Three prominent US senators have introduced legislation to push President-elect Donald Trump to keep his promise to move America’s embassy to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act officially recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and obligates the White House to return the US Embassy to the Holy City.
The US, like most other nations, moved its embassy to Tel Aviv in the early 1980s to protest Israel’s annexation of the eastern half of Jerusalem. The 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which the new legislation closely echoes, also obligated the US government to return its embassy to the Israeli capital. But successive presidents have cited “national security interests” in order to indefinitely delay its implementation.
Trump vowed he would break with that policy and finally move the embassy. However, there is concern that once in office, pressure from various quarters will cause Trump, like some of his predecessors, to change his mind.
Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Dean Heller (R-NV) introduced the new legislation to insure that does not happen. Moving the embassy would “honor an important promise America made more than two decades ago, but has yet to fulfill,” Heller stated.
Rubio added, “It’s time for Congress and the President-Elect to eliminate the loophole that has allowed presidents in both parties to ignore US law and delay our embassy’s rightful relocation to Jerusalem for over two decades.”
Originally posted at Israel Today Magazine.
