President Trump did Israel a favor that most people do not know about when he delayed the US embassy move to Jerusalem.

​There is much work to be done.

Current wording of the US Embassy Relocation Act deprives Israel over sovereignty in Jerusalem.

The  U.S. Embassy Relocation Act, as it now stands, does not  recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel.

That is why Trump did the right thing to delay the move until the the  US Embassy to Jerusalem Until US law is Changed.

The time is opportune to work with the US Embassy

​Relocation ​Act ​will be upgraded, so that the US will recognize Israel’s permanent legal  status in Jerusalem.

IF the wording of the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act is not corrected before the move of the US embassy, it will be  difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

BACKGROUND  

​As a journalist, I cover​ed events in the US capitol when Congress passed the “US Embassy Jerusalem and Recognition Act” in October 1995​.

​There were great expectations at the time that the US would abandon  US policy set in 1948  that Jerusalem would not be recognized as a part of Israel.

There was speculation at the time that the US would abandon its policy from 1948 that all of Jerusalem must be a “corpus separatum”– an international zone ​set apart from Israel.

However, ​the  final wording of the US Embassy Jerusalem and Recognition Act removed any references to Jerusalem as part of Israel and made no promises that Jerusalem would remain the exclusive capital of Israel.

The late Faisal Husseini, then head of the PLO Jerusalem committee, was present in Washington at the time, and he endorsed the wording of the

Law ​, since the US Embassy Relocation Act did not violate two cardinal rules of US policy since 1948 Jerusalem was not recognized as a part of Israel, and Jerusalem could still become an international zone.

The assassination of the UN envoy to Jerusalem in September 1948 suspended that process, but did not cancel that US policy.

The realities of the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act were not lost on American citizens whose children were born in Jerusalem and whose children’s U.S. passports said “Jerusalem”, with no country listed, as their place of birth.

For that reason, Jerusalem American citizens initiated a class action lawsuit which reached the U.S. Supreme Court last year, with a demand to stamp Jerusalem on their passports.

Spokespeople of the US State Department make it clear that under

​the current law, even if the US embassy indeed moves to Jerusalem, US birth certificates will still be stamped “​Jerusalem”, with no country listed.

If the US embassy moves to Jerusalem under the current policy constraints of US law, that would establish a “de jure” precedent that the US embassy would move to Jerusalem, without recognition of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.

If the US still does not recognize Jerusalem as a part of Israel, the next time Israel objects to an Arab war education curriculum in Jerusalem, and the next time Israel objects to a given policy at the

​Temple Mount​ , the US can simply repeat the mantra ​that ​ “ Jerusalem does not belong to you.”

Current wording of Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act in 1995, as passed into law, was watered down to only ​state the following:

  1. Jerusalem should remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected.
  2. Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel.

​Why, then, the vocal Arab resentment and  the loud Jewish enthusiasm over the  the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act?​​

It is doubtful whether either side has read the wording of the legislation.

The challenge is   whether the U.S. will recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel. Such a policy decision is more significant  than moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

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David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.