The Daily - Two Views of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem

Episode Date: May 15, 2018

Many Israelis see the relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv as a historic milestone for the Jewish state. But for Palestinians, who hope to see the eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, it’s a betrayal. Guests: David M. Halbfinger, the Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, and Declan Walsh, The Times’s Cairo bureau chief, who has been reporting from Gaza this week. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today. For Israelis, it's a historic milestone for the Jewish state. For Gazans, it's the latest betrayal of the Palestinian people. Two views of the relocation of the American embassy to Jerusalem. It's Tuesday, May 15th. On behalf of the 45th president of the United States on America. We welcome you officially and for the first time to the

embassy of the United States here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Thank you. David, what's happening in Jerusalem on Monday? So today, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrived here with the Treasury Secretary, with a delegation of American members of Congress and the Senate, with a number of spiritual leaders from Jewish community and evangelical community in the United States for a big ceremony marking the move of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. David Halfinger is the Jerusalem bureau chief for The Times.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our ceremony. Please remember to silence your phones now. Going back to the formation of the state of Israel, Jerusalem was going to be set aside in a way unto itself as basically an international city. It wasn't given to either side. And for Israel today, which increasingly wants to be known as the nation state of the Jewish people, for the United States to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and to move its embassy here,

to Jews it's a vindication. It's an acknowledgment of what they feel has been denied for some time now. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me now in welcoming Ambassador David Friedman. And please be seated. It began with the ambassador of the United States, David Friedman. He is a former bankruptcy lawyer for President Trump. He's an Orthodox Jew.

On this exact day, 70 years ago, at almost this exact day, 70 years ago, at almost this exact time, David Ben-Gurion declared Israel's independence. Just 11 minutes later, President Harry Truman caused the United States to be the very first nation to recognize the reborn state of Israel. Palestinians remember that time with a very different set of emotions. May 15th for Palestinians is called Nakba Day. It's the day they consider the catastrophe when hundreds of thousands of them were expelled from or fled from their homes in what became Israel. And for them, it's the day really of mourning.

And so the idea that the United States was going to be making this move on the eve of that particular anniversary was seen by many as quite a provocation. Seventy years since that memorable event, almost to the minute, the United States finally takes the next step. The United States finally takes the next step, a step awaited, voted upon, litigated and prayed for for all these years. Today, we open the United States Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel. So, Mr. Friedman, a number of times said he was welcoming them to the embassy in Jerusalem, Israel. For many years, American children born in Israel, when they got their passports, those passports would say Jerusalem as the city and the country would be left blank.

Mr. Friedman was making a note in his own subtle way there that this is no more, that for the United States, Jerusalem is very much a part, and not just a part, but the heart of the state of Israel. So right from the beginning, we have this far-right representative of the United States president provocatively claiming that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That's right. You know, the Palestinians have always felt that the United States was not exactly a neutral, unbiased arbiter of the peace process. They've always had complaints that, you know, Israel was its ally,

and the Palestinians always had to compete with that. But now they're basically saying, look, I mean, all pretense has been dispensed with. The United States and Israel are solidly, like, just mean, all pretense has been dispensed with. The United States and Israel are solidly like just about in the same shoes, not just, you know, side by side. Why should we treat the United States as a fair-minded mediator to any talks? They've responded by walking away from the table and slamming the door and, you know, are looking for somebody else to step in. In December of last year, President Trump announced to the world

that the United States would finally recognize the truth, that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. We went from Ambassador Freeman to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. By moving our embassy to Jerusalem, we have shown the world once again that the United States can be trusted. We stand with our friends and our allies. And above all else, we've shown that the United States of America will do what's right. And so we have. Who's with Ambassador Friedman has been really quarterbacking the Trump administration's attempt at a peace process. I am here today as a proud American and the grandson of Holocaust survivors. He hearkened back to his grandparents who had survived the Holocaust. After the war, they built a new life in America, a beacon of hope, a land of limitless opportunity.

In my office in the White House, I keep a photo of them on my desk to remind me of how high the stakes are when nations fail to recognize right from wrong and the decisive power America has to tip the scales in favor of the righteous. In effect, I found myself wondering, as I listened to this, whether he was suggesting that, you know, like his grandparents who put the Holocaust behind them, the Palestinians ought to really just put the past behind them and move on. It is now my great honor to call upon the prime minister of the state of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. You know, in Prime Minister Netanyahu's remarks, there was an energy to them that I hadn't seen before. What a glorious day. Remember this moment. There was almost palpable relief. There was genuine excitement. This is history. He talked historically, but he also talked very personally. And I'll tell you that I spent the first three years of my life in this neighborhood.

He had lived just a few blocks from the embassy site and recalled walking through what then were fields with his older brother and being warned, you know, don't go too far. Don't go up where the embassy actually sits now. Because my mother told me, you can't go any further. This was near the border. It was exposed to sniper fire. Because that would put the two of them in sniper

range from the Jordanian side that was then this is now today the most the embassy of the most powerful nation on earth our greatest

ally the United States of America. Today, its embassy opened here. Netanyahu was born in 1949. You know, he's just a year younger than the country itself. So he's really, he could chart his own life by its life cycle. Last December, President Trump became the first world leader to recognize Jerusalem as our capital. And today, the United States of America is opening its embassy right here in Jerusalem. Thank you. Thank you, President Trump, for having the courage to keep your promises. David, is all this happening because Donald Trump is in office? In other words, does this reflect a larger shift

in the way that Americans are thinking about Israel? Or is it all about his administration and its vantage point on this? That's a really interesting question. I mean, what are we talking about? Are we talking just about the embassy move? Are we talking about recognition of Jerusalem as the capital? If we're talking about those things,

I don't think they happen under a different president. I really don't. But I think you're touching on another question, which has a little bit more to do with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Jewish population in the United States is still heavily to the left of center. Many of the things and the policies that Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing government has been pursuing in Israel have alienated American Jews, aggravated them, made them question their support for Israel, or made it difficult to defend their support for Israel in a number of ways. And at the same time, Netanyahu has been cleaving so tightly to President Trump that for Democrats in the United States, it's increasingly hard to take.

And David, what about average Israelis? How did they feel about the relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem? This is a very divided country politically, but the move of the embassy, I was pretty surprised to learn that even left-leaning Israelis and politicians really could get behind it. For many people, the fact that Israel alone really in the world had this very recognizable, very well-established capital city that was denied the recognition that they believed it deserved was galling and grating. And to have that lifted finally is a really welcome thing. There's broad agreement among Israelis that Jerusalem should be seen as their capital and treated as such by the rest of the world. Meanwhile, and finally, David, was there any acknowledgement of these deadly protests at the ceremony today in Jerusalem, which is just, I guess, a few dozen miles away? Yes, Jared Kushner actually did make some note of it, just very glancingly.

But other than that, people there were applauding the president. They were listening to the lyrics of Hallelujah. But it was a very striking contrast to what was happening just an hour's drive away. Thank you so much. Thank you, David. Really appreciate it. Great talking to you, Michael. We'll be right back. So, Declan, we just spoke to our colleague, David Halfinger, in Jerusalem after the dedication of the new American embassy there.

What's going on in Gaza as that is happening? Well, Michael, it's been, to put it simply, it's been the bloodiest day in Gaza since 2014. Declan Walsh covers the Middle East for The Times. Today we had 55 protesters killed on the Palestinian side of the fence that separates Gaza from Israel. And we had approximately 2,400 people who were wounded in those clashes, either by rifle fire from Israeli soldiers positioned on the other side of the fence, or from lesser injuries due to gear gas. To be honest, I can mostly describe it as it looks something like a medieval battleground today, where, you know, you have a long fence running down the middle. You have a long berm on the Israeli side that has military posts with soldiers inside them dotted along the fence.

And on the Palestinian side, where the protesters have been burning tires so the air has been filled with this sort of inky black smoke, you have these kite bombs. Kite bombs? You have these kite bombs. Kite bombs? That's right, yeah. The protesters, they make these kites that they paint Palestinian flags or emblems on. And then they attach sort of crude explosive devices. In many cases, it might be, say, a bag of sugar that is soaked in gasoline.

And then it is attached to a flame device. They set the kite into the air. And then as it is burning, it has this sort of flaming tail. They guide it towards the Israeli border and they try to land it in fields on the other side to set the Israeli crops on fire. You have Israeli drones that are monitoring or in some instances it appears firing tear gas as well over the area and then you have ambulances that are screaming rushing to pick up people who've been shot or wounded and then when you push further back away from the front line of it you have a whole sort of staging area where families are hanging out where people are speaking into microphones, trying to urge people forward, where there is music and food.

Leaders from the main militant factions in Gaza addressed thousands of worshippers. They launched a lot of rhetorical attacks against the United States, which they described as the great Satan. They attacked Trump and they spoke about this decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem as a great betrayal because, of course, for Muslims and particularly for the Palestinians, they consider Jerusalem to be a sacred city and they consider eastern Jerusalem to be a place

where they could potentially have the capital of a future Palestinian state. the capital of a future Palestinian state. For many Palestinians, the declaration by the Trump administration that it was going to move the embassy to Jerusalem really signaled that the Americans are no longer willing to play the role of being an impartial mediator between them and the Israelis in their historical struggle. And so a lot of the rhetoric that I heard on the ground today at the role of being an impartial mediator between them and the Israelis in their historical struggle. And so a lot of the rhetoric that I heard on the ground today for these protests

was specifically directed at the United States. Gaza is this area that has been under an Israeli blockade for the last 11 years. The territory is controlled by the militant group Hamas, which is backed by Iran. Hamas has fought several wars with Israel that have been very destructive, that have reduced rubble, large parts of Gaza. Some of that is now rebuilt, but nonetheless, this remains a very impoverished place. It's also a place that is largely cut off from the outside world. All supplies of food, medicine, cement, all the basics are strictly controlled by the government of Israel. And the people who live here, for them, it's almost impossible to leave. So, so many of

the young people I spoke to today who are participating in the protest, they have not only never visited other countries in the region, most of them haven't even seen Israel. So for them, their view of an Israeli or of what Israel looks like is really limited to these soldiers that they see standing at the border posts along the fence and right now making a very concerted effort to stop them trying to breach that fence or to come across it.

So we've seen through the day, people will come towards the fence, there will be warning shots, then they tend to shoot people in the leg. But certainly anybody who has gotten as close as the fence seems to be in danger of suffering a lethal shot. So there were a number of people we saw who were killed at the fence today, who appeared to have been shot in the head by Israeli snipers who are positioned on top of berms that overlook the fence and provide them a view over what's going on. Wow. Are you surprised by that use of force, gunshots, especially to the head of people walking up to the fence? I mean, the Israelis say that this is what is necessary to prevent people coming through

and to protect the sovereignty of their country and also to protect the Israeli communities that are living on the other side of this fence. But, you know, any Palestinian that you speak to will tell you, and certainly some international organizations also will complain that this is a disproportionate use of force. When you speak to people who are trying to go across the fence and you say, you know, what would you do if you actually get to the other side?

It's hard to get a strong answer. And you get the impression that for many people, the goal is to breach the fence and to make this kind of symbolic gesture rather than to get through on the other side. Because I think most people realize that there is such a heavy military presence all the way along the fence that even if they were to breach it, I mean, at the very best,

they would possibly be arrested and at worst, they would be shot dead. But this may be an opportunity for them to win international sympathy, to play in the court of public opinion. But of course, at a terrible, terrible cost, as we saw with so many people shot and wounded today. Right. Even if they were to breach the fence, you're saying it doesn't seem like it would really matter. They'd be outmatched, outgunned.

This is really about the symbolism of drawing attention to their cause, and perhaps that's really the goal. I think that's right. Has anyone breached the fence? The fence in reality is actually several layers in many places. So there will be an electronic fence, then there may be a ditch, then there could be a high berm on the other side. So there have been instances where protesters have pulled back the wire and maybe gotten through the first layer, but certainly nobody seems to have gone through the multiple

layers and come out the other side in Israel proper. Some of the protesters I spoke to today, they described how they had spent their afternoon. They had gone to the front of the protest. They had run the risk of being shot by snipers. If they managed to the front of the protest. They had run the risk of being shot by snipers. If they managed to push forward to the fence itself, they were engulfed in these clouds of either tire smoke that their own side had created, or they were engulfed in tear gas that the Israelis were firing from the far side. And then one young man I was speaking to told me about how one person beside him was shot in the leg. Another person coming up behind him was shot in the head. He managed

to avoid all of that. But at the end of the day, I said, what did you achieve? And he said, well, I managed to pull back a number of pieces of wire. And then I got through the first layer and I hid behind a little concrete wall for a while and then I ran back and he said for him that was success for today that was an achievement at the best the goal is to cut some wire and pull back a couple of you know bales of wire and those are the trophies if you like that you know you see young people carrying back from the fence these, you know, lumps of wire that they've managed to take out of it, but not really to put a serious breach in the fence itself. I have to say that seems extremely futile and kind of sad that people who are demanding

something so big are going away with something so small. Yeah, I mean, you got to ask yourself why, if you were a young Gazan, you would want to take these huge risks to your life to push towards this fence, knowing that you could be shot down by an Israeli soldier on the other side. And when you talk to people and you get beyond the kind of the rhetoric and the politics, what you really get to often is just this sense of desperation. You know, young people who will say, you know, I've never left this territory. I have no job. I'm living with my parents, but I'm unable to get married because I have no money. And so there's a sort of attitude of people saying, well, to be honest, I don't have much to lose. So for me, these kind of protests are an opportunity to express myself. And even if that involves a threat to my life or the potential of being killed, that's the threat that I'm willing to take in order to make this point and to try and project their point of view into the world.

Your colleague David was saying that when the Israeli state was recognized 70 years ago, this joyous moment for Israelis, that same day is remembered as the catastrophe for Palestinians. And it feels like here we are again, 70 years later to the day, with these two groups experiencing the same thing, the declaration of the embassy as, in one case, a moment of great joy, and in the other, as the ultimate injustice. That's right. You just have to look at the contrasting scenes on this very small patch of land. You know, today you had in Jerusalem, the ceremony at the embassy, and then 60 miles down the road inside Gaza, you had these scenes of despair, of violence. And really, I think for Palestinians, even the things that they thought that they could count on, for instance, the fact that the US would at least consider holding out the position of the embassy as a bargaining chip and potential negotiations with the Israelis, that has been snatched away from them as well. And the decision to move the embassy is

really seen as an emblem of what they call that treachery. Declan, thank you very much. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you too. In Washington, a spokesman for President Trump, Raj Shah, blamed the casualties on Palestinian leaders in Gaza. We're aware of the reports of continued violence in Gaza today. The responsibility for these tragic deaths rests squarely with Hamas. Hamas is intentionally and cynically provoking this response. And as the Secretary of State said, Israel has the need to know today.

On Monday, the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that had effectively banned commercial sports betting in most states for the past 25 years. The case revolved around a 1992 law that prohibited states from authorizing sports gambling over fears that it could lead to cheating by athletes and coaches. But a majority of the justices ruled that the law violated states' rights

under the Constitution. The Times reports that as a result of the ruling, sports betting is expected to quickly expand across the country. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.