David Friedman – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org
Some have said that the Abraham Accords were achieved despite moving our embassy to Jerusalem. No, the Abraham Accords were signed because of the move.
On May 14, 2018—exactly the same date and even the same hour that David Ben-Gurion announced Israel’s independence 70 years earlier—I presided over the opening of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem, the eternal and undivided capital of the State of Israel. Apart from family milestones, it was the greatest day of my life, and an experience I will never forget.
Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem was, of course, deeply meaningful to Israel’s citizens and all of world Jewry. It was a firm rejection of the false claim that Jerusalem could or should be divorced from Israel’s national identity. Even more important, it was the recognition by the leader of the free world that Jerusalem, indeed, represents the realization of thousands of years of fervent prayers by an ancient people to be restored to their national capital.
cont’d…