US Envoy to Israel Takes Up Post

The Fellowship  |  May 16, 2017

David Friedman, Donald Trump’s choice to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel, has officially taken up his post. The Times of Israel’s Raphael Ahren reports that Friedman says he was sent “with unambiguous mandate to support the state of Israel in every way, and in all ways”:

“As you know, the [US] president [Donald Trump] has chosen Israel as the site for his first international visit. His love for and commitment to the State of Israel is rock-solid and it enjoys his highest priority,” Friedman said during a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

Addressing Rivlin, Friedman recalled that the Israeli president is a seventh-generation Jerusalemite who fought in the Six Day War and that his late father translated the Quran into Hebrew. He said Rivlin has walked “in the footsteps of our original warrior-poet King David.”

“Serving the US as its ambassador to the State of Israel is the greatest honor of my life, and I pledge to you to do all that I can to strengthen and enhance the relations between our two great nations that you accurately described as unbreakable and, I would add, without limits,” the new ambassador said.

“I’m so grateful to President Trump for giving me the opportunity and for having confidence in my abilities, and, most importantly, for sending me off this past week with the unequivocal and unambiguous mandate to support the State of Israel in every way, and in all ways,” he said.

Friedman, an observant Jew from Long Island, New York, landed with his wife and daughter at Ben Gurion Airport Monday afternoon and headed directly to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City…