WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump will nominate his adviser and long-time friend David Friedman to be the next US ambassador to Israel, his transition team announced Thursday, in a statement that quoted Friedman predicting he would work from “Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.
The 57-year-old bankruptcy attorney served, along with Jason Dov Greenblatt, on Trump’s Israel advisory committee during the campaign, becoming one of his main representatives to the Jewish community and Jewish media.
“The bond between Israel and the United States runs deep, and I will ensure there is no daylight between us when I’m president,” Trump said in a statement. “As the United States’ ambassador to Israel, David Friedman will maintain the special relationship between our two countries.”
In the statement, Freidman said he was “deeply honoured and humbled” that Trump selected him to represent the US in Israel, and that he aimed to “strengthen the bond between our two countries and advance the cause of peace within the region, and look forward to doing this from the US embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”
It was a further indication of the incoming president’s apparent resolve to follow through on his campaign pledge to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Earlier this week it was reported that the Trump team was already planning the move, including undertaking advance work on the project, after his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said it was “a very big priority for him.”