Why Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is Good for Peace
President Donald Trump’s recent historic announcement acknowledging Jerusalem as the official capital of the State of Israel has re-ignited a global conversation about Jerusalem.
In giving instruction to the State Department to begin to relocate the U.S. Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, President Trump said, “…today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.”
Bishop Robert Stearns spoke similarly a year ago in the New York Times when he wrote of the importance of acknowledging Jerusalem. In keeping with the biblical mandate to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, Eagles’ Wings continues to mobilize key support for Israel and Jerusalem in this hour. Here is Robert’s timely article as published in the New York Times:
Around the world, American ambassadors are stationed in national capitals. Israel’s capital city is and always has been Jerusalem, and it is only logical that our top diplomat would represent U.S. interests in close proximity to the home of the prime minister, the parliament and every major government agency.
This is why Congress overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation in 1995 instructing the State Department to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. For two decades, U.S. presidents have kept this move on hold for fear of inflaming tensions in the region.
It is time for this to change.
The embassy would be located well inside the internationally recognized “green line.” Those who reject locating an embassy in western Jerusalem – which has been a part of Israel since its inception and would continue to be under any conceivable peace deal – have not fully accepted the country’s right to exist. America should never pander to this deluded worldview, which fuels the conflict by providing twisted hope to those who still seek Israel’s destruction.
By moving our embassy to Jerusalem, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that far from retreating from the world and the region, we are as determined as ever to provide principled leadership, signaling to the Arab world and the Palestinian leadership that we are serious about ending this conflict, and that we expect them to accept Israel as a legitimate presence in the Middle East – a basic requirement for moving all parties on a path to peace, which will ultimately benefit Israelis and Palestinians alike.
