Israeli city names downtown roundabout after Trump

PETAH TIKVA, Israel – An Israeli city has named a traffic circle after President Donald Trump, just weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government renamed a Golan Heights settlement after the president.

Rami Greenberg, mayor of Petah Tikva, a city 6 miles (10 kilometres) east of Tel Aviv, said Tuesday the naming aims to show “gratitude to President Donald Trump, the U.S. president who was the biggest fan of the state of Israel,” for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and the occupied Golan Heights as Israel’s earlier this year.

Israel captured east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed them in a move unrecognized by the international community.

Greenberg says U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman extended congratulations after hearing several ministers attended the roundabout’s inauguration ceremony last week.