Trump Considers Visit to Jerusalem in May to Open New Embassy

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Monday that he might visit Israel in May to preside over the opening of a new American embassy in Jerusalem in what would be a potent act of symbolism, even as he expressed optimism that Palestinians angered by the move would nonetheless return to the peacemaking table.

“We’re looking at coming,” Mr. Trump said as he hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House. “If I can, I will.”

While Palestinian leaders have broken off communications with the Trump administration over the president’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Mr. Trump suggested that they would resume discussions and asserted that he still has “a good chance” of forging a peace deal that has eluded his predecessors for decades.

“The Palestinians, I think, are wanting to come back to the table very badly,” Mr. Trump said. “If they don’t, you don’t have peace.”

Palestinian leaders, who also claim Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, have given no public indication that they would return to discussions any time soon. In response to the president’s Jerusalem move, they declared that they no longer saw the United States as a neutral broker with the Israelis. Mr. Trump then withheld $65 million in aid for Palestinian refugees.

But Monday’s meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu in the Oval Office turned into a celebration of the embassy move that both hailed as a sign that Israeli-American relations have never been stronger. While other presidents have promised such a move and Congress has passed a measure officially declaring Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital, no president followed through until Mr. Trump, out of fear of angering the Palestinians and other Arabs and prejudging a final peace agreement.

Mr. Netanyahu lavished praise on Mr. Trump for the Jerusalem decision, comparing him to three of the most important figures in the history of the Jewish people: King Cyrus of Persia, who 2,500 years ago freed the Jews from exile in Babylon and permitted them to return to Jerusalem; Lord Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary whose declaration a century ago first paved the way for a Jewish homeland in Palestine; and President Harry S. Truman, who recognized Israel’s existence 11 minutes after it declared independence in 1948.

Just as Israelis remember those figures, Mr. Netanyahu said, “We remember how a few weeks ago President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people through the ages. As as you just said, others talked about it. You did it.”

Unlike Mr. Trump, however, Mr. Netanyahu mentioned the goal of peace with the Palestinian only in passing and focused instead on the topic he always makes his top priority when he visits Washington, namely the threat from Iran. He hoped to use the visit to encourage Mr. Trump to tear up or renegotiate President Barack Obama’s agreement with Tehran limiting its nuclear program, deeming it insufficiently tough.

“Iran must be stopped,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “That is our common challenge.”

The meeting came at a time when both leaders are under increasing domestic pressure from investigations bearing down on them and their families. In the hours before the Israeli leader’s arrival, Mr. Trump typed out a Twitter message suggesting once again that the special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election originated from partisan spying by the Obama administration.

Mr. Netanyahu, for his part,was preparing for the meeting with Mr. Trump at Blair House, the American government guest residence across from the White House, when Israeli media reported that a onetime adviser and confidant had made a deal with police to turn over tapes of the prime minister and his wife in connection with a corruption case. The adviser, Nir Hefetz, was the third confidant of the prime minister to turn on him.

The White House has said that it is close to finishing a peace plan for the region that it will release at a time of its choosing. But the leader of the White House effort, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has had his top-secret security clearance stripped and colleagues are increasingly portraying him as just one more team member rather than the driving force in developing a plan.

Mr. Trump has made his decision to move the embassy a selling point among his supporters, touting it during a recent speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference as one of his major achievements. His administration recently announced that it would formally open the Jerusalem embassy in May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence by redesignating an existing consular facility.

As he often does, Mr. Trump boasted that he had already cut the cost of building a new embassy but he seemed to be conflating two different expenses. “They put an order in front of my desk last week for a billion dollars,” he said. “I said a billion? What’s that for? They said, ‘We’re going to build an embassy.’ I said we’re not going to spend a billion dollars. We’re actually doing it for about $250,000.”

The State Department has estimated that construction of a new embassy will cost about $500 million. Mr. Trump’s reference to $250,000 presumably is the cost of making minor adjustments to the existing consular facility so that it can house an office for the American ambassador and be formally redesignated an embassy while a new facility is constructed.

Sheldon G. Adelson, the casino magnate and prominent supporter of both Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu, has offered to help finance construction of a permanent facility., Administration lawyers are reviewing the legality of the American government accepting such an offer.

The embassy move has also been a political boon for Mr. Netanyahu, who can cite his close alignment with Mr. Trump as proof of his continuing clout despite the corruption investigations against him. His allies hope that his five-day visit to the United States will overshadow talk at home about the prospect of early elections.

As he has before, Mr. Trump argued that his decision to recognize Jerusalem resolved a tough issue dividing Israel and the Palestinians. “We’ve taken it off the table,” he said. “So this gives us a real opportunity for peace.”

Hardly any veterans of Middle East peacemaking, including some who support moving the embassy, share this view. Mr. Trump’s unilateral declaration does not mean that the Palestinians have given up on Jerusalem and instead they have dug in. Many former negotiators have envisioned a peace deal in which both sides operate their capitals out of Jerusalem, the Israelis in the west and the Palestinians in the east.

But Mr. Trump has yet to commit to a Palestinian state, much less supporting the sharing of Jerusalem, and as he has since taking office made no favorable mention of the so-called two-state solution that defined American policy until his ascension to power.

Nonetheless, he insisted he could still make peace. “We’re working on it very hard,” he said. “Look, it would be a great achievement even from a humanitarian standpoint. What better if we could make peace between Israel and the Palestinians? And I can tell you, we’re working very hard on doing that and I think we have a good chance.”

Follow Peter Baker and David Halbfinger on Twitter: @peterbakernyt @halbfinger

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