Before taking off for Israel to inaugurate the new US Embassy building in Jerusalem scheduled for May 14, Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, would do well to study the Talmudic adage that roughly translated means, “The pot calling the kettle black.” The saying will help her explain to her father that no one who violates international law can expect others — Iran, for instance — to adhere to it. A leader who expects his rival, such as North Korean President Kim Jong Un, to abide by United Nations resolutions should serve as a shining example of adherence to those resolutions.
In case the president does not understand what his daughter is getting at, her husband, Jared Kushner — Trump's special envoy to the Middle East — could probably whip out UN Resolution 478 of August 1980. The Security Council’s resolution determines that Israel’s Basic Law, stating “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel,” enacted by the Knesset three weeks earlier contravenes international law. The council expressed “deep concern” about what it described as the change in the character and status of the city, “with its implications for peace and security.”
