Vayakom

A friend pointed out that Donald Trump will be sworn into office on Friday, January 20th 2017, Parshat Shemos. Shemos Perek 1, posuk 8, begins with the words 'Vayokom Melech Chodosh Al Mitzrayim'--A new king arose over Egypt.

They Clapped while They Took Away Jerusalem from the Jews

Below are excerpts from the January 4th State Department briefing.

QUESTION: All right. And then I just want to – I have one other thing that I – last month – or last year, the end of last year, did nothing to improve the relations between this Administration and the Israeli Government, in particular the prime minister of Israel. And in light of the fact that peace is not breaking out all over there, and in light of the tensions that do exist, is it safe to assume – with that backdrop, yesterday there was legislation introduced by three senators that would require the movement of the U.S. embassy currently in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and require the Administration to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Given your past – or this Administration’s past feelings, am I right in assuming that this current Administration would oppose that?

MR KIRBY: Yes, you are correct in assuming that.

...MR KIRBY: I know that. I know that. But we continue to believe – it’s our policy and it’s been – and it was policy of previous administrations as well – that moving the embassy to Jerusalem is not a good idea. It’s not constructive to the overall peace process. It could actually put some of our people, some of our troops, those that work at the embassy, in harm’s way, and needlessly so. So we don’t support that move. We stand by the policy that we’ve been supporting now. And if the next administration wants to move forward, that’s certainly their prerogative, but under President Obama – and he’s still President of the United States – we don’t support that. And we at the State Department here wouldn’t support efforts to move in that direction while we’re still in office. https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2017/01/266433.htm