President Donald Trump was the only president to fulfill his promise to move the American embassy to Jerusalem—this was the message repeated by all speakers at the inauguration ceremony for the new US Embassy in the Israeli capital on Monday.
"While presidents before him have backed down from their pledge to move the American Embassy once they were in office, this president delivered. Because when President Trump makes a promise, he keeps it," Kushner said.
(Photo: Amit Shabi)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also thanked Trump for "having the courage" to keep his promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
"What a glorious day for Israel," a jubilant Netanyahu said. "We are in Jerusalem and we are here to stay."
"This is a great day," he continued. "A great day for Jerusalem. A great day for the state of Israel. A day that will be engraved in our national memory for generations."
Jerusalem, the prime minister stressed, will always be the "eternal, undivided" capital of Israel.
Netanyahu asserted Middle East peace must be founded on the "truth" recognized by the US. "The truth is that Jerusalem has been and always will be the capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the Jewish state," he said.
(Photo: Amit Shabi)
In a video address that aided at the ceremony's opening, Trump said the move to Jerusalem has been a "long time coming," after the US had "failed to acknowledge the obvious" for many years.
Trump said he remained committed to "facilitating a lasting peace agreement," and that he was "extending a hand of friendship to Israel, the Palestinians and to all of their neighbors."
Kushner, a senior aide to President Trump and his son-in-law, was the only one of the speakers to directly address the violent clashes on the Gaza border, where some 40,000 Palestinians were rioting. With dozens dead and hundreds wounded, it was the deadliest round of cross-border violence since 2014.
"As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today, those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution," Kushner said.
Kushner was also the only one to acknowledge President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
"Last week, President Trump acknowledged another truth and kept another promise—he announced his intentions to exit the dangerous, flawed and one-sided Iran nuclear deal," Kushner said, receiving a standing ovation.
(Photo: Amit Shabi)
Kushner then asserted that the "journey to peace started with a strong America recognizing the truth."
(Photo: Reuters)
Mnuchin also said "it's not coincidental" that the embassy move coincided with Trump's announcement that he planned to abandon the Iran nuclear deal.
(Photo: Amit Shabi)
The embassy celebration was widely considered a snub by the Palestinians. Roughly 800 attended. US officials said last week that Trump's delegation was not planning on meeting Palestinian officials during their visit. The Trump administration in recent months also has slashed US aid to the Palestinians and programs that support them.
(Photo: Amit Shabi)
"Of all the things President Trump could have done, doing this (embassy move) is the strongest signal he could send to the Israeli people," South Carolina's Graham said.
The new embassy will temporarily operate from an existing US consulate, until a decision has been made on a permanent location.
