Trump\u2019s choice, David Friedman, holds distinctly conservative views in direct opposition to long-standing U.S. policy positions. Friedman opposes a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, actively supports Israeli settlements and advocates for Israel\u2019s annexation of the West Bank<\/a>, maintaining that the occupied Palestinian Territories are not occupied.<\/p>\n Most notably, he also wants to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thus recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a disputed city of which both Israelis and Palestinians claim ownership. Jerusalem is home to the Israeli legislature, the Knesset, and the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.<\/p>\n Friedman, who has no career experience with either policy or diplomacy, is an Orthodox Jewish lawyer who advised Trump during the campaign. A close friend and confidant of Trump, he specialized in bankruptcy law and represented Trump in his investments in Atlantic City<\/a> casinos.<\/p>\n He serves as one of the co-chairmen of the Israel Advisory Committee to Trump, alongside Jason Greenblatt, another Orthodox Jewish lawyer from New York City.<\/p>\n In an op-ed Friday in Israel\u2019s Haaretz newspaper, its U.S. editor Chemi Shalev argued that Friedman \u201cmakes Netanyahu seem like a left-wing defeatist.\u201d (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u2019s office had yet to comment on Trump\u2019s pick.)<\/p>\n Netanyahu’s main political rival, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, wished Friedman good luck Friday, describing him as “a great friend of Israel.”<\/p>\n Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely “welcomed” the nomination of Friedman on her Facebook page Friday, describing it as “good news for Israel.”<\/p>\n Among those who have also congratulated Friedman is the Zionist Organization of America, whose president, Morton Klein, said Friedman has \u201cthe potential to be the greatest U.S. ambassador to Israel ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Brooks, executive director of the lobbying group Republican Jewish Coalition, tweeted \u201cgreat choice!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDavid is someone who understands the President\u2019s vision and will strengthen the US-Israel relationship,\u201d Brooks wrote.<\/p>\n But not everyone is thrilled with Trump\u2019s choice, which requires Senate confirmation.<\/p>\n Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal advocacy group J Street, said Friedman was \u201canathema to values that underlie U.S.-Israel relationship\u201d and promised to fight his confirmation.<\/p>\n Friedman has previously called J Street \u201cfar worse than kapos,\u201d referring to Jews who assisted Nazis during the Holocaust<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joining the chorus of discontent is the lobbying organization National Jewish Democratic Council, which tweeted that there \u201chasn\u2019t ever been a less experienced pick for US [ambassador] to Israel.”<\/p>\n Lara Friedman, the director of policy and government relations for Americans for Peace Now, a nonprofit that seeks a political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said, \u201cI don\u2019t know about the Palestinians, but I know Jews who truly care about Israel\u2019s security, democracy & place in the world are outraged.\u201d<\/p>\n Responding to the news, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters Friday, “who Donald Trump appoints … is his business. What is not Trump’s business is to determine capitals of other nations.”<\/p>\n Erekat added, “I look David Friedman and Trump in the eye and tell them — if you were to take these steps of moving the embassy and annexing settlements in the West Bank, you are sending this region down the path of something that I call chaos, lawlessness and extremism.” These moves, Erekat said, would “destroy” the peace process.<\/p>\n International law, the United Nations<\/a> and the United States consider Jewish settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace. In October, the Obama administration said it “strongly condemned” new Israeli plans to build a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank and that such actions undermine the ability to achieve a two-state solution.<\/p>\n Friedman, as the president of the American Friends of Bet El Institutions, associated with the Jewish settlement of Bet El, has consistently and actively supported the construction of new settlements. Friedman, already a frequent visitor, also owns property in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the West Bank was captured from Jordan in a defensive war,\u201d he told ABC News at an October Trump rally in Israel. \u201cThe Jordanians haven\u2019t sought to repatriate that land so I think; I\u2019m a lawyer, under international law I don\u2019t think these settlements are illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s take: In an interview with Israel’s Army Radio, Jason Greenblatt, co-chairman of the Trump campaign\u2019s Israel Advisory Committee, said, \u201cIt is certainly not Mr. Trump\u2019s view that settlement activities should be condemned and that it is an obstacle for peace, because it is not an obstacle for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n In the same ABC News interview from October, Friedman echoed Greenblatt\u2019s view, saying he believed Trump saw the settlements as legal, a major break in U.S. policy.<\/p>\n U.S. administrations from both parties have long recognized Jerusalem as the thorniest issue in any peace process, maintaining that the final status of the city should be resolved in negotiations between the two. Most foreign nations keep their embassies in nearby Tel Aviv, including the U.S. Embassy since 1966.<\/p>\n Friedman is a staunch proponent of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n In the Trump transition team statement announcing Freidman\u2019s nomination, Friedman said he looked forward to representing the United States from \u201cthe U.S. Embassy in Israel\u2019s eternal capital, Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n He told ABC News that if State Department employees refused to move the embassy, they’d be fired.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s take: The president-elect said he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, which he has also called “the eternal capital of the Jewish people.”<\/p>\n In a call with reporters Friday morning, Trump spokesman Jason Miller affirmed Trump’s commitment to do so, pointing out that Trump made that promise “numerous” times during the campaign. Miller did not speculate on a timeline for that move or potential sites for the embassy.<\/p>\n In 2012, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also pledged to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Friedman has been pessimistic about the idea of a two-state solution, a framework that envisions independent Israeli and Palestinian states on either side of the Jordan River.<\/p>\n The United States does not currently recognize a Palestinian state, but since 2012 it has enjoyed non-member observer status at the United Nations.<\/p>\n \u201cA two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians appears impossible as long as the Palestinians are unwilling to renounce violence against Israel or recognize Israel\u2019s right to exist as a Jewish state,\u201d Friedman wrote in a post for Medium<\/a>, along with Greenblatt.<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. cannot support the creation of a new state where terrorism is financially incentivized, terrorists are celebrated by political parties and government institutions, and the corrupt diversion of foreign aid is rampant,\u201d the pair added. \u201cThe U.S. should not support the creation of a state that forbids the presence of Christian or Jewish citizens, or that discriminates against people on the basis of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n Friedman views that the United States doesn’t necessarily have to pursue that solution, but America should support Israel’s own decision.<\/p>\n “He\u2019s not going to adopt the view that George Bush took in 2004, that it\u2019s an American imperative for there to be a two-state solution. It\u2019s not,” Friedman has said.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s take: He has said he would veto any resolution aimed at an agreement between Israel and Palestine proposed by the United Nations Security Council and said the entire U.N. is “not a friend of democracy” and “surely is not a friend to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n We must stand firm against the UN's ploy to sabotage Israel—if the UN grants the PA statehood then we must immediately defund it.<\/p>\n — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2011<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nIsraeli Settlements<\/h3>\n
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<\/picture>Charles Dharapak\/AP Photo<\/span><\/div>Jerusalem<\/h3>\n
Two-State Solution<\/h3>\n
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