White House: Trump staffer's Western Wall comment does not reflect administration policy

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office published his conversations with US President Donald Trump and other senior-level US officials regarding the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem.

According to a report by Israel's Channel 2, the Israeli delegation was so angry by the remark that members started shouting.

Just days ahead of President Donald Trump's Middle East trip, the Palestinian envoy to the United States said any new Israeli-Palestinian peace push must be based on a two-state solution but that the USA administration had yet to present an actual plan for reviving negotiations.

"It's a Trump show".

Worshippers at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, Jan. 17, 2017. The United States does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the area, making Trump's visit to the Kotel, the first by a sitting American president, politically fraught.

In addition to two meetings with Netanyahu while in the Middle East, Greenblatt met with Abbas, Palestinian civil society groups and visited with Palestinian children in a West Bank Refugee camp.

Separately, Israeli officials have reacted angrily to reports in local media that representatives of the American consulate had suggested the Western Wall did not belong to Israel. It is Judaism's holiest religious site.

An official statement from the Prime Minister's Office tried to paper over the raging feud. According to the report, the USA team explained that the site is part of disputed territory in the West Bank and not under Israeli sovereignty.

Trump revealed highly classified info to Russian Federation
He added that he wants the House intelligence committee fully briefed on what, if anything, was shared with the Russian officials. The Post said the intelligence partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russian officials.

But generally, it is hard to overstate the degree to which the career bureaucracy disapproves of moving the US embassy - and not just in the State Department.

Trump drew worldwide criticism in February when, during a news conference with Netanyahu, he appeared to back away from a USA commitment to Palestinian statehood, saying he would leave it up to the parties to decide. Trump plans on visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem during his visit.

But since taking office, Trump has called for restraint in settlement construction and signaled he is no hurry to move the embassy. But it certainly can not be an issue to be negotiated between Adelson and Trump.

Trump was not Adelson's first pick during the Republican primaries in 2016, but he did give Trump's inauguration committee a record-breaking $5 million dollars, the New York Times reported in mid-April. Trump also caused some controversy when it appeared that he would not visit Yad Vashem during his trip, although it is now being reported he will spend 15 minutes at the Israeli Holocaust Memorial.

A White House spokesperson told VOA "these comments were not authorized by the White House".

However, it could be something more.

Those cautioning against the embassy move warn that such a decision could trigger uproar in the Palestinian territories and across the Arab world and add another obstacle in the already-complicated path to peace.

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