Posted on 04/06/2018 12:21:10 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
For the first time since British Mandatory rule here ended seven decades ago, a member of the royal family – Prince William – is scheduled to make a visit to Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately welcomed the news. “We welcome the announcement that Prince William will be coming to Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “It is a historic visit, the first of its kind, and he will be received here with great enthusiasm.”
While members of the royal family have never made state visits to Israel, they have traveled widely in the Arab world. Prince Charles was in Israel twice, but only to attend funerals: Yitzhak Rabin’s in 1995 and Shimon Peres’s in 2016.
During the latter trip, he also visited the grave of his grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Phillip, who is buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives. The princess has been recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” for hiding a Jewish women and her two children in Athens during World War II.
Phillip came here in 1994 to attend the Yad Vashem ceremony honoring her, and visited her grave, but the Foreign Office took pains then to stress that his visit was private.
Netanyahu, who met Prince Charles on the sidelines of a climate change conference in Paris in 2015, invited him at the time to visit the country – an invitation numerous Israeli officials have extended to the royal family over the years.
The Telegraph at the time quoted a Foreign Office source as saying that, “until there is a settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the royal family can’t really go there.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
Announcement was made a month ago, so it may have already been posted...but some pretty cool history re: Princess Alice and her efforts in saving Jews.
I only knew about Edward VIII potentially being a Nazi sympathizer or whatever.
Yes, interesting, nice little bit of hx there. Worth finding out more. Thanks for posting.
The House of Windsor has had its share of anti-Semites. But I don’t think Willy is one. I find this trip very interesting. Wonder what the real impetus for it is.
Wonder what the real impetus for it is
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Secret meeting with Abbas ... ?
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William seems different to me. Nothing like his father.
I find this news fantastic. We shall see if there are ulterior motives, but the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu welcome this is a very very good sign.
I find this news fantastic. We shall see if there are ulterior motives, but the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu welcome this is a very very good sign.
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