McCain Vows To Relocate U.S Embassy To Jerusalem

On Friday, John McCain made a bold move by promising that, if elected, one of his first acts as president would be to relocate the U.S Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“Right away,” Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) the presumptive Republican nominee for president told CNN Friday. “I’ve been committed to that proposition for years.”

Despite Jerusalem being the administrative capital of Israel, no foreign embassies are located there, the majority being in Tel Aviv; this is a result of the significant outrage this would cause among the Palestinian and Arab people, who demand that Jerusalem will be their capital in any peace compromise.

Barack Obama, McCain’s counterpart, said that he would “only consider such a move once the sides come close to a final status peace agreement.”

Whether McCain keeps his word if elected president is up in the air, since Bush also made the same promise prior to the 2000 elections. I do however believe that McCain will keep his word; in my opinion he has shown much support and encouragement to Israel, especially in Sderot. In March during his visit to the rocket-barraged city, McCain stated that Israel “has a duty to protect its citizens” and that if rockets were hitting his home state of Arizona, that he would naturally respond in a way to protect his people. McCain shows the logic and common sense regarding this conflict that I think will be good for Israel.

McCain would not comment on how he would react should Israel preemptively attack Iran to prevent its acquisition of nuclear weapons. All he would say was that “the United State of America is committed to making sure there is not a second Holocaust.”