100 DAYS IN OFFICE BUT NO MARCHING ORDERS FOR THE EMBASSY IN TEL AVIV

Trump’s pledge to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem appears to be another broken promise

BarkGrowlBite | April 29, 2017

During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump promised Jewish groups that he would move America’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem,” trumpeted Trump.

And just before his inauguration, when asked by a correspondent for Israel Hayom if he remembered his promise to move the embassy, Trump replied: “Of course I remember what I told you about Jerusalem. Of course I didn't forget. And you know I'm not a person who breaks promises.”

Trump already has Congressional approval to move the embassy, an act of great importance to Israel. Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995 which declared that (1) Jerusalem should remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected; (2) Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and (3) the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999.

The State Department opposes moving the embassy because it would infuriate the oil-rich Arabs. And the Palestinian Arabs have vowed an “explosion” should Trump fulfill his promise.

Even though, like Trump, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush pledged to move the embassy to Jerusalem, they acquiesced to the State Department's opposition.

President Trump could already have issued an executive order to move the embassy. The State Department would not have to wait for a new building to be constructed because the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem can serve as our embassy until construction of the new building has been completed.

100 days in office but no marching orders for the embassy in Tel Aviv. Where is that executive order? Trump has gone from an unambiguous pledge to “we are thinking about it” to apparently forgetting about it.

Trump’s pledge appears to be another broken promise. And that broken promise will not cost him many votes because Jews make up only two percent of America’s population and 80 percent of them vote Democrat, no matter what.