A former chief rabbi of the UK, Jonathan Sacks, has defended his role in a controversial speech delivered in Israel this week by the US vice-president, Mike Pence.
Pence made a two-day visit to Israel, the highlight of which was a speech at the country’s parliament, the Knesset, in which he announced the date of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. Arab-Israeli legislators were thrown out of the Knesset after heckling the vice-president.
Dan Sacker, Lord Sacks’s spokesman, confirmed that the former chief rabbi and the vice-president had met in New York for 90 minutes to discuss the speech. The meeting was “positive and productive”, he said.
Sacks, who was chief rabbi for 22 years until 2013, considered it “a great tribute to the Jewish people” that Pence had sought his guidance for sections of his speech dwelling on the historical connection between Jews and Israel, Sacker added.
Pence’s speech featured religious and biblical references and highlighted the Jewish people’s connection to Israel, as well as announcing that the US embassy would move to Jerusalem by the end of 2019 and calling on Palestinians to take part in peace talks.
Palestinians and many diplomats view Donald Trump’s decision to move the embassy as pre-empting the outcome of negotiations and precluding the possibility of East Jerusalem being the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The meeting “centred around how best to frame elements of the speech – in particular the biblical and historical connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, and the American and Jewish stories”, Sacker said in a statement.
“It was these, and only these, elements of the speech that Rabbi Sacks assisted with. He considered it a great tribute to the Jewish people that someone like Vice-President Pence would turn to a Jewish source for guidance on such matters.”
The former chief rabbi was not paid for his help with Pence’s speech, Sacker said.
According to a White House official quoted by the Times of Israel, Pence sought out Sacks’s input and saw him as a “hugely critical element in crafting the speech”.
“Rabbi Sacks has advised prime ministers and presidents for years. The vice-president thought it was critical to have his counsel for a speech of this magnitude,” the official said.
Pence, an evangelical Christian, holds hardline positions on gender equality, gay rights and abortion. He has been accused of demanding that public funds for HIV/Aids be redirected to “conversion therapy” for LGBT people.
Some evangelical Christians, known as Christian Zionists, believe that the return of Jews to Israel is a prerequisite for the second coming of Christ.
In his speech, Pence said Americans were “fierce advocates of the Jewish people’s aspiration to return to the land of your forefathers to claim your own new birth of freedom in your beloved homeland”.
He added: “The people of the United States have always held a special affection and admiration for the people of the Book.”
Sacks, who holds the title “emeritus chief rabbi”, was made a life peer in 2009.
