12-09-2017, 03:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-09-2017, 03:17 AM by Mystic Wanderer.)
(12-09-2017, 12:29 AM)Grace Wrote: The US congress passed legislation back in 1995 that officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. ..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/poli...6c1c432c56
From Grace's source above:
Quote:The bill was not signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. Clinton had made an early effort to craft a new peace agreement in the Middle East, forging the Oslo accords between Israel and Palestinians, signed in 1993 and September 1995. (Rabin’s support for the accords was apparently one of the things that motivated his assassin.) The Embassy Act, Clinton said in a statement, “could hinder the peace process. I will not let this happen and will use the legislation’s waiver authority to avoid damage to the peace process.”
That waiver authority was a critical escape valve for Clinton and his successors. Initially, the legislation introduced by then-Kansas senator Bob Dole ® mandated that groundbreaking on a new embassy in Jerusalem begin in 1996. To quell concerns from Clinton allies on the Hill, Dole added a provision that allowed the president to postpone implementation of the move for six months if “such suspension is necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.”
The bill became law after Clinton declined to sign it for a 10-day period while Congress was in session. He, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all postponed the embassy move every six months for each of the 22 years since the law was enacted.
Passing the law allowed Congress to demonstrate commitment to the issue while not forcing the president to act on it. It also meant that, for those interested in doing so, the issue was kept alive as a political issue.
Over the course of his time in politics, Donald Trump has been interested in doing so.
Trump finally did it.
