God put Trump in White House, says US ambassador to Israel

David Friedman calls Israeli control of occupied Palestinian territory an ‘opportunity for Biblical tourism’

The US ambassador to Israel believes Donald Trump was sent by God to occupy the White House, following the president’s proposal to cement Israeli rule over Jerusalem and end a decades-long conflict with Palestinians.

Asked by the Christian Broadcast Network whether the president was “heaven-sent for you guys”, David Friedman said he believed that “God runs the world, and that would apply to the president”.

He added: “The president supports Israel because I think it fits with his essential understanding of who’s right and who’s wrong, who’s surviving against the odds, who’s creating democracy in a sea of challenges around it.”

Mr Brody asked whether Mr Friedman, who is Jewish, believed that “God puts people in certain places in certain times, for such a time as this”.

He replied: “I think God puts persons in places for certain times, at all times.”

“And Trump is exhibit A of this?” Mr Brody asked.

Mr Friedman said: “He sure is.”

The diplomat said Mr Trump had ”surrounded himself” with supporters of Israel’s agenda, describing the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, one of the architects of the Israeli plan, as well as Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo, as “Israel’s best friends.” Mr Kushner is Jewish while Mr Pence and Mr Pompeo are both hard-line evangelical Christians.

“But above them all,” Mr Friedman said, “the president has really been Israel’s best friend.”

The 181-page plan effectively caters to demands Israel has made under Benjamin Netanyahu, and has been roundly rejected by Palestinian leaders. The plan would carve out a fractured Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank and would allow Israel to annexe the Jordan Valley and all occupied territory, including areas containing settlements that are illegal under international law.

In line with White House policy introduced in 2017, Jerusalem would be recognised as Israel’s capital and would be under Israeli control, with a Palestinian capital created in the eastern outskirts of the holy city.

The plan also would deny Palestinian refugees the right to return to lands they had fled or were forced from decades ago that are now inside Israel.

Asked how the US Christian evangelical community influenced the plan’s drafting, Mr Friedman said he had an “enormous amount in common” with the community, which his boss has courted assiduously. “They’re believers. They believe in the divinity of the land of Israel.”

Since his 2016 campaign, Mr Trump has cultivated the support of right-wing American evangelical groups and pastors, boasting of his administration’s anti-abortion stance and conservative judicial appointments. The president also launched an “Evangelicals for Trump” campaign this year as he seeks re-election.

Mr Friedman said Israeli control over Palestinian land would open a massive tourism industry for Christian evangelicals.

The ambassador claimed that Jewish and Christian holy sites that are currently within Palestinian territory - including Shiloh, Hebron and Al-Bireh – were “completely neglected” and that the US would help assert Israeli control over them. Those areas also contain Muslim holy sites.

Israel “has not obtained sovereignty over those territories”, he said. ”Our plan contemplates that Israel will.”

“You’re talking about opening up the Bible and bringing it back to life,” said Mr Friedman, who called the Trump plan ”an opportunity for biblical tourism that will grow and flourish in profound ways”.