JERUSALEM (RNS) — Hundreds of Israelis gathered in downtown Jerusalem on Monday (Jan. 20) to celebrate Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.
Crowded into the Friends of Zion Museum, where a banner declaring “Congratulations Donald Trump, Israel Loves You!” hung from the exterior, guests nibbled on hot dogs, onion rings, chicken wings and chocolate brownies. Many wore red baseball caps bearing the American and Israeli flags and the words “God Bless President Trump,” which were handed out in the lobby.
The crowd, which included American expatriates and native-born Israelis, watched the inauguration on a series of video screens, clearly moved by the experience and especially excited at the benediction by Rabbi Ari Berman, the president of Yeshiva University in New York.
Wearing a yellow ribbon pin in honor of the 94 hostages still in Hamas captivity, Berman, who studied in Israel, implored God to “hear the cry of the hostages, both American and Israeli, whose pain our president so acutely feels.” He prayed that the years of the Trump presidency will bring peace to Israel and the Middle East.
The day before the inauguration, Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners in the first phase of a three-phase ceasefire agre …