WMAL Interview - NOAH POLLAK - 12.06.17

Interview - NOAH POLLAK - Weekly Standard – discussed President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. • U.S. to Recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital, Trump Says, Alarming Middle East Leaders. (NY Times) -- WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American Embassy there, upending nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and potentially destroying his efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr. Trump’s decision, a high-risk foray into the thicket of the Middle East, was driven not by diplomatic calculations but by a campaign promise. He appealed to evangelicals and ardently pro-Israel American Jews in 2016 by vowing to move the embassy, and advisers said on Tuesday he was determined to make good on his word. But the president, faced with a deadline of this past Monday to make that decision, still plans to sign a national security waiver to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv for an additional six months, even as he set in motion a plan to move it to Jerusalem. Officials said the process would take several years. More significantly, Mr. Trump is to announce his formal recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in a formal speech at the White House on Wednesday, when he will become the first American president to take that step since the founding of Israel in 1948. Mr. Trump spent Tuesday morning explaining the policy change in telephone calls with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel; Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president; and to Arab leaders who warned him that it would disrupt the peace process, perhaps fatally, and could unleash a new wave of violence across the region. • Palestinian President Abbas urges the Pope, Russian, French and Jordanian leaders to intervene on Trump's plan to move U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem - spokesman • Hamas calls for ‘day of rage’ amid tensions over Jerusalem. Hamas is declaring Friday a day of rage to protest US President Donald Trump’s intention to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. The Gaza-based terror group calls for confrontations with Israel after Friday prayers.
• Erdogan will cut ties with Israel if the US Embassy moves. Numerous world leaders tried on Tuesday to convince US President Donald Trump not to take any steps that would change the status of Jerusalem, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning that Ankara would cut ties with Israel if the US recognized Jerusalem as its capital. In a move widely perceived in Jerusalem as an effort by Erdogan to be seen as a leader in the Muslim world, he said at a meeting of his AKP Party that Jerusalem was a “redline” for Muslims. “This could go as far as cutting our diplomatic relations with Israel. You cannot take such a step,” he was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as saying, adding that this would not only be a violation of international law, “but also a big blow to the conscience of humanity.”