Without Israeli Opposition, US Embassy Would Be In Jerusalem

From Arutz Sheva:

Former Israeli Consul General to the US Yoram Ettinger revealed at the Jerusalem Conference Wednesday that Israel prevented a move that would have relocated the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

“The US Senate was ready to do away with the waiver that allows the president to defer the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem,” Ettinger said during a round-table discussion at the Jerusalem Conference. “There were over 80 senators – enough to override any [presidential] veto.”

It was the Israeli government, Ettinger said, who intervened on behalf of leaving the Embassy in Tel Aviv. “The problem is that both houses of congress have been firmer on Jerusalem than any Israeli government since 1993.”

Ettinger did not elaborate which Israeli government it was that told Congress to stand down.

Read the whole thing.

Question: Are you surprised by this? If not, what does that say about the actions of Olmert and of the Israeli government over the last number of years?
At some point, peace negotiations require assuming a position of strength

So what was this Jerusalem Conference?

When the Jerusalem Conference was first established, one of the motivations was the left-wing slant of the Herzliya Conference, which went to the extent of not hosting even one opponent of a Palestinian state in 2004 - the year then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unveiled his Disengagement Plan during the keynote address. Jerusalem Conference Chairman Robert Rechnitz said, however, that the Jerusalem Conference is not seeking to be a sectarian counter-balance, but to be the new consensus - to return Jerusalem to center stage with a diverse meeting of the minds that befits a discussion on the Jewish future taking place in Israel’s eternal capital.

See schedule of what was discussed (February 19-20) here.
More info, some videos and photos here.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jerusalem.