John Bolton is looking forward to great relations between Israel and the United States. The former U.S. ambassador to the UN, said that President-elect Donald Trump “is not going to let other countries dictate where the American embassy should be in Israel.” He hinted that the new Trump administration will finally move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.

Bolton, the keynote speaker at the Bet El Yeshiva Center annual dinner on Dec. 4 at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, added that Trump “realizes that settlements in Judea and Samaria are not obstacles to the peace process.”

Trump is not a “traditional president,” he said.

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon, another guest speaker at the dinner, said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing at the United Nations. The ambassador of Venezuela, Rafael Ramirez, was accusing the Jewish state of seeking to impose a “final solution” on the Palestinians.

Danon was outraged at this linking of Israel with Nazi Germany in the Security Council a day after Holocaust Remembrance Day last spring.

That night his telephone rang. The Venezuelan ambassador was calling to apologize. “You should not apologize to me,” Danon told him.  “You should apologize to everyone who heard you at the United Nations.” 

Danon’s story reminded Bolton of his experience as George W. Bush’s UN ambassador in 2005-06. “Those were the days,” he sighed.

But Danon also brought good news from Turtle Bay. He announced that the UN cafeteria now serves kosher food and invited the 1,000 Bet El guests to join him for a nosh.

The dinner, under chairman Eugen Gluck, celebrated the 39th anniversary of the founding of Bet El, a thriving town north of Jerusalem and a stone’s throw from Ramallah.

Guests of honor were Nira and Ken Abramowitz (he’s co-founder of NGN Capital healthcare venture fund), Marc Berger (a medical doctor) and brother Alan Berger (an attending physician at NYU Tisch Hospital/Langone Medical Center), Yael and Pinny Farkas (she owns Threads Linen in Cedarhurst, he’s a clinical social worker in Cedarhurst and Manhattan), and Larry Gordon (publisher/editor of the 5 Towns Jewish Times).

Tim Boxer was a columnist at the New York Post for two decades. At the same time he has been a columnist for the New York Jewish Week for 37 years and editor of 15MinutesMagazine.com for 18 years. He is the author of Jewish Celebrity Hall of Fame, interviews of Hollywood stars about their Jewish roots.

This article first appeared in the Jewish Week