U.S. Embassy In Jerusalem Will Open By End Of 2019, Pence Says In Israel

Vice President Mike Pence says the U.S. will complete the plan to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, announcing a faster timeline for opening the embassy than had been previously reported. Pence announced the new deadline during his visit to Israel.

"In the weeks ahead, our administration will advance its plan to open the United States embassy in Jerusalem — and that United States embassy will open before the end of next year," Pence said.

Pence spoke in Israel's Knesset on Monday, after meeting with leaders in Egypt and Jordan over the weekend.

The vice president also spoke to reporters alongside Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom he echoed when he called Jerusalem, the hotly contested city, "Israel's capital."

Netanyahu was clearly pleased by those remarks, NPR's Tamara Keith reports from Israel. But she added via Twitter that there were some signs of dissent when Pence spoke to the legislature.

"Members of the Knesset who stood and held signs in protest at the start of VP Pence's speech are ushered out," Tamara wrote, posting video of the scene showing several Israeli lawmakers being removed from the chamber.

President Trump announced in early December that the State Department would "begin preparation to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," saying that he was delivering on a pledge to move the embassy. No country in the world currently has an embassy in the city.

Trump also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital — a move that other presidents had avoided for decades as they left the designation of the city to be decided in peace talks. Jerusalem is claimed as a capital by both Israelis and Palestinians.</s>The United States will open its embassy in Jerusalem next year, ahead of schedule, Vice-President Mike Pence has said in an address to the Israeli parliament.

Pence defended Donald Trump’s December declaration recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which has been condemned by the Palestinians, their Arab allies, and much of the wider diplomatic community.

He said the US administration will advance its plan in the coming weeks and the embassy will open by the end of 2019. Previous estimates had said that the move would take three or four years.

Pence is the highest-level US official to visit the region since Trump promised to move the US embassy to the city, an announcement that prompted Palestinians to reject the US as a peace broker.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, rescinded an invitation for Pence to visit the West Bank, following the declaration.

Arab politicians in Israel’s parliament were ejected from the house for heckling at the start of Pence’s speech. The main Arab party in the Israeli parliament warned ahead of time that it would boycott Pence.

The Knesset, which is accustomed to such high-profile visits, had added a new layer of security, and, besides the speaker and other dignitaries, politicians did not have direct access to Pence.

Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint Arab List, said it was the party’s democratic right to boycott the speech by the US vice-president. In a tweet, he said the party would not provide a “silent backdrop” to a man he called a “dangerous racist”.

Netanyahu called the boycott a disgrace, and joined a standing ovation for Pence.</s>Cairo: US Vice-President Mike Pence arrived in Cairo on Saturday, kicking off a trip to the Middle East overshadowed by tensions sparked by President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Pence’s four-day visit is the first by a senior US official to the Middle East since December 6, when Trump announced his plan to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In Egypt, Pence was expected to meet with President Abdel Fattah al Sisi for talks on the Jerusalem decision, which Cairo has rejected. Pence and Sisi were also expected to discuss anti-terrorism cooperation. Egypt’s top Muslim and Christian leaders have cancelled meetings with Pence in protest of Trump’s move on Jerusalem. — dpa</s>JERUSALEM — U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on Monday defended President Donald Trump on his recent comments disparaging immigration from Africa and Haiti, telling The Associated Press that the president’s “heart” is aimed at a merit-based system that is blind to immigrants’ “race or creed.”

Pence, in an interview with the AP from Jerusalem, said the president was intent on implementing a merit-based system that encourages immigration by those who will “contribute to a growing American economy and thriving communities.”

“I know the president’s heart and I know that what President Trump wants to do is reform immigration to make our system one that puts the interests of America first,” Pence said. He added that immigrants should be considered on their merits, “regardless of what country they come from or what their race and creed is.”

Pence did not directly answer a question about whether Trump’s language was appropriate, but said the president’s intentions have “everything to do with moving our country to a merit-based system.”

He was responding to reports that Trump, in a private meeting with legislators earlier this month, challenged immigration from “shithole” African countries, disparaged Haiti and said the U.S. should welcome more immigration from countries like Norway.

The vice-president also dismissed an adult film star’s account of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, questioning its validity.

“I’m just not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president,” Pence said. “My focus is on serving the president, advancing the priorities of the administration, advancing American interests and that’s where it will stay.”

The Wall Street Journal last week reported that Trump’s personal lawyer brokered a payment to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to prohibit her from publicly discussing the alleged affair before the presidential election.

Daniels’ real name is Stephanie Clifford. Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, has denied there was any relationship. He gave the Journal a statement from a person identified as Stormy Daniels denying receiving “hush money.”

The AP reported that a tabloid magazine held back from publishing her 2011 account of their relationship after Cohen threatened to sue.

Pence, on a four-day visit to the Middle East while Washington grapples with a government shutdown, said in the AP interview that he was “hopeful that Democrats in the Senate will see their way clear to reopen the government.”

Pence spoke after delivering to the Knesset a major address in which he announced Trump’s plans to expedite the move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of next year. He was the first sitting American vice-president to address the parliamentary body.

Pence said he had received no blowback from world leaders after Trump made the immigration comments.

“I just think leaders around the world appreciate the president’s renewed engagement. He appreciates the relationships that he’s forged with them,” Pence said.

A number of world leaders publicly denounced the comments as racist.</s>Near the olive grove where Christians believe Jesus agonised before his crucifixion, an American visitor spoke of a decision by US President Donald Trump some believe also holds spiritual importance.

Phillip Dunn, the 37-year-old pastor of an evangelical Christian church in the US state of South Carolina, said he saw Trump's declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last month as part of biblical prophecy.

"Certainly this holds a lot of significance for people in that way. We believe Christ is going to return," Dunn, part of a group of around 50 American Southern Baptists visiting Jerusalem holy sites over the weekend, said before climbing back aboard a tour bus.

Trump's controversial declaration on December 6 will be back in the spotlight over the coming days with Vice President Mike Pence arriving Sunday night for talks with Israeli officials in Jerusalem.

Dunn and his fellow believers are key backers of Trump's move in the United States and part of the Christian evangelical community there that has become an important pillar of support for his Republican party.

Pence, who stood behind Trump as he made his Jerusalem announcement, is himself an evangelical Christian.

Dunn and others on the Jerusalem tour, planned before Trump's announcement, said they were pleased with his declaration because they consider it important to support Israel and affirm its claim that the entire city is its capital.

But there were also otherworldly considerations among the group.

Some evangelicals believe, based on interpretations of scripture, that firmly establishing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and establishing a new temple there could help lead to the second coming of Jesus.

Dunn and others on the trip said interpretations of Jerusalem's place in biblical prophecy vary too widely to provide a simple answer such as that one.

Brett Burleson, a pastor at a church in Alabama, said "there's a lot of mystery to that, so I don't claim to know how it's all going to play out".

"We do recognise that this is a place where we believe the Lord Jesus himself will return and bring a peaceful end to human history," the 47-year-old said.

Jerusalem's status is perhaps the most sensitive issue in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel occupied and later annexed its eastern sector in the Six-Day War of 1967 in a move never recognised by the international community.

It sees the entire city as its capital, while the Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Trump's declaration deeply angered the Palestinians, with president Mahmud Abbas cancelling plans to meet Pence during his visit, which had been set for late December before being postponed.

The declaration was partly the result of a long political debate in the United States, with a law passed calling for the embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 1995.

It however allowed presidents to sign a waiver every six months to prevent the embassy move for national security reasons.

Trump again signed the waiver when declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital last month, but stressed he intended to move the embassy.

He also said Jerusalem's final borders and status would have to be negotiated, but Palestinians were unconvinced.

David Parsons, vice president of the International Christian Embassy based in Jerusalem, said he helped draft an earlier version of the embassy legislation while working for a pro-Israel lobbying firm in the United States.

"We have a large, broad movement worldwide that supports Israel on various motivations," Parsons said of the primarily evangelical Christian embassy.

"Some are motivated by biblical prophecy, but there's a broad array of views on biblical prophecy."

Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said Sunday that Israel has long reached out to US Christian groups for support.

Specifically mentioning evangelicals, Shoval said "we may not agree with everything anybody says about the future of Israel or the future of the country."

Some evangelicals believe Jews would eventually have to convert to Christianity.

"But we must look at the present situation," he told journalists.

"The present situation is that there is a very important body of people in America who believe -- honestly and genuinely believe -- in the future of the Jewish people and its place in the Jewish country in Israel."

Lewis Richerson, 37, a pastor from Louisiana on the Jerusalem tour, may be among those he had in mind.

His support for Trump's declaration was "primarily political" since backing Israel in part helps "promote democracy and freedom around the world."

Richerson said of the declaration: "Is that some type of biblical prophecy? Probably not."</s>US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday announced that his country's embassy in Jerusalem will open by the end of 2019. This despite worldwide condemnation of Trump administration's decision to shift the embassy from Tel Aviv.

The United Nations (UN) had voted 128-9 in December of last year to reject Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The US President in a speech in Washington had opened a Pandora's box by announcing US recognition for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A decision which is expected to further inflame simmering ties between Israel and Palestine, the move was criticised the world over - forcing Trump to threaten to cut financial aid to countries which 'voted against American interest.'

Pence's recent announcement is expected to further infuriate the global community - especially Muslim countries that back Palestine's claims on Jerusalem, a city considered holy by Muslims, Christians and Jews.

What is also of possible concern is the US' blatant disregard for the UN resolution. Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, had said after the voting last month that her country will carry on with plans of shifting its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. "America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what American people want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference to that," she had said."But this vote will make a difference to how Americans look at the UN and how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN."

India too was one of the 128 countries supporting the resolution to reject US decision on Jerusalem. However, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India earlier this month showcased solid ties between the two countries.</s>After talks with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan where he was made to explain and navigate the fallout from the Trump administration's controversial decision last month to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Vice President Mike Pence is now on his way to meet with the Israeli government, which many expect will receive him warmly. Pence is not scheduled to speak with Palestinian leaders during his tour of the region.

Pence's trip — originally planned for December before being delayed to allow the vice president to stay in Washington, D.C. to vote on the GOP tax bill — comes as the U.S. government remains shut down. Pence addressed the government closure on Sunday, placing the blame with Democrats and saying that negotiations over immigration would not resume until the government was up and running again.

Meeting Sunday at the Royal Palace, the official working office of Jordan's King Abdullah, Pence called President Trump's decision last month to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and take steps to relocate the U.S. embassy to the holy city "historic" and said it should not negatively impact peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. The vice president had lobbied within the White House for the move, which was divisive on the world stage but a long-held aspiration for evangelical Christians such as Pence.

Jordan's King Abdullah appeared to disagree with Pence's reassurance, referring to "rising frustrations" in the region.

Abdullah said Jerusalem remains as important "to Muslims and Christians as it is to Jews," adding that he believed Jerusalem's status should be determined not unilaterally by the U.S. but as part of a "comprehensive" settlement of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. The king also reminded Pence that he had expressed concerns to the U.S. "over the past year" about changing the status of Jerusalem.

Fielding questions later Sunday about his meeting with Abdullah, Pence downplayed any tension, saying, "look, friends occasionally have disagreements."

Many Palestinians see East Jerusalem as their future capital in a so-called two state solution.

As NPR's Jane Arraf reported for our newscast, Jordan's alliance with the U.S. is complicated by the change. Although a majority of Jordanians are originally Palestinian and view their country as the custodian of important Muslim sites in Jerusalem, the country also receives more than $1 billion annually in military aid from the U.S.

Pence's talks a day earlier in Cairo with Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi avoided any public discordance over the Jerusalem issue. Together Pence and Sissi vowed to represent a united force against terrorism and the influence of ISIS. Pence later acknowledged to reporters though that the Jerusalem issue did arise in private and that he had listened to Sissi's concerns. He stressed to Sissi the United State's commitment to peace negotiations and support for a two state solution "if the parties agree."

The vice president also told reporters he had privately pressed Sissi — whose military led a coup against Egypt's previously elected president and whose government has been accused of repressive actions — on human rights issues, notably his government's continued imprisonment of American citizens on what many view as dubious charges.

After departing Jordan on Sunday, Pence stopped briefly at a U.S. military base near the Syrian border to address American troops tasked with battling ISIS.

"We are driving the evil of ISIS from the earth," he told the service members in attendance.

Pence also took the opportunity to speak to the ongoing shutdown of the U.S. government.

"We're going to get this fixed," he told troops. "We're going to meet our obligations to you and your families. And we're going to make the strongest fighting force in the history of the world stronger still."

Pence also told the military in attendance that immigration talks would be put on hold until the shutdown ended.

"In fact, we're not going to reopen negotiations on illegal immigration until they reopen the government and give you, our soldiers and your families, the benefits and wages you've earned."

Before flying to the Middle East, Pence had said in a statement that "rather than solve problems, Democratic leadership preferred a shutdown that has dangerous consequences for our national defense." He added that during the shutdown, the military would continue to "stand their post without pay."

Pence's next and final stop on his trip is Jerusalem, where he will spend two days in talks with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who last month said he "will be forever grateful" to President Trump for his decision regarding Israel's capital. Pence will also meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and delver a speech before the Knesset. Pence is not slated to meet with any Palestinian leaders during his time in Israel.

Amid his visit with troops Sunday, Pence said he hopes "the Palestinian Authority will soon reengage." NPR's Tamara Keith reports that people familiar with the weekend's meetings say the vice president pressed both Egypt's president and Jordan's king to urge the Palestinian Authority to meet with Pence or at least return to the negotiating table.

In Egypt, Pence says he was able to communicate another priority to Sissi: his concerns over the persecution of religious minorities in the region.

As NPR's Keith reported last month, Pence told the In Defense of Christians Solidarity Dinner in Washington, D.C. last October that the issue was integral to his planned travels.

"President Trump has directed me to go to the Middle East," Pence said in his speech. "And I promise you one of the messages that I will bring on the president's behalf to leaders across the region is that now is the time to bring an end to the persecution of Christians and all religious minorities."

However, the pope of the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt declined to meet with Pence during his stop in the country, citing President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

During his stop in Egypt, Pence also spoke in defense of another group: the press pool accompanying him. A senior aide to the vice president tells NPR's Keith that after the pack of reporters traveling with Pence were held back by Egyptian officials, Pence personally requested that Sissi allow the American press to enter, to which he consented.</s>The Arab lawmakers in Israel's parliament have started to yell at Mike Pence during his speech that marks the first address in Jerusalem by a high profile US official after President trump's decision to recognize the holy city as Israel's capital.

​The lawmakers were swiftly removed from the session, according to social media reports.

Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint Arab List, a group of Palestinian parties that holds 13 seats out of 120 in the Knesset, twitted earlier that they will boycott the speech of Pence, a “dangerous racist” whose presence in Jerusalem is undermining the possibility for peace in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

​“The choice to boycott the speech is a democratic choice in a legitimate tool to express protest and all the hysteria we hear from the decision-makers in the Knesset is simply embarrassing,” he said, in addition to a separate statement that he made, saying that “Dangerous Man” Pence had come to Jerusalem to destroy the entire Middle East.

The news of possible boycott has been circulating in the local media, with rumors suggesting that Arab lawmakers will just walk out of the Knesset before Pence start his speech.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting with Mike Pence he was glad to be with the US Vice President in “Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.” The officials are set to discuss boosting “remarkable” US-Israel alliance and advancing “peace and security in our region."

​The visit to Jerusalem is the third leg of Pence’s official visit to Middle East states after stops in Jordan and Egypt. The vice president has talked with officials on a prolongation of the cooperation the light of President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The move to recognize the ancient city as the Israeli capital was made in early December, with President Trump pledging to move the US embassy there. The announcement has caused protests across the Muslim world and among Palestinians in particular, with Palestinian leaders saying Washgtin can no longer mediate the conflict between Jews and Palestinians.

The UN General Assembly has a resolution that rejected the US decision in a 128-9 vote, with 35 abstentions, and asked nations not to establish their diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.</s>Transcript for Pence says US embassy in Jerusalem 'will open before the end of next year'

Members of The Knesset. Justices of the Supreme Court. Citizens of Israel. In the weeks ahead our administration will. Advance its plan to open the United States embassy in Jerusalem. And that United States embassy will open before the end of next year. Jerusalem is Israel's capital. And as such. President trump has directed the State Department. To immediately begin preparations to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.</s>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s planned trip to Israel on Sunday has been overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s announcement last month that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and will start the process of moving its embassy there.

Pence, an evangelical Christian, plans to meet Israeli leaders and to visit the Western Wall, the Israeli parliament and a Holocaust remembrance centre in Jerusalem during the two-day visit, after stops in Egypt and Jordan.

Pence, however, is not scheduled to meet any Palestinian leaders, who declined to see him.

The trip was originally planned for December but was postponed after protests from Arab political and religious leaders - Muslim and Christian – about Trump’s Jerusalem decision, which broke with decades of U.S. policy and drew widespread criticism from America’s allies.

WHY DID TRUMP RECOGNIZE JERUSALEM AS ISRAEL‘S CAPITAL, AND ANNOUNCE THE EMBASSY WILL BE MOVED THERE?

There has long been pressure from pro-Israel politicians in Washington to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and Trump made it a promise of his 2016 election campaign.

Pence and David Friedman, the ambassador to Israel appointed by Trump, are thought to have pushed hard for both recognition and embassy relocation. It is a decision that was popular with many conservative and evangelical Christians who voted for Trump and Pence. Many of them support political recognition of Israel’s claim to the city.

WHY DOES JERUSALEM PLAY SUCH AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT?

Jerusalem is a city that is sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and each religion has sites of great significance there. Jerusalem has been fought over for millennia by its inhabitants, and by regional powers and invaders including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, early Muslim rulers, Crusaders, Ottomans, the British Empire, and by the modern states of Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Israel’s government regards Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the country, although that is not recognized internationally. Palestinians feel equally strongly, saying that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state. The city even has different names. Jews call it Jerusalem, or Yerushalayim, and Arabs call it Al-Quds, which means “The Holy”.

But the city’s significance goes further.

At the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City is the hill known to Jews across the world as Har ha-Bayit, or Temple Mount, and to Muslims internationally as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary. It was home to the Jewish temples of antiquity but all that remains of them above ground is a restraining wall for the foundations built by Herod the Great. Known as the Western Wall, this is a sacred place of prayer for Jews.

Within yards of the wall, and overlooking it, are two Muslim holy places, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was built in the 8th century. Muslims regard the site as the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. The city is also an important pilgrimage site for Christians, who revere it as the place where they believe that Jesus Christ preached, died and was resurrected.

WHAT IS THE CITY‘S MODERN HISTORY AND STATUS?

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the then British-ruled Palestine should be partitioned into an Arab state and a Jewish state. But it recognized that Jerusalem had special status and proposed international rule for the city, along with nearby Bethlehem, as a ‘corpus separatum’ to be administered by the United Nations.

That never happened. When British rule ended in 1948, Jordanian forces occupied the Old City and Arab East Jerusalem. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally.

In 1980 the Israeli parliament passed a law declaring the “complete and united” city of Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. But the United Nations regards East Jerusalem as occupied, and the city’s status as disputed until resolved by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The King of Jordan retains a role in ensuring the upkeep of the Muslim holy places.

DOES ANY OTHER COUNTRY HAVE AN EMBASSY IN JERUSALEM?

Other countries have had embassies in Jerusalem in the past, but moved them out of the city some years ago. In December Guatemala’s president, Jimmy Morales, said that his country will move its embassy from Tel Aviv. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said several countries were considering following the U.S. lead, but he declined to identify them.

Also in December, 128 countries voted in a non-binding U.N. General Assembly resolution calling on the U.S. to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Nine voted against, 35 abstained and 21 did not cast a vote.

WHAT IS LIKELY TO HAPPEN NEXT? HAS JERUSALEM BEEN A FLASHPOINT BEFORE?

The timeframe of the U.S. embassy move is unclear, with different predictions from Israeli and U.S. officials about how soon it could happen. Since the announcement there has been tension, with Palestinian protests in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. At least 18 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since Trump’s Dec. 6 announcement.

Although the clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces have not been on the scale of the first and second Palestinian intifadas in 1987-1993 and 2000-2005, violence has erupted before over matters of sovereignty and religion.

In 1969 an Australian Messianic Christian tried to burn down the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He failed, but caused damage. So charged was the Middle East’s political climate - just two years after the Six Day War - that there was fury across the Arab world.

In 2000, the Israeli politician Ariel Sharon, then opposition leader, led a group of Israeli lawmakers onto the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif complex. Palestinians protested, and there were violent clashes that quickly escalated into the second Palestinian uprising, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Deadly confrontations also took place last July after Israel installed metal detectors at the entrance to the complex following the killing of two Israeli policemen there by Arab-Israeli gunmen.

Arab leaders across the Middle East have warned that a unilateral American move could lead to turmoil, and hamper U.S. efforts to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence declares during a speech in the Israeli parliament that the new U.S. embassy located in Jerusalem will open in 2019, sooner than generally expected.