The government of Guatemala is going to follow the U.S. lead, and move its Embassy to Jerusalem, in recognition that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Ynet News reports:
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced in a Facebook post Sunday night his country will be transferring its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, following a conversation he had had with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in the wake of President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s capital.“Dear citizens of Guatemala, I have spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. We spoke about the excellent relations our countries have enjoyed since we supported Israel’s creation. One of the important topics broached were transferring the Guatemalan Embassy to Jerusalem, and I hereby announce I have instructed the embassy’s staff to plan such a move. May God bless you,” Morales told his followers….Jerusalem sources professed their belief more countries will follow Trump’s lead and announce moving their embassies to Jerusalem. Netanyahu echoed the same sentiment in a CNN interview he gave to reporter Oren Liebermann Friday, in which he said Israel was in talks with several countries on the matter but refused to name them until the transfer was underway.
Not surprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the decision, tweeting in Spanish and English:
Morales returned the favor, retweeting an Israeli Spanish language tweet thanking Guatemala:
This is a big blow to the Palestinian push back against Trump. And it could mean that several more embassies will move. So far though, the Palestinian Authority response has been somewhat muted:
“This is a disappointing decision that we must fight by the way of political and diplomatic measures,” Majdi al-Khalidi, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s diplomatic affairs adviser, told The Jerusalem Post. Khalidi did not specifically state which measures should be taken to push back against the Guatemalan president’s announcement.
By contrast, the Palestinian Authority has vented fury upon Trump:
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed on Friday a year’s worth of work from the White House peace team on proposals for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, accusing US President Donald Trump of disqualifying himself from any future diplomatic process by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital….But three weeks on from Trump’s dramatic proclamation, Abbas has shown no sign of cooling off – instead specifying his concerns with America’s position and personalizing them to the president.Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris this week, Abbas said again he would seek to internationalize the conflict by turning to parties that had previously played side roles in direct talks in the past: France, the European Union , Russia and the United Nations.“The US can no longer be considered an honest broker,” Abbas said. “We will not accept any American plan. The US has disqualified itself as an honest broker by making a decision which contradicts international law.”He and the rest of the PA refused to meet with Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, during his visit to the region last week. Greenblatt is leading the administration’s daily work on a peace plan it says will provide detailed US-led proposals to resolve dozens of sticking points in the conflict.
It Abbas thinks Russia (which by the way recognized “West” Jerusalem as Israel’s capital without any fury from the Palestinians), China or France can fill the role of the U.S., he is sorely mistaken.
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