Waiver or Not

D ecember 1 is looming — six months since President Trump last signed a waiver to postpone the relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The US president will soon have to decide whether to keep his campaign promise or to delay the move yet again.

Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating the move but since then succeeding presidents have consistently delayed the move every six months. In light of the upcoming deadline and Trump’s statement last month that he wants to “give peace a shot” before making good on his campaign promise the House Oversight Subcommittee for National Security spent two hours debating the question.

“We should have our embassy in Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem ” subcommittee chairman Representative Ron DeSantis (R-Fla) said to Mishpacha. “The president has committed to do that and I think he will honor his commitment. I think the takeaway from this is: better to do it sooner rather than later.”

When asked why he thinks the president shouldn’t sign the waiver come December 1 DeSantis said “I think that moving the embassy will help to clarify things. It will help to get rid of this delusion that somehow Israel is not going to have stewardship over Jerusalem.”