Mazel Tov: Chuck Schumer and Ted Cruz Are Teaming Up to Move the American Embassy to Jerusalem
This has been a very rare week of unity in Washington.
We have seen Congress come together in unity, deeply meaningful acts of bipartisanship, and we even saw Nancy Pelosi pray for Donald Trump's success. And the week has not ended yet.
Now Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), two of the most firebrand partisans in the Senate, are uniting on an issue they both agree upon: moving America's Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
The two spoke on Thursday to the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center on Capitol Hill to advance that cause.
The move of the embassy would be a bold American statement, affirming Jerusalem as the undisputed capital of Israel. The claim of the Holy City has long been laid by Palestinians. Israeli forces fought for and took the Old City back from the Jordanian army in the 1967 Six Day War.
The American embassy is currently located in Tel Aviv.
According to a report from The Free Beacon:
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) called on the Trump administration Thursday to resume plans to relocate the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Their demand comes two weeks after President Donald Trump signed an order putting those plans on hold to avoid driving Palestinians away from a peace agreement.
“Fifty years later, now is finally time to recognize Jerusalem as the one eternal and indivisible capital,” Cruz said at a luncheon hosted by the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center on Capitol Hill. “I believe it is long past time to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, where it belongs.”
Schumer, who has long been a staunch advocate of Israel, has also broken ranks with his party to oppose the highly controversial Obama administration Iran Deal.
Donald Trump, who recently visited Israel and engaged in a number of presidential historic firsts, has demurred on the embassy move.
The president noted on multiple occasions during his campaign that he would move the embassy, but his administration has punted the decision, insisting the topic will be revisited in six months. White House officials have said the move is intended to bring Palestinians to the table on a Trump-negotiated Middle East peace deal.
All in all, it seems the Cruz-Schumer alliance is a worthwhile measure of bipartisanship, even if lasts only for a short time.