Netanyahu, Jerusalem Mayor Thank Trump, Haley for Stand on Jerusalem - CBN News Julie Stahl

Netanyahu, Jerusalem Mayor Thank Trump, Haley for Stand on Jerusalem

12-21-2017

CBN News Julie Stahl

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the United Nations a “House of Lies” on Thursday and thanked President Trump and the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley for their stand on Jerusalem. 

“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel whether the UN recognizes it or not,” Netanyahu said during a ceremony to dedicate the new Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod.

“It took 70 years for the US to officially recognize it and it will take more years until the UN also recognizes it,” Netanyahu said of President Trump’s recent declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

“Attitudes toward Israel by many countries in the world, on all continents, are changing outside the walls of the UN and in the end will percolate inside the walls of the UN building – the house of lies,” he said.

The US vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution earlier this week, which called on Trump to withdraw his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital.  The move prompted a General Assembly vote to the same affect. It’s due to take place on Thursday.

Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu rejected the results.

“The State of Israel flatly rejects this vote even before it is held. Jerusalem is our capital. We will continue to build in it and foreign embassies, led by the US embassy, will move to Jerusalem. It will happen,” he said.

He thanked Trump and Haley “for standing up for Israel and for standing up for the truth.” Ultimately the truth will prevail."

Earlier, Netanyahu released a video thanking Haley and saying that she had spoken at the UN like a Maccabee – the famed Jewish fighters who revolted against the Selucid Empire raining in the Holy Land by refusing to worship Greek gods. According to tradition, when they liberated the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, there was only enough oil to burn in the Menorah for one day but it lasted for eight. 

“You lit a candle of truth.  You dispelled the darkness.  One defeated the many.  Truth defeated lies,” he said.

Along the same lines, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat released a video on Thursday also thanking Trump and Haley. 

In it he visits various archaeological sites in the city like the ancient City of David and the Pool of Siloam pointing out the Jewish history in the city.

“Anywhere you put a shovel in the ground, you find Jewish roots,” Barkat said. 

“We're now uncovering the very stones where kings and prophets walked 3,000 years ago,” he said. “The UN cannot deny these facts on the ground.”

Barkat pointed out that under Israeli sovereignty there’s freedom of religion in the city. 

“For a full thousand years Jerusalem was the center of the world and now we're back here to connect to our roots and look into our future,” he said.

“I want to thank President Trump for his leadership and recognizing that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the state of Israel.  I also want to commend, and thank you Ambassador Haley for standing up for us in the UN.  God bless you.”