Why did Moldova try to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem?
By: Mihai Avram
Tags: Israel, Palestine, Politics

As of the 8th of June 2019, Moldova has a new Government led by Ms Maia Sandu. The new Government was founded on a Saturday morning in a Parliament building with no electricity. Why? Because the previous Democrat-led Government asked that the light be cut. Like children playing with the light-switch, some of our people-elected politicians decided to create yet another obstacle in the formation of a new Government. New Government means change and punishment of illegal activities carried out by the Old Government. I’m sure this isn’t news and we’re not the only country that faces these kind of challenges. Even as far back as the 16th century there have been people that (1) want to maintain the status quo, and (2) people that want to change it.

From the moment the new government was formed on the 8th of June and until its de facto coming to power, things were a bit unclear. We went into a Constitutional micro-crisis that lasted for one week because the Constitutional Court (CC) of Moldova decided to not recognise the new (Sandu) Government. The CC announce on the 7th of June, in the afternoon, that the parties have till the end of the day (7th of June 23.59) to form a coalition and if not, the President is obliged to dissolve the current Parliament and announce re-elections. For more than one reasons, this decision was illegal and arbitrary, but the bottom line is that all 6 of the Constitutional Court Judges were not impartial. There is strong evidence to point to the fact that they were following orders given by the old Government and they were on their bribe payroll.

During this crisis week, the New Government was: naming new ministers, announcing layoffs, issuing Government acts and making decisions.

During this very same week, the Old Government was also: announcing layoffs, issuing Government acts and making decisions.

During this very same week, Old Government declared that they will be moving the Moldovan embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Why?

In order to understand why this happen, I have to explain a bit of what was happening outside Moldova and in particular what were the interests of the USA and Russia. Against all odds, both of these two players had the exact same vision for what Moldova needs. Both USA and Russia were supportive of the new Government because it was composed of about half pro-European parties and about half of socialists. Both USA and Russia want the former Democrat Party led government to go because it was headed by an oligarch, Vlad Plahotniuc who was involved in a number of scandals including international money laundering schemes.

Russia incurred a loss of about $ 70 billion that were laundered through Moldovan banks during the Democrat Party reign. For this reason, it initiated an investigation on the people responsible for these infringements some of which were in the Democrat Party leadership.

The US were mostly supportive. It would be more accurate to say that they had what you’d call ‘mixed feelings’ because on one hand they supported the new Government and on the other, a few US Government representatives were continuing to collaborate with the Democrats. These ‘mixed feelings’ ended abruptly after a 15 minute closed-door conversation between the US ambassador in Moldova, Dereck Hogan, and the leader of the Democrat Party, Vlad Plahotniuc. After that 15 minute conversation, the old Government knew that it had till the end of the day to leave Moldova in order to avoid what I assume to be the issuing of an international arrest warrant for the some of the key members of the party.

Even up till the last minute, the Democrat Party was waiting for a last ‘kind gesture’ from its US Government supporters. They even sent the Parliament Speaker, Mr Candu to Washington, in a last attempt to fix things with the US. In the last days before their surrender, they were trying to reach out to people from Washington for support and one of the hints that they were probably given was to support the US in its Israel-Palestine situation by changing the Moldovan embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Let’s be frank, the US has little to no support from the international community on this. Ever since Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017, the US has received massive bad feedback from all countries. The UNGA even developed a non-binding, yet strongly authoritative, resolution signed by 128 countries for the US to take back its recognising of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It is clear that the US chose to go rogue on this one and with only another 6–7 countries following in its footsteps, opened a US Embassy in Jerusalem. Moldova was supposed to be on of these countries.

Moldova — a country that never in its entire existence voiced any concern for the Israel-Palestine conflict — decided to start its entry into the deep waters of Middle Eastern politics by supporting Trump…

… & wall builder.

More so, the majority of UN countries believe that moving the capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a step towards the further worsening of the Israel-Palestine conflict. So in the last days of Government, in an act of absolute despair, the Democrats decide to back Trump in his Middle Eastern affairs hoping for a miracle … hoping that in exchange for this, the US will confront Russia and no allow for the new Government to come to power. They were hoping that by supporting the worsening of a conflict in another area, they would remain in power for a bit longer and thus immune from trial for their illegal actions (including international money laundering and fraud schemes). This is not in any way different from selling guns to third world countries…

After members of the old Moldovan Government announced that they were considering moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Arab League came with a critical response addressed at Moldovan authorities. Lucky for us, the embassy is not moving anywhere. All of the decisions taken by the old Government during this seven-day period were declared null and void.