Is Trump A Bad President? White House Reconsiders Israel Policy After Jerusalem Remarks

Ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit next week, President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly learned after three weeks on the job that the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict involves much more than tough campaign rhetoric, Reuters reported Thursday.

Trump appeared to be a much stronger ally for Israel and Netanyahu than President Barack Obama when he spoke of moving the U.S.’s embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city of Jerusalem and even picking an ambassador who supported Israel’s settlement building on lands Palestine believes it can use to build a nation-state.

However, a “growing consensus” has recently emerged in the White House over the decades-long conflict and how best to handle it. The administration now recognizes that it will need “extensive deliberations and consultations” with lawmakers and foreign allies, sources familiar with the administration’s inner-workings told Reuters.

"This is a case where campaign promises run head-on into geopolitical reality and they have to be adjusted accordingly," an anonymous U.S. official said.

Instead, moving the embassy has been put on the administration’s back-burner for now and the White has scaled back its approach to the settlement building, according to the report.

The recent moves are a far cry from Trump’s talk on the campaign trail and since taking office last month. In an interview with Fox News, the president declared relations with Israel “repaired” after a phone call three days after his inauguration and extended an invitation to Netanyahu for a visit.

“We have a good relationship. Israel has been treated very badly. We have a good relationship with them,” Trump said.

Their conversation also involved talks over a peace process for the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Trump describing the exchange as “very nice” and Netanyahu as “very warm,” according to The New York Times.

However, Trump opted not to respond to questions about moving the embassy.

Netanyahu is scheduled to visit on Feb. 15.