By Peter Baker, NY Times, June 1, 2017
WASHINGTON–President Trump signed an order keeping the American Embassy in Tel Aviv rather than moving it to Jerusalem as he promised during last year’s campaign, aides said Thursday, disappointing many Israel supporters in hopes of preserving his chances of negotiating a peace settlement.
Aides said that the decision was just a delay and that he still planned to eventually move the embassy to Jerusalem when conditions were right, although past presidents have said the same without ever acting. The White House said in a statement that Mr. Trump’s move should not be considered “a retreat from the president’s strong support for Israel” and its alliance with the United States.
“President Trump made this decision to maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, fulfilling his solemn obligation to defend America’s national security interest,” the statement said. “But, as he has repeatedly stated his intention to move the embassy, the question is not if that happens, but only when.”
Mr. Trump made no mention of his pending decision during a visit to Jerusalem just last week and waited to announce it until almost the last minute he could under law, underscoring the deep political sensitivity of the matter. The order he signed waives for six months a congressional edict requiring the embassy be in Jerusalem, meaning he will have to consider the matter again by Dec. 1.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who has nurtured a close relationship with Mr. Trump, offered only modest regret for the decision publicly. “Though Israel is disappointed that the embassy will not move at this time, we appreciate today’s expression of President Trump’s friendship to Israel and his commitment to moving the embassy in the future,” his office said in a statement.
The decision is Mr. Trump’s latest shift away from campaign positions upending traditional foreign policy as the president spends more time in office and learns more about the trade-offs involved. He has reversed himself on declaring China a currency manipulator, backed off plans to lift sanctions against Russia, declared that NATO is not “obsolete” after all, opted for now not to rip up President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran and ordered a punitive strike against Syria that he previously opposed in similar circumstances.
Mr. Trump began backing away from his promise to move the embassy shortly after taking office when King Abdullah II of Jordan flew to Washington without a White House invitation to buttonhole the new president at a prayer breakfast and explain what he viewed as the consequences. The king warned that a precipitous move would touch off a possibly violent backlash among Arabs, all but quashing any hopes of bringing the two sides together.
“There is likely to be a collective sigh of relief by Arab leaders, the Europeans, the State Department and the intelligence community,” said Khaled Elgindy, a former adviser to Palestinian leaders now at the Brookings Institution. “While there is likely to be some backlash from his conservative base, especially evangelical voters, the fact that Trump is now personally invested in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking may be something of an insurance policy against his having a change of heart further down the road.”
The embassy question has assumed enormous symbolic significance over the years. The United Nations once proposed that Jerusalem be an international city, but after Israel declared statehood in 1948, it took control of the western portion of the city while Jordan seized the eastern side. During its 1967 war with Arab neighbors, Israel wrested away control of East Jerusalem and annexed it.
Over the 50 years since then, Israel has declared that Jerusalem is its eternal capital and would never be divided again, even as it has built more housing in the eastern parts of the city intended for Jewish residents over the objections of the Palestinians and much of the international community. Most of its main institutions of government are based in Jerusalem.
Like every other country with a diplomatic presence in Israel, the United States has kept its embassy in Tel Aviv to avoid seeming to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital at the expense of Palestinians who also claim it as the capital of a future state of their own. The United States does have a consulate in Jerusalem that mainly deals with Palestinians but could be converted on a temporary basis into an embassy until a permanent site is found and a full-fledged facility constructed.
Like Mr. Trump, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both promised to move the embassy as presidential candidates only to drop the idea once they got into office. In 1995, Congress passed a law requiring the embassy to be moved to Jerusalem by 1999 or else the State Department’s building budget would be cut in half.
But lawmakers included a provision allowing a president to waive the law for six months if determined to be in the national interest. So every six months since 1999, Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama and now Mr. Trump have signed such waivers.
Dennis Edwards: Various prophecies in Daniel seem to indicate that the Antichrist will stop the "daily sacrifice" during his end-time invasion of Israel. Some have proposed that a "daily sacrifice," similar to what the Jews performed in the first two Temples, requires a third Temple to be built. The prophecies also indicate a "Holy Covenant" will be signed by some agreeing partners. Speculation has it that the agreement could include a decision on the Palestinian mandate for Statehood and the Jews desire for a Third Holy Temple. Perhaps the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem will have to wait for the "Holy Covenant" to be signed giving the Palestinians their homeland (?), and the Jewish people to right to build the Temple and begin sacrificial worship as they did before the Temple's destruction in 70 AD by the Romans. A lot of speculation here, but it seems the Temple will be rebuilt. For the Palestinians to agree to its rebuilding on or near the Temple Mount some great accord would need to be made. Let's wait and see what happens and be busy about the Lord's work of loving and helping others into His Kingdom in the mean time.
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