The Israeli flag was notably absent from President Biden’s limousine as he traveled to East Jerusalem Friday morning, a transfer critics stated represented an insult to the Jewish state.
The elimination of the Star of David flag — which was first reported by the Jerusalem Submit — additionally undercut the administration’s insistence that Biden’s go to to the Augusta Victoria Hospital was not political in nature. The White Home made the declare to justify turning down a request from the Israeli authorities that its officers be allowed to accompany Biden, Axios reported Monday.
Since Biden’s arrival Wednesday, the presidential motorcade had flown the Israeli flag whereas touring by Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, consistent with conventional protocol. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, acknowledged the latter metropolis as Israel’s capital in 2017, and the present administration has not formally withdrawn that standing.
On Thursday, the president stated he was “honored to be again” in Jerusalem, which he described because the “capital of Israel” throughout a information convention alongside Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Later within the presser, Biden was requested about his journey to East Jerusalem, which has lengthy been floated because the potential capital of a future Palestinian state.
“You’ll go to, tomorrow, East Jerusalem, and also you gained’t be accompanied by an Israeli official,” one reporter stated. “Does this signify a change in your administration’s view relating to the popularity of Jerusalem because the capital of Israel and if East Jerusalem is a part of it?”
“The reply to your final query isn't any,” Biden answered, with out elaborating.
Israel captured East Jerusalem throughout the Six-Day Struggle in 1967 and formally annexed it in 1980. Successive governments have insisted that your entire metropolis — sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews alike — is a part of Israeli territory and that partition can't be a part of peace talks with the Palestinians.
“As we speak’s footage of his [Biden’s] limousine on its approach to east Jerusalem, with out the Israeli flag that has been flying at its helm till now, highlights the message he's making an attempt to ship; that the sovereignty of Jerusalem, Israel’s everlasting capital, is on the desk for negotiation,” Danny Danon, a member of the opposition Likud get together and Israel’s former consultant on the United Nations, stated in an announcement to the Jerusalem Submit.
“On this, I say to the President; President Biden, this transfer solely spreads false hopes and sows discord as a substitute of peace,” Danon added. “Simply as no chief would request that Washington or any world capital be divided, so too Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish individuals, will endlessly stay united.”
“I believe @POTUS’ journey to Israel was historic. That doesn’t cowl this insult to Israel – eradicating Israeli flags from the Beast for drive to east Jerusalem,” Jerusalem Submit editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz tweeted. “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. US may not prefer it however whereas right here, sovereignty ought to be revered.”
Throughout his journey, Biden has reiterated US help for a two-state answer to the Israeli-Palestinian battle, calling it the “greatest approach” to make sure “a long-lasting negotiated peace.”
“Each states absolutely respecting the equal rights of their residents; each individuals having fun with equal measures of freedom,” he stated Thursday. “And any extra that takes us farther from that final result — I imagine — something is detrimental to the long-term safety of Israel.”
On Friday, the White Home stated Biden had insisted on the significance of negotiations to create an “unbiased, sovereign, viable and contiguous Palestinian state” throughout a gathering with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Nonetheless, Biden admitted to reporters following the assembly that “the bottom is just not ripe at this second to restart negotiations.”
“I do imagine on this second, when Israel is bettering relations with its neighbors all through the area, we will harness that very same momentum to reinvigorate the peace course of between the Palestinian individuals and the Israelis,” he added.
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