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President Trump Should Move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem
(USA Today) Lawrence Grossman - President Trump has the opportunity to right a historical wrong by advancing international recognition of Jerusalem, the biblical capital of the Jewish people, as the capital of the State of Israel. Although Israel had declared Jerusalem its capital soon after the country achieved independence in 1948, neither the U.S. nor much of the rest of the world accepted that designation and they placed their embassies and diplomats in Tel Aviv instead. The legal objection was that the UN partition plan of 1947 had designated Jerusalem as an internationalized zone that was not supposed to be part of any state. The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 sought to rectify this, pointing out that "international law and custom" gave each nation the right to choose its capital. But for 21 years, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have waived enforcement of its provisions. The current six-month waiver expires June 2. The writer is director of publications at the American Jewish Committee.