If President-elect Donald Trump is as much a man of his word as he says he is, he’ll move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem shortly after he takes office. There are good diplomatic and constitutional reasons for him to do so.
Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, which firmly asserted that “Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel” and that our embassy should be established there “no later than May 31, 1999.” (The vote was 93-5 in the Senate and 374-37 in the House.) But the law was never implemented – because presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama all came to view it as a congressional infringement on the executive branch’s constitutional authority over foreign policy, and consistently exercised a built-in presidential-waiver clause based on their perception of national security interests.
These waivers, which must be and have been signed every six months, have always been defended in terms of protecting the bedrock constitutional principal separating the executive and legislative powers. Despite the fact that two of the past three presidents (Clinton and Bush) had vowed during their campaigns to move the embassy – Clinton said he’d “always wanted to” and Bush promised to start the process on his first day in office – both later reneged. Their so-called Middle East experts had convinced them that doing so would prejudge negotiations for a final settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.
More.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Why-Trump-should-move-US-Embassy-to-Jerusalem-478425
