Trump taps hardliner David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel

David Friedman, an attorney who managed Donald Trump's Atlantic City casino bankruptcies, talks to reporters during a Trump campaign event in Jerusalem on Oct. 26. Friedman, a controversial hardliner on Israeli issues, is Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to Israel. Photo by Abir Sultan / European Pressphoto Agency

NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (UPI) — President-elect Donald Trump‘s choice for U.S. ambassador to Israel is his bankruptcy attorney and campaign adviser David Friedman, a controversial hardliner whose appointment promises big changes in U.S. Mideast policy.

“The two nations have enjoyed a special relationship based on mutual respect and a dedication to freedom and democracy,” according to a statement from Trump’s transition team. “With Mr. Friedman’s nomination, President-elect Trump expressed his commitment to further enhancing the U.S.-Israel relationship and ensuring there will be extraordinary strategic, technological, military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.”

Friedman’s views contrast decades-long American policy on Israel. In one immediate example following his nomination, Friedman said he looked forward to serving as ambassador “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

The U.S. Department for State for decades — through Democratic and Republican administrations — has insisted the status of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their rightful capital, is a matter that needs to be resolved through a peace agreement. The U.S. embassy is currently in Tel Aviv.

The Jerusalem Embassy Act passed by Congress in 1995 requires that the embassy be moved to Jerusalem, but Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama all have declined to do so for national security reasons.

Friedman also believes it is appropriate and legal for Israel to annex occupied territory in the West Bank and supports building Jewish settlements there — another view opposing decades-long U.S. policy. Friedman has disputed a two-state solution.

Friedman is a bankruptcy lawyer who was no diplomatic experience. He served as counsel for the president-elect, managing his Atlantic City casinos’ four bankruptcies between 1991 and 2009. Friedman campaigned for Trump in Israel and defended his supporters against accusations of anti-semitism, claiming at the time that instead “there is anti-Semitic sentiment among Clinton’s supporters.”

Trump’s team statement said Friedman is a fluent speaker of Hebrew and a “lifelong student of Israel’s history.”

Current U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro has urged Trump’s upcoming administration to maintain current U.S. policy.

“Every government, every U.S. administration has looked at that question, has determined that the embassy is where it should be,” Shapiro said. “And I can’t speculate beyond that.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks praised Friedman’s appointment as a “powerful signal to the Jewish community.”

The progressive J Street lobbying organization, which supports a two-state solution, said it was “vehemently opposed to the nomination.”

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