Barack Obama has poked yet another American ally in the eye. In 1995, Congress overwhelmingly passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, pledging to move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the Israelis consider to be their capital. President Clinton signed this bill into law, but then established a practice of issuing a "Presidential Determination" every six months, delaying the move for another half-year out of concerns for national security. (The Palestinians consider Jerusalem to be their territory.) Nevertheless, these memos contained an important diplomatic sentence: "My Administration remains committed to beginning the process of moving our embassy to Jerusalem." This practice continued through George W. Bush's two terms up until this past June, when Barack Obama issued the first of his Presidential Determinations. In Obama's version, the sentence about being committed to an American embassy in Jerusalem was omitted.
On December 3rd, 2009, Obama issued his second of these six-month delays, again without the "committing" line, and thereby nullified a law unanimously passed by Congress fourteen years ago.
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