Blame Obama

In 1995 the American Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and suggesting that the US embassy would move to Jerusalem before the end of the millennium.

Sadly Bill Clinton’s second term was dominated by sexual scandal. He was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice and barely clung to

power so that implementing the 1995 Act was not a priority.

In the 2000 election campaign, George W Bush promised to move the embassy and attacked Clinton for failing to deliver.

After 9/11, however, he was distracted by his disastrous decision to invade Iraq. Barack Obama also accepted Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but after a tiff with Benjamin Netanyahu supported the 2016 UN resolution that declared the Western Wall and Jewish Quarter to be illegally occupied by Israel.

It is, of course, beyond the jurisdiction of the UN to tell a sovereign nation what it can and cannot recognise but much of the present uproar stems from Obama’s fit of pique rather than Trump fulfilling a campaign promise. (REV DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place, St Andrews