In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act to relocate the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem by May 31, 1999. An inbuilt waiver, however, allows the president to suspend the implementation by six-month periods in the interest of national security. Ever since, presidents have promised to move the embassy. And ever since, presidents have repeatedly signed the six-month waiver.
What Other Presidents Promised
While he did not promise to move the embassy, President Barack Obama did call Jerusalem the capital of Israel. The day after he secured the necessary delegates to win the democratic nomination in 2008, Mr. Obama spoke before an aipac audience, stating that any peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians “must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state with secure, recognized, defensible borders. And Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”
Recognizing Israel as a state and its capital as Jerusalem would, logically speaking, include plans to relocate the embassy to said capital. But as the last eight years of failed peace talks prove, the Obama administration’s promise to solidify Israel’s existence was a lie.
But President Obama is not alone.
Before him, George W. Bush said in a preelection speech, “[A]s soon as I take office, I will begin the process of moving the U.S. [Embassy] to the city Israel has chosen as its capital.”
But by February 2001, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said there were no immediate plans to move the embassy.
Former President Bill Clinton was the first to enact the six-month waiver. He too promised to move the embassy. Yet despite pressure from Congress telling him the move was “long overdue,” the president delayed the move.
The president’s decision was applauded by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (plo). It has been applauding ever since. Each time the move is delayed, Israel’s rightful place in Jerusalem is undermined. While ever-so-slight, the constant delays have enabled the Palestinians time to fortify their legitimacy and popularity in the international community.
-
If Trump were to recognize Jerusalem as the capital, the plo would be outraged. President Mahmoud Abbas’s staff has confidently asserted that Trump will not change U.S. policy in the region. “We know that Trump was one thing during the election campaign and that he will become something else once he becomes president,” Abbas’s adviser Ahmad Majdalani stated.
If Trump does move the embassy, it would erase the Palestinians hard-fought gains under
the Obama presidency—something Abbas and his cohorts won’t stand for.
But the Palestinians won’t be the only unhappy ones in the region. The embassy move would
also upset Jordan and Saudi Arabia—key Arab allies in the Middle East.
Iran would also be livid. With threats from Trump to tear up the nuclear deal already issued,
seeing Israel’s claims to Jerusalem recognized by the U.S. administration would further provoke the Iranians.
For a taste of the Arab response, we need only look back to 2000. During an interview on Israeli television, then-President Bill Clinton said he was considering the U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem. The comment sparked a response from Hezbollah. The terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said Arabs would “turn your embassy to rubble and send your diplomats home in coffins.”
Plenty of promises have been made concerning Jerusalem, but few have been kept, embassy-related
or otherwise. But the Holy City’s future is not determined by speculation and false promises.
Rather,theres one source that speaks about Jerusalem’s future in detail and with 100 percent accuracy.
Israel and America should learn from the U.S. preelection promises. Even the leader of the world’s sole
superpower is unable to ensure real, lasting, peace. Each leader promises a better future, yet we live in
a world of escalating crises.
Man cannot solve his own problems.
