff mostly. They often pass faulty, misleading intelligence.” Mossad has conducted some professional operations, mostly against the US target, but they can not be compared with the major intelligence services in the world. They are not effective against international Islamic terrorist organizations. They are not a threat to Israel,so it makes sense that Mossad doesn’t devote resources to target them. CIA doesn’t consider Mossad a player in that field.

How about working on the business of the U.S? America First! Do you represent the citizens of Israel or Florida?

How about, for once, getting one's religion out of politics, not in dead center.

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