Bond between Israel and US runs deep: Trump

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the USA Thank You Tour 2016 at the Giant Center on December 15, 2016 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. (Photo by AFP)

US President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his incoming administration’s support for Israel, saying that the “bond between Israel and the United States runs deep.”

Trump made the remarks in a statement his transition team issued on Thursday after the billionaire announced his selection of David Friedman, a close adviser, as the next US ambassador to Israel.

“I will ensure there is no daylight between us when I’m president,” Trump said. "As the United States’ ambassador to Israel, David Friedman will maintain the special relationship between our two countries.”

In response, Friedman said, "I am deeply honored and humbled by the confidence placed in me by President-elect Trump to represent the United State as its Ambassador to Israel.”

He added that he hoped to "strengthen the bond between our two countries and advance the cause of peace within the region, and look forward to doing this from the US embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem."

In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on September 25, Trump promised to recognize East Jerusalem al-Quds, occupied by Israel since 1967, as “the undivided capital of Israel" if he emerged victor in the November 8 presidential election.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and US President-elect Donald Trump meeting at Trump Tower in New York, September 25, 2016.

A day after his remarks, Palestinians criticized the US president-elect. "Trump's statement shows disregard for international law, [and] longstanding US foreign policy regarding the status of Jerusalem," said Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Erekat added that such remarks "show a total abandonment of the two-state solution, international law and UN resolutions.”

The United States, along with other countries, has kept its primary diplomatic missions not in Israel’s self-declared capital, Jerusalem, but in the commercial and cultural hub of Tel Aviv to avoid seeming to take sides in the fraught and never-ending argument over who really has the right to control this ancient city.


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