Lost in the hoopla of President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, is his decision not to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Of course, this isn't a surprising development. If the Trump Administration cannot move itself to state The Western Wall is in Israel why would it move our embassy?
To be fair to Trump, Ted Cruz would have pulled this stunt too.
Indeed, Trump now joins the ranks of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush who promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem only to get cold feet.
I would like to make the following suggestion to future presidential candidates, be they Democrats, Republicans or otherwise.
Stop promising to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Oh, I think the embassy should be moved.
But it is nothing more than a promise they have no intention of keeping. It's just a platitude to get Jewish and/or pro-Israel voters.
Should any future presidential candidate make this promise, I will not believe them.
NRO's Jim Geraghty notes that Barack Obama never made such a promise. In a way this is a credit to Obama. Don't get me wrong. Obama behaved like a jerk towards Israel, especially to Netanyahu. But for Obama to have made such a promise would have been utterly disingenuous and I am glad he didn't go down that road. Obama is clear where he stood with Israel even if it was on the wrong side.
I realize politicians will make and break promises until the end of time. But going forward I would much rather have a presidential candidate not promise such a move and make it unexpectedly than the presidential candidate who promises it and knows he/she cannot deliver.
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