Video Of The Week - Nikki Haley Warns Biden - https://tinyurl.com/3curzm6v
For the full Article By Callie Patteson From NEW YORK POST 15-7-2022 - https://tinyurl.com/4y3yzje6
The Israeli flag
was notably absent from President Biden’s limousine as he traveled to East
Jerusalem Friday morning, a move critics said represented an insult to the
Jewish state.
The
removal of the Star of David flag — which was first reported by the Jerusalem Post —
also undercut the administration’s insistence that Biden’s visit to the Augusta
Victoria Hospital was not political in nature. The White House made the claim
to justify turning down a request from the Israeli government that its
officials be allowed to accompany Biden.
Since
Biden’s arrival Wednesday, the presidential motorcade had flown the Israeli
flag while traveling through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in keeping with
traditional protocol. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, recognized the latter
city as Israel’s capital in 2017, and the current administration has not
formally withdrawn that status.
On
Thursday, the president said he was “honored to be back” in Jerusalem, which he
described as the “capital of Israel” during a news conference alongside
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Later
in the presser, Biden was asked about his trip to East Jerusalem, which has
long been floated as the potential capital of a future Palestinian state.
“You’ll
visit, tomorrow, East Jerusalem, and you won’t be accompanied by an Israeli
official,” one reporter said. “Does this represent a change in your
administration’s view regarding the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel and if East Jerusalem is part of it?”
“The
answer to your last question is no,” Biden answered, without elaborating.
Israel
captured East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967 and formally annexed it
in 1980. Successive governments have insisted that the entire city — sacred to
Christians, Muslims and Jews alike — is part of Israeli territory and that
partition cannot be part of peace talks with the Palestinians.
“Today’s
pictures of his [Biden’s] limousine on its way to east Jerusalem, without the
Israeli flag that has been flying at its helm until now, highlights the message
he is trying to send; that the sovereignty of Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital,
is on the table for negotiation,” Danny Danon, a member of the opposition Likud
party and Israel’s former representative at the United Nations, said in a
statement to the Jerusalem Post.
“On
this, I say to the President; President Biden, this move only spreads false
hopes and sows discord instead of peace,” Danon added. “Just as no leader would
request that Washington or any world capital be divided, so too Jerusalem, the
capital of the Jewish people, will forever remain united.”
uring
his trip, Biden has reiterated US support for a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling it the “best way” to ensure “a lasting
negotiated peace.”
“Both
states fully respecting the equal rights of their citizens; both people
enjoying equal measures of freedom,” he said Thursday. “And any more that takes
us further from that outcome — I believe — anything is detrimental to the
long-term security of Israel.”
On
Friday, the White House said Biden had insisted on the importance of
negotiations to create an “independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous
Palestinian state” during a meeting with Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas.
However,
Biden admitted to reporters following the meeting that “the ground is not ripe
at this moment to restart negotiations.”
“I
do believe in this moment, when Israel is improving relations with its
neighbors throughout the region, we can harness that same momentum to
reinvigorate the peace process between the Palestinian people and the
Israelis,” he added.
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