An Early Hanukkah Present

American Thinker.com ^ | December 15, 2017 | Elise Cooper

[Kaslin]

President Trump gave supporters of Israel an early Hanukkah present when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6th. This is very much overdue and recognizes the obvious reality. Moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem shows that at least America realizes that the nation of Israel should be allowed to determine its own capital.

Presidents’ Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump all made the campaign promise to move the embassy and the current president was the only one of the four to make this significant move. Unlike the previous three presidents of both parties who only paid lip service, Trump honored his campaign commitment.

Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush. He told American Thinker, “The Palestinian Liberation Organization's executive committee and former negotiator Saeb Erekat were quoted this week protesting that an American president cannot decide Israel’s capital. Quite right, but neither could the PLO or the United Nations. Only Israel can, and it has. In peace negotiations, West Jerusalem is not in dispute anyway. It is where the Knesset, Supreme Court, president’s and prime minister’s offices are, and where they have always been. So I give the President high marks.”