There’s no plaque on the gate of the U.S. ambassador’s new residence in Jerusalem, no Stars and Stripes visible, no official listing as a notable overseas property.
The official residence of the American envoy is a rental and temporary, officials said, secured after two years of house-hunting in the wake of then-President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Ambassador Tom Nides moved into the sleekly renovated villa in west Jerusalem’s leafy German Colony sometime last spring. Local real estate agents estimate its value at around $23 million, and its owner and the embassy confirmed it is being leased as the U.S. envoy’s official residence.
Emek Refaim Street is the latest stop for the American ambassador’s home on a more than three-year migration from the seaside cliffs north of Tel Aviv to tension-filled Jerusalem. The journey reflects the Trump administration’s divisive legacy and the reluctance of President Joe Biden — who will visit the region next month — to roil relations with Israel over the issue.
Trump upended decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, drawing plaudits from many Israelis and infuriating the Palestinians.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. Most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv because of the long-running dispute.
Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, and with it the storied residence of the U.S. ambassador. Under various presidents, the envoy had previously been housed in a sprawling, five-bedroom seaside compound built on an acre (nearly one-half hectare) of land, which Israel gave the United States soon after independence in 1948.
The previous residence was a social hub for relations between the two close allies. It was known for its July Fourth blowouts, when thousands of specially invited guests would watch the sunset and fireworks over the Mediterranean Sea.
Trump’s move put an end to all that. The United States sold the property for more than $67 million, according to official Israeli records. The State Department refused to release key details of the sale, but the Israeli business newspaper Globes identified the buyer as one of Trump’s biggest contributors: U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021.
The cliffside compound appeared little changed from outside the walls on a recent day. Two Israeli flags waved from the flagpoles in the sea breeze. A spokesman for the Adelson family declined to comment.
The decision to sell the residence appears to have been aimed at preventing any future president from reversing the embassy move, something Biden has long ruled out.
But it also forced U.S. diplomats stationed in the region — most of whom continued working in Tel Aviv — to embark on a difficult search for new digs.
When Nides arrived last December, the plight of the “homeless ambassador” was the talk of diplomatic circles. There simply weren’t many options in crowded Jerusalem for a compound large …read more
Source:: Headlines News4jax
Stock Market: Suez Canal Update! Floating!
The Suicide Squad | Official IMAX® Red Band Trailer
From the horribly beautiful mind of James Gunn and filmed in IMAX. Experience