Haaretz ;WATCH Trump on Jerusalem Embassy Move: 'Evangelicals Appreciate It More Than the Jews'
U.S. President Donald Trump told former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in
an interview released over the weekend that evangelical Christians are
more grateful than Jews for his moving of the U.S. embassy in Israel
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump said that the reaction surpised him.
“I tell you what, I
get more calls of thank you from evangelicals, and I see it in the
audiences and everything else, than I do from Jewish people,” Trump
said. “And the Jewish people appreciate it but the evangelicals
appreciate it more than the Jews.”
“It’s not a surprise
though Mr. President, because evangelicals are people of the book,”
Huckabee replied. “And they believe you kept a promise, were fulfilling
really a 3,000-year old commitment to recognize Jerusalem as the
capital.”
“I think it’s a nice
thing to say because it really affects Jewish people in theory more, but
as you say people of the book, people of the Bible,” Trump said. “But
the evangelicals really appreciate it and that makes me feel good.”
Huckabee, the father of White House Press
Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has stirred controversy himself of
late. Huckabee was called a racist after
he tweeted a photo on Saturday of five men who appear to be using hand
signs associated with the MS-13 gang with the caption, "Nancy Pelosi
introduces her campaign committee for the take back of the House."
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior
adviser, said Washington would announce its Middle East peace plan soon,
and press on with or without Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
The comments underlined gaping divisions between
Washington and the Palestinian leadership that have widened
since Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December and
moved the U.S. Embassy there, overriding decades of U.S. policy.
Palestinian
officials, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state,
accused Kushner of trying to undermine Abbas and what they described as
their leader's moderate camp.
Kushner - Trump's
son-in-law who is meeting leaders in the region, but not Abbas - told
Palestinian newspaper Al Quds in an interview published in Arabic on
Sunday, that he doubted whether the Palestinian president was willing or
able to seal a deal.
If President Abbas is willing to come back to the
table, we are ready to engage; if he is not, we will likely air the
plan publicly," Kushner said, according to an English transcript of his
words provided by Washington.
"However, I do
question how much President Abbas has the ability to, or is willing to,
lean into finishing a deal. He has his talking points which have not
changed in the last 25 years," he added.
Kushner appealed directly to the Palestinian people and portrayed Abbas, 82, as a leader entrenched in the past.
"There have been
countless mistakes and missed opportunities over the years, and you, the
Palestinian people, have paid the price," said Kushner, who is on the
trip with U.S. envoy Jason Greenblatt. "Don’t let your leadership reject
a plan they haven’t even seen," he added.
Abbas has refused to see Trump's team since the embassy decision, accusing Washington of pro-Israel bias.
Reuters contributed to this report
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