White House in ‘Beginning Stages of Talks’ to Move Embassy to Jerusalem

Israeli Media Had Reported Trump Would Announce the Move Monday

by Jason Ditz,

Israeli media reports over the weekend claimed President Donald Trump was going to announce the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday. That appears unlikely, however, as the White House insists they are just in the “beginning stages of even discussing” the potential move.

Trump had been expected during the campaign to make such a move, but after the election members of his transition team said that the move would be dependent on reaching a consensus among top officials in his new administration, and it doesn’t look like something that’ll happen on the spur of the moment.

If it happens at all. President George W. Bush had similarly expressed support for moving the embassy throughout his presidency, and every single year he issued a waiver for the Jerusalem Embassy Act not moving the embassy, he added that his administration was “committed to beginning the process of moving our embassy to Jerusalem,” though they obviously never did so.

While promising to move the embassy is a popular form of pandering to the pro-Israel crowd, an actual move risks fueling a lot of regional tensions, which is likely why such moves have repeatedly been endorsed, but never really attempted