Watch: US Vice President Mike Pence addresses Knesset

Billed as ‘historic,’ speech to special Knesset plenary session to be boycotted by Joint Arab List lawmakers

By ToI Staff 22 January 2018, 1:42 pm

Edit

US Vice President Mike Pence will be addressing a special plenary session of the Knesset on Monday afternoon as part of his two-day visit to Israel, which began Sunday night.

The address has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Israel time.

Pence will be only the third visiting dignitary to use a teleprompter when he speaks, following US president Bill Clinton in 1994 and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2015.

The speech, which is being billed as “historic,” can be watched by live stream from the Knesset.

This is the first visit to Israel by a top US official since the Trump administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month and promised to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

Infuriated by the move, the Palestinians are boycotting American officials, including Pence, saying they no longer see the US as an honest broker for peace talks.

The leader of the Knesset’s Joint (Arab) List party said last week that his party would also be boycotting the visit.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by contrast, said Sunday that “there is no alternative to American leadership in the diplomatic process. Whoever is not ready to talk with the Americans on peace does not want peace.”