This Year in Jerusalem?

Team Trump has belatedly opted to hold off on officially moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. That’s a prudent enough bow to the underlying realities — even if those realities are themselves absurd.

Yes, President Trump pledged repeatedly, as recently as the night before Inauguration Day, to move the embassy.

“You know that I am not a person who breaks promises,” he told the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom — mindful that past presidents, both Republican and Democratic, had made the same commitment, only to renege.

Yet all signs now are that any transfer is on hold. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer indicates that no decision to move the embassy has been made.

Yes, this is disappointing: Israel plainly has the right to say which of its own cities is its capital — just as every other nation does. The only thing that makes this controversial is the decades-old Arab obsession with denying any Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem. But the delay is also understandable. With Trump looking to quickly enact his ambitious agenda — and with the national media eagerly highlighting every miscue — the last thing the new president needs right now is a foreignpolicy crisis.

Yet it’s clear that the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas rulers of Gaza are both prepared to unleash rolling riots and a regional crisis over any embassy move.

Which is why past presidents have regularly waived the 1995 law requiring Washington to move the embassy.

Nor does Israel want a crisis now, either. Plus, it understands the difficulties this would present to countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE — which are all now engaging with Israel on security issues to counter the growing Iranian threat.

Then again, moving the embassy would not — as President Barack Obama long insisted — compromise Washington’s presumed neutrality on Jerusalem’s status.

After all, the United States already has a diplomatic facility in Jerusalem — one that acts as the de facto US representative to the Palestinian Authority.

And that facility is in East Jerusalem, whose status will be decided in negotiations — not West Jerusalem, where the embassy would be.

And which has always been part of Israel — and always will be.

Moreover, moving the embassy would demonstrate a renewed US commitment to its traditional allies and a demonstration that Washington keeps its word — both sorely lacking under Obama.

We hope Trump will decide to move the embassy, as promised, when the time is right. But it’s more important that he’s made it clear that, unlike the past eight years, Israel will have no cause to doubt that it has a real friend in the White House.