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U.S. Will Move Embassy to Jerusalem in May, Marking Israel’s 70th Birthday Hard-Line Supporter of Israel Offers to Pay for U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to officially move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May to mark the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state, two American officials said on Friday. WASHINGTON — Sheldon G. Adelson, one of the most hawkish supporters of Israel among American Jews, has offered to help fund the construction of a new American Embassy in Jerusalem, according to the State Department, which on Friday said it was reviewing whether it could legally accept the donation.
The timetable is earlier than the one offered as recently as last month by Vice President Mike Pence, who said during a visit to Israel that the embassy would open by the end of 2019. The total price tag to build the new embassy to replace the current one in Tel Aviv is estimated at around $500 million, according to one former State Department official. While private donors have previously paid for renovations to American ambassadors’ overseas residences, Mr. Adelson’s contribution would be likely to far surpass those gifts — and could further strain American diplomacy in the Middle East.
The State Department will formally designate a facility in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood, currently used for consular affairs, as an embassy, even as plans proceed to eventually build a new compound that could take several more years to open. Before the embassy is built, the Trump administration plans to open a temporary one in Jerusalem. On Friday, it said that it was accelerating the projected opening in time to mark the 70th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel on May 14.
President Trump on Friday boasted of his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, drawing enthusiastic applause. Even some of Mr. Adelson’s allies expressed concern that if the administration accepts his offer for the permanent embassy, it could be seen as a well-heeled financial contributor effectively privatizing — and politicizing — American foreign policy.
While other presidents held back from such a move for fear of triggering a backlash among Arabs and prejudging final peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Mr. Trump said he defied “incredible” pressure to do what he considered the right thing. Mr. Adelson, who has been a vocal supporter of the contentious plan to move the embassy, is not merely a philanthropist; he is one of the most prominent players in Israeli-American relations. He is a conservative force in American politics, a donor to President Trump, a longtime patron of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the owner of Israel’s largest-circulation daily newspaper.
“You know, every president campaigned on, ‘We’re going to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,’ everybody, for many presidents, you’ve been reading it, and then they never pulled it off, and I now know why,” Mr. Trump said. “I was hit by more countries and more pressure and more people calling, begging me, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.’ I said, ‘We have to do it, it’s the right thing to do.” “I’m concerned that people will think that this is being done because of a group of people — evangelicals and Jews — who care about it and not because it’s the U.S. government that cares about it,” said Morton A. Klein, who runs the Zionist Organization of America, a nonprofit group that is funded partly by Mr. Adelson. “It should be crystal-clear that this is the U.S. government making the decision to move it.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment. But a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition welcomed the plan to go ahead with an embassy move. “I would like to congratulate Donald Trump, the President of the US @POTUS on his decision to transfer the US Embassy to our capital on Israel’s 70th Independence Day,” Israel Katz, the minister of transportation and intelligence, wrote on Twitter. “There is no greater gift than that! The most just and correct move. Thanks friend!” Through a representative, Mr. Adelson declined to comment on Friday. His offer of a donation was first reported by The Associated Press.
Furious over Mr. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and its intention to move the embassy, Palestinian leaders have declared that they will no longer accept an American monopoly on brokering a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians. Steve Goldstein, the under secretary for public diplomacy, said State Department lawyers began looking several weeks ago at whether it was legal to accept a private donation to build an embassy, a process that continues. He said the department was not currently negotiating with any private citizen for a donation, and that a new embassy building would take seven to 10 years to construct.
The timing of the embassy move may only amplify Palestinian outrage. For the Palestinians, Israel’s 70th anniversary also marks 70 years of the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes and became refugees during the hostilities leading up to, and the war surrounding, Israel’s creation in 1948. It was not clear whether private donors had ever helped with the financial costs to build an American embassy. Patrick Kennedy, who last year retired from the State Department, where he served as under secretary for management, said donors in the past had contributed millions of dollars to refurbish the palatial United States ambassadors’ residences in London, Paris, Rome and Tokyo.
“The decision of the U.S. administration to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to choose the anniversary of the Nakba of the Palestinian people for carrying out this step expresses a flagrant violation of the law,” Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the veteran Palestinian chief negotiator, said in a statement on Friday. “As long as a donor passes an ethics and background check, we’ll take their money if they’re willing to give it. There’s no problem there,” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview on Friday.
The choice of date, he added, would “provoke the feelings of all Arabs and Muslims.” For years, Mr. Adelson, a Las Vegas casino mogul, has pushed the United States government to move its embassy to Jerusalem, the disputed capital that both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their own. With an estimated net worth of $40 billion, Mr. Adelson donated heavily to Mr. Trump’s campaign and gave $5 million to the committee organizing the president’s inauguration festivities, the largest such contribution ever.
American officials on Friday did not comment on why they decided to move up the date for the opening, but it will carry special emotional resonance in Israel coming on its Independence Day on May 14, the anniversary of the state’s founding in 1948. Mr. Trump vowed during his campaign that, if elected, he would “fairly quickly” move the embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. In December, he announced that he would formally and officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy there.
President Harry S. Truman recognized Israel minutes after it declared independence, making the United States the first country to do so. In a speech on Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Trump drew enthusiastic applause when he said he had defied “incredible” pressure to move the embassy — what he considered the right thing to do.
A new embassy building will take six to eight years to construct, said a State Department official, who like others demanded anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the issue. “You know, every president campaigned on, ‘We’re going to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,’ everybody, for many presidents, you’ve been reading it, and then they never pulled it off, and I now know why,” Mr. Trump said in his fiery speech to conservatives.
The Arnona building, where visas and passports are processed, is not nearly big enough for the embassy’s entire staff. Only the ambassador, a chief of staff and a staff secretary will be situated there in its first years of operation, the official said. Much of the rest of the embassy personnel will remain for now in Tel Aviv. “I was hit by more countries and more pressure and more people calling, begging me, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.’ I said, ‘We have to do it, it’s the right thing to do,’” the president said.
Israel has always made Jerusalem its capital but the Palestinians have also claimed the city as the capital of a future state. Until Mr. Trump’s decision last year, no other country located its embassy in Jerusalem to avoid seeming to take sides in the dispute. The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Friday. But a member of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition welcomed the plan on the temporary embassy.
Most American peace negotiators have assumed that Jerusalem would ultimately serve as capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state in an eventual agreement, but advised against preemptively declaring it the Israeli capital before negotiations are finalized. “I would like to congratulate Donald Trump, the President of the US @POTUS on his decision to transfer the US Embassy to our capital on Israel’s 70th Independence Day,” Israel Katz, the minister of transportation and intelligence, wrote on Twitter. “There is no greater gift than that! The most just and correct move. Thanks friend!”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is in preliminary discussions with Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate, Republican donor and prominent Israel backer, for a donation to potentially pay for at least some of the cost of constructing a new embassy complex, the State Department official said. The Associated Press reported that State Department lawyers are looking into the legality of such a move. Already furious over Mr. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Palestinian leaders have declared that they will no longer accept an American monopoly on brokering a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mr. Adelson declined to comment on Friday through a representative. The timing of the embassy move may only amplify Palestinian outrage. For the Palestinians, Israel’s 70th anniversary also marks 70 years of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes and became refugees during the hostilities leading up to, and the war surrounding, Israel’s creation in 1948.
But one of his confidants said that Mr. Adelson “was very excited” when Mr. Trump told the casino magnate after his election victory that he would move the embassy. “The decision of the U.S. administration to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to choose the anniversary of the Nakba of the Palestinian people for carrying out this step expresses a flagrant violation of the law,” Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and a veteran Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement on Friday.
The confidant, Morton A. Klein, said Mr. Adelson “called me as soon as he walked out of Trump Tower, and got into his car to say that President Trump said that he is going to fulfill his promise to move the embassy.” Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political scientist at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said he did not believe that the accelerated move would have dramatic consequences or lead to rioting. But, he added, “this will increase the negative feelings toward the United States and the notion that it is too biased toward Israel.”
“It is a critically important issue to Sheldon Adelson,” said Mr. Klein, who runs a nonprofit group called the Zionist Organization of America that is funded partly by Mr. Adelson. During a trip to Israel last month, Vice President Mike Pence predicted that the new embassy in Jerusalem would open by the end of 2019.
Mr. Klein, though, said he opposes private funding for the embassy. But Mr. Goldstein said the move was now scheduled to happen in mid-May, when Ambassador David M. Friedman will relocate to an American consular office in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood that will temporarily serve as the United States’ main diplomatic post in Israel.
“I’m concerned that people will think that this is being done because of a group of people — evangelicals and Jews — who care about it and not because it’s the U.S. government that cares about it,” said Mr. Klein. “It should be crystal-clear that this is the U.S. government making the decision to move it.” Mr. Adelson is a longtime patron of Mr. Netanyahu. He has financed the newspaper Israel Hayom in an apparent attempt to help Mr. Netanyahu come to power and remain there.
Israel Hayom began publishing in 2007, when Mr. Netanyahu was still the leader of the opposition, and has deeply cut into the advertising base and readership of its main competitor, Yedioth Ahronoth, which has often been sharply critical of Mr. Netanyahu.
Mr. Adelson’s offer to help fund a new embassy may have more to do with his staunchly pro-Israel stance and his relationship with Mr. Trump than his ties with Mr. Netanyahu. Those relations may have cooled as a result of the Israeli police’s corruption investigations into Mr. Netanyahu, one of which directly involves his actions in the newspaper rivalry.
Mr. Netanyahu was recorded in meetings negotiating mutual benefits with an old foe, Arnon Mozes, who is the publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth. The prime minister is accused of offering to help Yedioth Ahronoth financially in return for more positive coverage — including by curtailing the circulation of Israel Hayom, and limiting its weekend supplement.
Mr. Adelson has been questioned at least once by the Israeli authorities in connection with the case. The police have recommended charging Mr. Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
While Israelis warmly welcomed the Trump administration’s recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, analysts said the embassy move in May was unlikely to improve Mr. Netanyahu’s fortunes in the long term. In interviews, many Israelis said they had not even realized that the Americans did not consider Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital.
Mr. Klein, of the Zionist Organization of America, described Mr. Adelson as “very excited” when he was first told by Mr. Trump that the embassy would be moved to Jerusalem.
“It is a critically important issue to Sheldon Adelson,” Mr. Klein said in an interview on Friday.
The Arnona building where the temporary American Embassy will be housed, and the land adjacent to it, roughly straddles the seam between West Jerusalem, where Israelis live, and East Jerusalem, which is a largely Arab community. That would make it ideal for serving both Israeli and Palestinian populations, Mr. Kennedy said.
The United States has an option to purchase land adjacent to the Arnona building, a parcel that is big enough to handle an embassy, Mr. Kennedy said. Leases now in effect are likely to delay the transfer of the property until at least 2020, he said.
Embassies can cost anywhere from $150 million to nearly $1 billion to build. The one in Jerusalem is likely to cost somewhere in the middle of that range — about $500 million — because it does not need the housing, warehouse or security functions of some of the most expensive buildings, such as those in Baghdad and Kabul, Mr. Kennedy said.
Some staff members at the American Embassy could remain in Tel Aviv, Israel’s business center.