The Patriot Post® · Promise Kept — Jerusalem Embassy Opens for Business

The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem officially opened today, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the creation of the modern state of Israel and one day after “Jerusalem Day,” the 51st anniversary of Israel annexing east Jerusalem, which is home to holy sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims. President Donald Trump followed through on a promise first made by the U.S. in 1995. President after president signed waivers citing security concerns over moving the embassy from Tel Aviv, succumbing to fear that the Palestinians would respond with violence, thus undermining an already fictitious “peace” process.

Why does the embassy’s location matter? Fox News explains, “Although Trump has said his declaration does not set the final borders of the city, his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has been perceived by both Israel and the Palestinians as taking Israel’s side in the most sensitive issue in their conflict. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.” Most of the world does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as a result.

Not surprisingly, the Palestinians did respond with violence. Terrorists have denied Israel’s right to exist from the moment it was formed. And radical Muslims have been slaughtering Jews for centuries. Unfortunately, the violence today resulted in at least 41 Palestinians killed, including what the Israelis called three “armed terrorists” aiming to plant a bomb near the Gaza border fence. Tens of thousands of protesters mobbed the fence, some in an attempt to cross, and Israeli soldiers fired on them.

Meanwhile, just a couple of weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron was glad-handing Trump at a White House state dinner, he was busy leading the charge to issue an official European Union statement criticizing the U.S. embassy relocation. Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania blocked it — the latter two are looking to move their embassies to Jerusalem, as well. We suppose the statement was Macron’s way of blowing raspberries at Trump for shredding the Iran deal Macron had tried to save.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pronounced that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is “the right thing to do.” He’s right. As for the future of the peace process, our own Brian Mark Weber said in December, “Peace will be illusory until Israel’s enemies accept its right to exist.”