Israeli-American attorney Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel and a vice president of Republicans Overseas, Inc., on Thursday told Srugim regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign promise to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, that “if Netanyahu really fulfills his promise to the voters, and this is indeed a decision approved by the cabinet – I believe Trump and the American administration would accept it.”
“The question is whether the government that Netanyahu is about to establish can really promote it. I’m a little skeptical that it will happen, but I hope it will succeed,” Zell added.
Zell, 66, born in Washington, DC, developed an interest in Zionism in the 1980s, and in 1988, after a series of visits to Israel, moved with his family to the Judaean mountain town of Alon Shvut. In 2016 he moved to Tekoa.
Zell told Srugim “there’s no reason to fear the [“deal of the century”] plan. The difference between the Trump administration and the previous US administrations is that the current administration would not force Israel to make decisions or adopt a policy that its government considers contrary to Israel’s security interests.”
“In the past, the US administration would try to persuade Israel to carry out actions in which the government was not interested – but today this is no longer the case, and the Trump administration will not do such a thing.”
“The plan will not require Israel to pay a price for American recognition of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights,” Zell emphasized. He conceded that “inevitably, the US will ask Israel to take steps that not everyone will like, but […] the decisions on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights were made to serve not only the interests of Israel and the Middle East, but also the interests of the United States itself. They did not do favors for Israel, they acted to advance the interests of the administration.”
Zell explained that “the new US policy says the Israeli government must decide for itself what its red lines are. This is something Israel has refrained from to date, especially on key issues such as Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.”