Katy Balls Katy Balls

Jerusalem Notebook | 17 May 2018

‘Trump Make Israel Great’ reads the banner on the deserted hotel next to the new American embassy in Jerusalem. Unlike most of the world population, Israelis regard the US President as a big improvement on Barack Obama. In government, his decision to move the embassy here from Tel Aviv has elevated him to near godlike status. ‘We are very lucky that the strongest kid in the classroom is on our side in this crazy school,’ is how Yoav Gallant, Israel’s housing minister, puts it.

There is evidence for Trumpophilia all over the place. Signs proclaiming the US President a ‘friend of Zion’ are dotted around the Holy City and ‘God Bless America’ booms out in restaurants. Even the reports that a shady Israeli intelligence company, Black Cube, spied on the Obama administration have become a source of national pride. ‘It’s our company that all around the world people want to use,’ beams a local journalist.

According to Amos Harel, a security analyst at Haaretz newspaper: ‘No Israeli politician could say the embassy shouldn’t be moved and stay alive.’ Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political rival, Yair Lapid — aka Israel’s Emmanuel Macron — dismisses suggestions that the timing of the opening, just before Palestine’s Yawm an-Nakba (‘Day of the Catastrophe’) is ill-judged. ‘Can you think of a day when it would not be inflammatory?’ he asks. Still, nobody quite expected a death toll of around 60 from the Gaza protests on Monday.

The Israeli government hopes that other countries will follow America’s lead in Jerusalem. In the Knesset, Gallant says he has directed his office to locate a quarter in Jerusalem for the next round of embassies to be built. His pitch: ‘If you snooze, you lose. You should be the first one to take a spot so you have a better view of Jerusalem.’

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