US Opinion and Commentary

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Controversy About Trump’s Ambassador to Israel

Posted December 21st, 2016 at 4:44 pm (UTC-5)
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Battle lines are being drawn over Donald Trump’s choice to be Ambassador to Israel.

David Friedman is a bankruptcy lawyer who has done work for Trump. Friedman is a vocal opponent to the long-standing U.S. policy of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, insulting American Jews who do support it.

When named last week, Friedman said he looked forward to doing his job “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem” instead of Tel Aviv, where the embassy has long stood, pending a negotiated deal about the status of the holy city.

Trump campaigned on promises to change U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere. What will that mean for the nearly 50 year stalemate between the Israelis and Palestinians and how the United States deals with other countries in the region?

Trump’s Choice for Israeli Ambassador Is a Danger to American Lives

Posted December 20th, 2016 at 1:52 pm (UTC-5)
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Friedman not only supports additional settlements and seems opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, but also wants to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, where it has been for decades, to Jerusalem….[which] the Arab world would take it as a slap in the face.

Why Diplomats Are Agog at Trump’s Ambassador to Israel

Posted December 20th, 2016 at 1:44 pm (UTC-5)
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Forty years ago presidents and prime ministers might have attended one international meeting each year; today they are on a summit treadmill. They phone one another and cultivate personal relationships. Diplomats are often sidelined and left to churn out reports that circulate in a bureaucratic vortex.