Congress is pushing President Clinton to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem — and rightfully so.
The administration argues that such a move, before the peace talks on final-status issues are held, will only inflame Palestinians.
Yet Jerusalem is the home of Israel’s prime minister, the Knesset and its governmental ministries. How can the United States justify keeping its embassy in Tel Aviv and refusing to recognize Jerusalem as the nation’s capital? And why shouldn’t the U.S. Embassy be located in the same city as Israel’s governmental headquarters?
Even if the Israeli people should decide to turn over the largely Arab eastern Jerusalem to the Palestinians, that would still have no effect on Jewish Jerusalem.
Western Jerusalem — if not the entire city — will remain the capital of the Jewish state forever.
The Palestinians know full well they would never take over western Jerusalem. And they have no right to gripe if the U.S. Embassy should locate there, especially in light of the support they have received from Clinton.
A 1995 law passed by Congress required that the embassy be relocated no later than May 31, 1999, but the law included a waiver that enabled Clinton to postpone the move in the interests of “national security.”
We can’t think of any way that the security of the United States would be threatened by moving the embassy to Jerusalem. And neither can Congress, apparently.
A group of Democrats and Republicans has joined together to force the issue.
Clinton is not the first president to block the movement of the embassy. It has happened in past Republican as well as Democratic administrations. But only in recent years has there been a law that forced a deadline.
We should all write or call the White House and urge that Clinton honor that deadline and once and for all make it clear that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.