“We’ve Waited 69 years, we Will Wait 70 years,” Say Israeli Officials in Response to White House Decision

Like the four presidents before him, Trump had a major decision to make this morning. Will the Embassy to Israel remain in Tel Aviv or will it move to Jerusalem, which will informally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital?

Much like the presidents dating back to Bill Clinton, he essentially signed a waiver that said this decision conflicts with national interests. So, until December 1^st, the Embassy will remain in Tel Aviv until Trump must answer this question once more.

This question is of great significance because the location of an Embassy usually dictates what a nation views as another’s capital, and there have been disputes over this question in Israel for the past 50 years when in a war with their Arab neighbors in 1967, Israel took control of Eastern Jerusalem from Jordan.

Since the White House made their decision they have been under criticism from many different sources.

Domestically, one of the biggest issues that has been brought up is how long he waited to release this decision. He had time from when he got back from his foreign trip to announce the decision, instead, he waited until this morning to officially decide what he was going to do. What was so wrong about waiting for today? Yesterday, he announced that he would be making his decision on whether the United States would continue to support the Paris Climate Agreement that was signed by President Obama. Many in the United States believe that he is using his decision on the Paris Climate Agreement to mask this promise that he made.

During the election, moving the Embassy to Jerusalem was one of his many promises, but this one had more emphasis placed on it than many of the others he made. Also, on election night he was quoted as saying “You know I’m not a person who breaks promises.”

By breaking this promise he frustrated many of his more conservative donors. Although he is losing the support of donors as a response to this deal, many are not surprised as this decision has been made by many other presidents because of the allure that finding a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestine Dispute creates.

Abroad, the Israelis are split on how they feel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it best in his statement released this morning in regards to the decision, saying that although they are upset that the Embassy is staying put, they do understand the motives behind it. In the official White House statement released this morning it was made clear that this postponement was simply a delay in Trump’s grand plan, and that the embassy will move before his term ends.

Others in Israel are not as upset. During his visit to Israel just a few weeks ago, Trump became the first sitting president to visit the West Wall, an act that many believed was bigger in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. With this belief, there is a wide spread thought that movement of the Embassy would simply be a “symbolic” act more than anything else.

Yoav Galant, the Israeli Minister of Housing, put the indifference that Israel feels about this decision best in his quote, “We’ve waited 69 years, we will wait 70 years.”

He does have many people that support his decision to postpone this movement, like former ambassador to Israel under President Obama, Mr. Dan Shapiro. At this moment in time, his opinion states that the movement of the embassy would be pointless. He does agree though that it should be in Jerusalem, and believes that if Trump plays his cards right, that could happen by the end of his first term saying, “If they plan it smartly, coordinate the timing with key parties, and ensure that its placement in West Jerusalem reinforces, rather than undermines, the ability to achieve a two-state solution, they can still mark this accomplishment before the end of the president’s term.”

Trump’s straying from campaign promises may have been a result of an impromptu visit from the King of Jordan, who told him that the decision to move the Embassy may infuriate many of the Arab states in the region. For the meantime, Trump believed it best to work on the current state of affairs in the Middle East concerning Israeli relations before taking ay drastic action.

Trump has been doing a good job of easing tensions. Just recently he appeased the Palestinians by urging Netanyahu to not conduct any construction in the West Bank, and appeased the Israelis by abandoning the idea of automatically supporting a Palestinian state unless both sides agree to it.

The Trump administration is adamant that this is simply just a delay, and “[not] a retreat from the president’s strong support for Israel”