ICEJ COMMENTARY
President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
PM Benjamin and Sarah Netanyahu with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in front of the US Embassy in Jerusalem
Trump’s Scorecard ON ISRAEL B Y D A R Y L H E D D I N G , I C E J U S A de p u t y direc t o r
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n 2016, the ICEJ’s USA Branch launched a campaign to request confirmation from the two presidential candidates that they would abide by five guiding principles regarding Israel. The Trump campaign responded in the affirmative while we never heard back from the Clinton campaign. Much has happened in the last four years, and since we are again in a presidential election cycle, it seemed like a good time to score President Trump on his performance to date about these agreed principles.
allowing presidents to postpone moving the embassy due to perceived security threats.) Undeterred, the ICEJ joined several key Christian leaders in November—ahead of the next possible security waiver—to once again remind President Trump of his promise to move the embassy and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy there
In December, President Trump ended years of heartache for millions of evangelicals in America and shocked the entire world when he did not renew the waiver and declared that the United States was officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and would be moving the embassy there from Tel Aviv.
After Trump’s confirmation in January of 2017, the ICEJ moved quickly on this issue, sending him a strategy paper in April, laying out the benefits of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. In May, the ICEJ joined another 60 US Christian leaders in urging Trump to keep his promise but were dismayed when he followed the example of every president before him since Bill Clinton and used a security waiver to delay the move by six months. (A clause was built into the 1995 Jerusalem Law
If that did not cause enough of an uproar around the globe, in January 2018, President Trump surprised everyone with the announcement that the US Embassy would open in Jerusalem on May 14—Israel’s 70th anniversary—that same year. Not many saw that announcement, and the initiative certainly laid to rest any lingering doubts about the president’s willingness to fulfill his promise on this count. It also shot a big, gaping hole through the security threat excuse that every president for the last 20 years
r Principle 1: Recognize Jerusalem
4 | SEPTEMBER 2020
before Trump had used. For those who had never accepted the perceived wisdom on this issue, validation had seldom been sweeter, and the world war that failed to materialize wasn’t much of a surprise either. President Trump gets full marks on this point.
r Principle 2: Renew the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel, which provides aid in response to Israel’s growing security needs The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides security assistance to Israel so it can maintain its military edge in the region and defend itself against an array of threats. A new MOU was agreed to on September 14, 2016, under the Obama administration and contains the largest single pledge of military assistance in US history. Under President Trump’s leadership, Congress passed a funding bill in February 2019 allowing for the $200 million increase in annual spending required to meet the obligations of the new MOU.
