Four years after former United States President Donald Trump transferred the country's Embassy to Jerusalem, The woman at the helm of the British government is thinking of doing the same.
The newly installed British Prime Minister Liz Truss told Prime Minister Yair Lapid that she is considering moving the British Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This is according to a report in the British "Telegraph". The two met on Wednesday as part of Lapid's visit to New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.
A spokeswoman in Truss’s office said that the Prime Minister shared with Lapid her consideration regarding the major step and told him that she "understands the importance and sensitivity" of the location of the embassy. A senior political official stated that Israel would be "very happy" if Britain did so. "We hope that this will be possible."
Truss’s important news for Lapid was delivered one month after she announced, in an extremely rare statement for a Foreign Secretary, and before she was chosen to replace Boris Johnson at the helm of the British realm, that she intended to consider moving the embassy.
#BREAKING: UK prime minister Liz Truss tells Israeli PM Lapid she may move Britain’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem: "We are in review of the current location of the British Embassy in Israel" pic.twitter.com/EFTxIzLVZr
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) September 22, 2022
The move, if indeed carried out, would be no less than a political tornado, and the very statement of the intention to examine it is considered an expression of great support on the part of Truss in Israel. In fact, no senior British official has so far issued such a pro-Israel statement. Some in Israel contend that the move if made would be one of the most significant acts toward the Jewish State since Lord Balfour initially proposed the creation of said State. What remains to be seen is whether Truss disappoints, just as Balfour ultimately did when the territory promised to the Jewish people was reduced to a sliver after Arab pressure led to the partition of most of the land into Transjordan.
In Jerusalem, Truss is seen as a great friend of Israel. "Truss loves Israeli values ​​very much, she is very positive towards us, and her cabinet is expected to be the same," said a senior official in Jerusalem even before she was chosen to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Liz Truss said the same thing about the Jerusalem embassy a month ago https://t.co/FviN1VY5aL
— Luke Tress (@luketress) September 22, 2022
Truss knows Prime Minister Lapid from their meetings as foreign ministers of the two countries, and in a letter she recently sent to the lobby of Israel's supporters in the conservative party, she even called Lapid "my dear friend."
In November of last year, in the shadow of the renewal of the nuclear talks between Tehran and the Western powers, Lapid and Truss wrote a joint article published in "Yediot Ahronot" and the British "Telegraph", in which they promised: "We will work day and night to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power."
Truss tells Israel she may move the British embassy to Jerusalem https://t.co/kcMqhazOJ4
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 22, 2022
Truss also noted before she was elected to the position that at Lapid's request she ensured that Britain voted for Israel in the UN Human Rights Council and that she did so despite the position of officials in the Foreign Office in London.
