© Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, left, and David M. Friedman, the American ambassador to Israel, at the dedication of the American Embassy in Jerusalem. “You’re running a country, you need friends,” Mr. Friedman said.
A night after the
dedication of the new United States Embassy in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel convened American evangelicals to plan their next steps.
In a conference room off his office,
Mr. Netanyahu thanked the small circle of prominent pastors and activists on Tuesday for pressing President Trump to open the embassy, breaking with decades of American policy that Jerusalem's status should be decided in peace talks.
Which embassy would be next? Mr. Netanyahu wanted to know, running through a list of other countries with strong evangelical churches. Guatemala, Paraguay and Honduras had already followed the United States in announcing their intention to move their embassies to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, but what about Brazil, India or even China?
"The prime minister was very excited," recalled Mario Bramnick, the Cuban-American pastor of a Pentecostal church near Miami and a Trump supporter who attended the meeting.
The culmination of
decades of lobbying, the dedication of the embassy in Jerusalem this past week doubled as the most public recognition yet of the growing importance the Netanyahu government now assigns to its conservative Christian allies,
even if some have been accused of making anti-Semitic statements.
Comment: As Syria redevelops its infrastructure, it will be with no help from the nations that sought to destroy her, like the U.S. Thankfully, they have enough global friends and partners to do so without Trump.