Speeding up embassy move, Pence greeted by tensions on Middle East trip

Judy Woodruff:

Vice President Mike Pence was in Jerusalem today, where he addressed the Israeli parliament and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

John Yang has more on the tensions sparked on the trip.

John Yang:

Judy, we're joined now by Brian Bennett, White House correspondent for The Los Angeles Times. He is in Jerusalem with the vice president tonight.

Brian, thanks for joining us.

In his speech before the Israeli Knesset, the vice president said that the embassy was going to be moving to Jerusalem a little sooner than other people had expected.

What effect is this having on the Trump administration's goal of jump-starting the peace talks?

Brian Bennett:

It's not going to help the peace talks.

It's another irritant for the Palestinians and another reason for them not to want to come to the table. The State Department had been sort of soft-pedaling the announcement of deciding to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by saying, well, the embassy will take years to be moved, because there is planning and funding and all these things have to be worked out.

Well, that didn't stand well with President Trump. And Vice President Mike Pence behind the scenes was advocating for a faster timeline. And they got it. Mike Pence announced today that he was going to — they were going to move the embassy to Jerusalem before the end of 2019.

And it's going to — they're doubling down on their support for Israel and the hard-liners in Israel. And it's not going to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table anytime soon.

John Yang:

As a matter of fact, there was no meeting with the Palestinians today, and there was also a protest in the Knesset.

Brian Bennett:

Right.

So, Vice President Mike Pence came to Jerusalem and didn't meet with any Palestinians. The Palestinians wouldn't meet with them. And then, when he gave the speech to Knesset, there were Arab-Israeli members of the body that stood up and protested his speech and were roughly escorted out of the body.

So, President Trump has said he wants to get to the biggest deal, which is solving the peace — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And right now, it looks like they are very far away from that and getting farther away.

Another thing that they have done recently is decide to cut aid to Palestinian refugees and the U.S. contribution to Palestinian refugees. And that's another issue that didn't sit well with the Palestinians or with the Arab allies in the region.

John Yang:

And he met with one of the strong Arab allies of the United States yesterday, King Abdullah in Jordan, and this also came up in those talks, didn't it?

Brian Bennett:

Vice President Pence was in Jordan, and he met with King Abdullah in Jordan, who has been a staunch ally of the United States.

And King Abdullah had some pointed things to say to Pence and the Trump administration. He wasn't happy with the decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In fact, he said that, for a year, he had been telling the White House in person on trips to Washington that this was a bad idea, he had concerns about it. And he said that it wasn't going to help the peace process. And he also felt like moves like this have a direct impact on the stability inside Jordan, where there's a lot of Palestinian refugees.

John Yang:

Also yesterday, the vice president was at a U.S. military base in Jordan, spoke to the troops.

And I want to play a little sound bit from that speech.

Vice President Mike Pence:

Despite bipartisan support for a budget resolution, a minority in the Senate has decided to play politics with military pay, but you deserve better.

You and your families shouldn't have to worry for one minute about whether you're going to get paid as you serve in the uniform of the United States. So, know this. Your president, your vice president and the American people are not going to put up with it.

John Yang:

Brian, back here at home, this raised a few eyebrows. People were taken aback by really sort of a partisan line in a speech on a U.S. military base in a foreign country.

Did the president — the vice president, the people traveling with the vice president have any response or reaction to that?

Brian Bennett:

It's definitely unusual for a sitting vice president to stand in front of troops at a meet-and-greet and make political attacks and go after the opposition party in the way that Pence did.

And I asked the vice president myself about that when we were asking him questions on that base. And he said that he felt very strongly that he was concerned about the troops who were on the front lines serving and had this cloud of uncertainty over their heads about whether their paycheck would come through in the next pay cycle. And he felt like it was important to raise that issue here.

There is a tradition in the American presidency of leaving domestic politics at the water's edge when you leave the country and, when you go outside, that you represent the country. And critics have argued that Pence has pushed that limit on this trip by bringing up the shutdown, government shutdown, repeatedly.

John Yang:

Brian Bennett of The Los Angeles Times from Jerusalem, thanks so much for joining us.

Brian Bennett:

Happy to be with you, John.