When Donald Trump pledged to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I was sceptical. Too many presidents had given then broken their word; Trump, before he ran for the White House, was lukewarm on Israel.
When President Trump issued a proclamation recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, I was still sceptical. Why would Trump the America-Firster deliver a neoconservative’s dream?
Well, aren’t I just Wrongy McWrongface, Mayor of Wrongtown?
Today, Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before an ebullient crowd at the dedication ceremony for the new US embassy in Jerusalem, Israel. ‘Jerusalem, Israel’. That’s how they referred to it throughout. No more mush about an ‘international city’. We are living in nationalist times and cities must have walls and the Israelis got there first. US ambassador David Friedman was first to use the phrase and the room erupted. A standing ovation for a comma. It doesn’t get much better than that.
The ceremony itself was a slightly schizophrenic festival of the solemn and the tacky. A musical accompaniment opened proceedings with Hallelujah. Not a songful rendition of Psalm 150 but the Leonard Cohen hit, as covered by Jeff Buckley and played on loop by maudlin teenagers and entry-level guitar students the world over. The event closed, bizarrely, with Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu, anthem of the tambourine-banging Left. It’s the kind of playlist you get if you YouTube ‘Israel songs’ and let autoplay be your guide. The only thing missing was Netta Barzilai doing her chicken wing thing.
Sober benedictions and tributes to Holocaust survivors anchored the speeches briefly but the audience, dotted with scarlet MAGA hats, was too drunk on the moment. They applauded Trump’s name raucously and UN ambassador Nikki Haley’s too. They whooped for David Friedman, who was happy the embassy had been moved to Jerusalem; John Bolton, who thinks the embassy should have been moved to Jerusalem years ago; and Pastor John Hagee, who thinks the embassy should be moved to Hebron.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Don't miss out
Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.
UNLOCK ACCESSAlready a subscriber? Log in