Of Embassies and Reality

On Wednesday, President Trump announced that the USA was officially moving to recognize the city of Jerusalem, Israel as the capital of that country, and proceeding to relocate our embassy there.  In doing so, he simply executed on a campaign promise he had made in 2016, which should have been lauded.  Promise made, promise kept, that sort of thing.

Moreover, it had been a previous campaign promise of pretty much all the past half-dozen presidents that they would recognize Jerusalem as the capital.  Barack Obama said that, as did George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.  We wouldn't dream, of course, that they said that in order to raise money from wealthy Jewish-American donors, never intending to follow through.

That would be, you know, lying and just wrong.

But they did, indeed, say it, and it wasn't just the presidents before Donald Trump.  The U.S. Congress also passed through a measure directing that we recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel -- in 1995, during the administration of good old Bill Clinton.  Of course, somewhere in there was a requirement that the president would have to execute on it or issue a delay, and somehow all the presidents since have managed to stall on that.

Until, of course, we had a President Trump.

But here is the thing.  On the talking-head network news, there was practically universal complaint about his actually acting on that plan.   Moreover, there was an identical phrase used by several -- at least four -- of the anchors, as if it had been distributed to them by the Democrats, although we know they never, ever would do that either.

The anchors all used the phrase "... [despite] 70 years of U.S. policy."  Now, you had to be contemptuous of the fact that the anchors were all using the same phrase, and couldn't be bothered to tweak the Democrats' talking points to suggest they actually wrote their own stuff.  But you have to be twice as contemptuous of the fact that it wasn't true!

If you had stopped the broadcast at that point in any of those network news shows and had a rational debate with the anchor, I would have asked a very simple question of the anchor.  What, I would have asked, constitutes "U.S. policy" on any issue?

If the United States Congress passes, through both houses, a resolution that the capital of Israel is Jerusalem as recognized by this nation, is that not enough to say that U.S. policy is that Jerusalem is the capital?  If four consecutive presidents promote the fact that they plan to move our embassy to Jerusalem in compliance with that resolution, is that not enough to say that U.S. policy is that Jerusalem is the capital?

Let's ask the anchors this -- You just stated -- all four of you -- that President Trump's announcement that we are actually going forward on the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital changes "70 years of U.S. policy", and you called that a bad thing.  How do you claim on-air that was not our policy, at least since the 1995 resolution and the overt declarations of the last four presidents?  Do the media make policy, or does the Government?

For the record, I have no dog in that fight.  I do not lose sleep worrying about where the U.S. Embassy in Israel is.  It has always seemed that sovereign nations have the right to decide where their capitals are, and it behooves foreign countries to locate their embassies where the nation's seat of government is, sort of like Portugal deciding to locate its embassy to the USA in Scott City, Kansas.  It's fundamentally no different.

Presumably our ambassador to Israel lives in Tel Aviv, where our embassy currently is, but has to commute the 45 miles or so to Jerusalem to do anything job-related (i.e., interacting with Israeli officials in the city where they think their own capital is), or has a second residence in Jerusalem.  Either way, it is ... OK, let's say it -- stupid.  Wasteful.  Moronic, even.

But the national media are not for a moment concerned about where our embassy is located.  Had Barack Obama followed through on his promise to move the embassy, it would have been hailed by those very same anchors as some kind of bold stroke by a bold "young" president.  "Breaking decades of U.S. policy?"  Never would have crossed their lips.

The bold stroke was actually taken by the 71-year-old current president, and will be matched in courage by the next nation to follow suit and move its embassy to Jerusalem.  I hear the Czech Republic is contemplating that now.

I wonder what the networks will say then.

Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
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