Trump in Jerusalem: ‘1st’ direct flight from Riyadh, hotel turned fortress & prayer at Western Wall

Trump in Jerusalem: ‘1st’ direct flight from Riyadh, hotel turned fortress & prayer at Western Wall:

Reporting that the hotel and its surrounding area “would become a virtual fortress,” the Times of Israel said that all telephones and TVs in the suite would be replaced by US security teams with devices specially flown in from the States.

Moreover, the luxurious suite is bulletproof, poison gas-proof and bomb-proof, built to withstand the collapse of the entire building, according to NBC News citing the property operations manager, Sheldon Ritz.

The presidential suites have independent air conditioning in case of a gas attack and are built to withstand a RPG [rocket-propelled grenade]. But still the US is bringing rocket-proof glass to put in front of the window,” NBC News cited Ritz as saying. “If the whole hotel blows up, the suite will come down in one piece,” he added.

Infrared cameras will be deployed to hover above the building, and bomb-spotting robots will be placed in sewers beneath it, NBC News reported.

Elsewhere in the holy city, claimed as their capital by both the Israelis and the Palestinians, thousands of police and troops will safeguard the US leader. On Thursday night, joint exercises were conducted by Israeli police and the US secret service to practice a huge security operation code-named “Blue Shield,” Israel National News reported.

There have been reports that due to strict demands from Washington, one of the planned locations to be visited by Trump while in Israel has been excluded from the list. Numerous preparations had been made at the ancient fortress of Masada, but after the US leader had been reportedly denied permission to land a helicopter at the protected site and told to use a cable car, the visit there was canceled, according to Israel National News.

The US president will visit Israel’s Holocaust museum and memorial, Yad Vashem, and there meet with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin.

The president will deliver remarks at the Israel Museum, and celebrate unique history of Israel and of the Jewish people, while reaffirming America’s unshakable bond with our closest ally in the Middle East,” US National Security Advisor H R McMaster told reporters earlier this week.

Trump will also meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, having been invited for a private family dinner.

On the second day of his visit, Trump will cross the 1967 border to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The US leader “will convey his administration’s eagerness to facilitate an agreement that ends the conflict, and he will urge Palestinian leaders to take steps that will help lead to peace,” McMaster informed the media.

And he [Trump] will visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and say a prayer at the Western Wall,” the US official added. Trump will become the first sitting president to visit the holy site in East Jerusalem.

While visiting the Western Wall, the president will be accompanied by his daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump. She converted to Judaism when she married Jared Kushner, who will also join the American presidential delegation on the Trumps’ first overseas trip.

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