Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer urged President-elect Donald Trump to follow through on his promise to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a move the Israeli diplomat said would be a “great step forward” toward peace. Ambassador Dermer, who made his comments during a special reception at the Israeli embassy in Washington for the upcoming Hanukkah holiday, stressed that the move of the US embassy would send a “strong message against the delegitimization of Israel.”
Since the US Congress voted in favor of a Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, a bill which meant to initiate and fund the relocation of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem no later than the 31st of May, 1999; opposition from Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama has delayed the laws implementation, even though all three Presidents vowed during their election campaigns to move the embassy to Jerusalem, they viewed the ‘Jerusalem Embassy Act’ as a Congressional infringement on the executive branch’s constitutional authority over foreign policy.
As most countries around the world have their embassies located in Tel Aviv, because they do not recognize Jerusalem as the lawful capital of the Jewish state, even though Israel considers Jerusalem as its capital. That is why a move by Washington to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem is perceived by Israeli officials as a strong incentive for other nations to follow-suit, a change the officials tell TV7, will strengthen the legitimacy of Israel’s eternal and undivided capital, Jerusalem.