Trump backs away from neutrality stance with Israelis, Palestinians

by Jonathan Swan - 03/21/16 7:33 PM ET

Donald Trump sharply reversed to a more hawkish course on Israel, laying into Palestinians and saying he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, a position he hadn’t taken until Monday.

“We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem, and we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel,” the Republican presidential front-runner told a crowd of thousands Monday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington.

{mosads}Trump received a standing ovation for the declaration. It was a far cry from December when a gathering of conservative Jews booed him for refusing to say whether Jerusalem should be the undivided and officially recognized capital of Israel.

“You know what I want to do? I want to wait until I meet with Bibi,” Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition in his December remarks, using a nickname for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But in the months since that poorly received speech, Trump has begun to form a team foreign policy advisers and recognized a need to reveal more details of his foreign policy. His speech Monday night was carefully scripted and designed to allay fears within the pro-Israel community that he would be an unreliable ally in the White House.

Trump moved away from previous comments that he would remain “neutral” when Israelis and Palestinians meet at the negotiating table.

“There is no moral equivalency,” Trump told the cheering AIPAC crowd. “Israel does not name public squares after terrorists. Israel does not pay its children to stab random Palestinians.

“The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable,” he added.

“They must come to the table willing and able to stop the terror being committed on a daily basis against Israel and they must come to the table willing to accept that Israel is a Jewish state and it will forever exist as a Jewish state.”

Trump attacked Palestinians for their “culture of hatred that has been fermenting there for years.”

“In Palestinian society, the heroes are those who murder Jews. We can’t let this continue.”

So concerned was Trump about hitting the right notes for this influential audience that he abandoned his usual ad-lib speaking style and read from a teleprompter.

Trump’s campaign team even released a transcript of his speech minutes after he began talking, and the billionaire stuck to the script.

But Trump, whose daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism after marrying Jewish real estate developer Jared Kushner, couldn’t resist deviating ever so slightly from his prepared text.

“My daughter Ivanka is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby,” Trump said.

Tags Donald Trump