During the campaign, Trump made it clear he would support Israel in a number of critical areas, including moving the American embassy to Jerusalem.
US President-elect Donald Trump will nominate David Friedman, his long-time attorney and a campaign adviser on Jewish world issues, as US ambassador to Israel, the transition team said in a statement on Thursday.
The US embassy has for decades been located in Tel Aviv. Trump had pledged during the presidential campaign to move it to Jerusalem.
“(Friedman) has been a long-time friend and trusted advisor to me. His strong relationships in Israel will form the foundation of his diplomatic mission and be a tremendous asset to our country as we strengthen the ties with our allies and strive for peace in the Middle East,” Trump said in the statement.
During the campaign, Trump made it clear he would support Israel in a number of critical areas, including moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, all but enshrining the city as Israel’s capital over international objections, and not applying pressure on Israel for talks with the Palestinians. As an adviser to the GOP nominee, Friedman counseled a more conservative Israel policy. He frequently condemned the Palestinian Authority for its role in inciting terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and questioned America’s role in pushing a two-state solution on the Israeli government.
Friedman believes that Israel is a natural ally in Trump’s coming fight against Islamic extremism, and throughout the campaign, repeatedly touted his candidate as a stable and reliable ally of the Jewish state.
Friedman, who specializes in litigation and bankruptcy law, said he would work tirelessly to “strengthen the unbreakable bond between our two countries and advance the cause of peace within the region, and look forward to doing this from the US embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in September, Friedman explained that his support for Trump throughout his unprecedented presidential campaign was personal. Trump’s friend and lawyer for fifteen years, he took a genuine liking to his client roughly two years into their relationship, when Friedman’s father died.
In the middle of a blizzard, a ways outside the city, Friedman was sitting shiva when Trump suddenly showed up. Friedman was stunned. Trump was famous, and busy, and didn’t owe him anything.
“He came by, spent about an hour with me,” Friedman said. “We talked about my father and talked about his father – about how much of an influence his father had over him. And you know, there was nobody around. He wasn’t trying to prove anything to anybody.”
Friedman also defended Trump when some Jewish groups took ire with his rhetoric around Jews. “If he’s guilty of anything,” Friedman said, “It’s of observing that Jews have been successful and they’re smart, and they’re engaging – you know?” Friedman said. “Okay, guilty.”
Friedman contributed several opeds to The Jerusalem Post throughout Trump’s campaign. In his most recent piece on his vision of Trump’s first 100 days in office, he wrote, “Mr. Trump will do all he can to strengthen America’s partnership with Israel in combating the global war against Islamic terrorism… under president Trump, Israel will feel no pressure to make self-defeating concessions, America and Israel will enjoy unprecedented military and strategic cooperation, and there will be no daylight between the two countries.”
Some Democratic-oriented Jewish groups reacted to Trump’s choice in Friedman with fury on Thursday night.
“J Street is vehemently opposed to the nomination of David Friedman to be ambassador to Israel,” the organization said in a statement.
At a policy forum on Israel this month hosted by the Brookings Institution, Friedman offered choice words for J Street, an organization primarily focused on promoting a two-state solution. He questioned their commitment to Israel and their representation of Jewish causes, according to several attendees of the summit.
The National Jewish Democratic council took it a step further. “There has never been a less experienced pick for US ambassador to Israel,” they tweeted on Thursday night, and added that Donald Trump “is not taking the US-Israel relationship seriously. Friedman not experienced enough to be” ambassador.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post