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Source: https://usun.state.gov/remarks/8206
U.S.: Israel, Like All Nations, Has the Right to Determine Its Capital City
(U.S. Mission to the UN) Amb. Nikki Haley - U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told the Security Council on Friday: "The Jewish people are a patient people. Throughout 3,000 years of civilization, foreign conquest, exile, and return, Jerusalem has remained their spiritual home. For nearly 70 years, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel, despite many attempts by others to deny that reality." "The American people are less patient. In 1948, the United States was the first nation to recognize the independent State of Israel. In 1995, the U.S. Congress declared that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel, and that the U.S. Embassy should be located in Jerusalem." "Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama all agreed with that position, but they did not act. They delayed, in the hopes that a peace process would produce results - results that never came....This week, President Trump finally made the decision to no longer deny the will of the American people....The President has announced that the United States recognizes the obvious - that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel." "Israel, like all nations, has the right to determine its capital city....It is simple common sense that foreign embassies be located there. In virtually every country in the world, U.S. embassies are located in the host country's capital city. Israel should be no different." "Our actions are intended to help advance the cause of peace. We must recognize that peace is advanced, not set back, when all parties are honest with each other. Our actions reflected an honest assessment of reality." "To those who do not act in good faith - to any person, leader, country, or terrorist group that uses this week's decision as a pretext for violence - you are only showing yourselves to be unfit partners of peace." "Over many years, the United Nations has outrageously been one of the world's foremost centers of hostility towards Israel. The UN has done much more to damage the prospects for Middle East peace than to advance them. We will not be a party to that. The United States no longer stands by when Israel is unfairly attacked in the United Nations. And the United States will not be lectured to by countries that lack any credibility when it comes to treating both Israelis and Palestinians fairly."