Israeli minister compares Trump to Churchill

Israel's justice minister is calling President Donald Trump the "Churchill of the 21st Century" for relocating the American embassy to Jerusalem.

Ayelet Shaked says today that with his move Trump has "reversed Chamberlain's policy of capitulation" and shown the world that "the landowner has returned."

Previous US presidents of both parties, as well as nearly every other country, refrained from opening embassies in Jerusalem, arguing that the city's final status should first be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Shaked appeared to be comparing that policy to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis prior to World War II, suggesting Trump was like his successor, Winston Churchill, who led the war effort.

 

Shaked, from the pro-settler Jewish Home party, bashed Europe for not learning from history. She says it "closed its eyes to the strengthening of the Nazis, today it is choosing to close its eyes to the strengthening of Iran." Trump has been lauded by Israelis and condemned by Palestinians for moving the embassy to the contested city.

The Palestinians seek its eastern sector as their future capital and say the move removes the U.S. as an impartial arbiter.