Bannon had urged Trump to relocate the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem but was blocked by Kushner, a report indicates.
In the wake of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s ousting, reports detailing his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have started to emerge.
Bannon aggressively petitioned President Donald Trump to relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but was blocked by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Vanity Fair reported on Sunday.
Trump promised to relocate the embassy during his election campaign in 2016, but he signed a six-month waiver June 1 to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv — in line with every president’s actions since Congress passed legislation calling on the US to move the embassy in 1995.
Bannon Boycotted ‘Terrorist’ Abbas
Bannon also reportedly lobbied Trump to take a more aggressive stance regarding Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. When Abbas visited the White House in May, Bannon reportedly boycotted the meeting, sending a text message to a friend stating that he would not “breathe the same air as that terrorist,” according to Vanity Fair.
With Bannon’s departure, his alleged West Wing rival, Kushner, and others are slated to have greater influence over Trump’s decision-making regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and overall foreign policy.
Famous attorney and pro-Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz and Morton Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America, among others, have staunchly defended Bannon against allegations of anti-Semitism.
By: JNS.org and World Israel News Staff