4 | MAY 25 • 2023 

PURELY COMMENTARY

essay
The Jerusalem Embassy, 
Five Years Later
O

n May 14, 2018, 
something incredible 
happened.
The United States finally opened 
our embassy in Jerusalem, 23 years 
after we first promised 
to do so.
This was an 
important moment 
for Israel. But it was 
just as important for 
America. It showed 
that we keep our 
word, stand with our 
allies and put our own interests 
and principles ahead of the world’s 
demands.
The day was a long time 
coming. In 1995, Congress 
passed and President Bill Clinton 
signed the Jerusalem Embassy 
Act, which pledged to move the 
American embassy from Tel Aviv 
to Jerusalem. This should not 
have been a controversial move. 
Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. America 
had located its embassy in the capital 
city of every other country, just not 
Israel.
But Republicans and Democrats alike 
ignored the Act. Even though it was 
passed by an overwhelming margin, 
three straight presidents declined to 
implement it. They were warned that 
the sky would fall if we moved our 
embassy. So, the leaders of the free 
world gave into fear and cowardice.
Even in 2017, it was not a foregone 
conclusion that America would fulfill 
its decades-old promise. Many of my 
colleagues in the Trump administration 
were strongly opposed to the idea. 
They warned that our allies would turn 
against us, Americans would be killed 
and war in the Middle East would 
quickly ignite.
Some of us knew better. Twenty-two 
years of the status quo hadn’t curbed 

Palestinian terrorism or brought the 
two sides closer to a peace agreement. 
Our unwillingness to act only made 
America look weak. A country that 
can’t fulfill a simple decades-old 
promise to an ally is a country no one 
respects. Everyone walks all over it.
Moving our embassy was ultimately 
about standing up for ourselves. No one 
— not the U.N., not our friends and 
certainly not our enemies — has the 
right to tell the United States where to 
put our embassy. After Donald Trump 
made the decision to implement the 
Act, I proudly vetoed a U.N. resolution 
criticizing the U.S. for doing so. I was 
the lone veto out of the 15-member 
Security Council. It was the first U.S. 
veto at the U.N. in nearly seven years.
In my speech following the veto, 
I explained, “Jerusalem has been 
the political, cultural and spiritual 
homeland of the Jewish people for 

thousands of years” and that 
America was acknowledging the 
obvious.
Just as importantly, I stood up 
to the critics, defended American 
sovereignty and took the names 
of those who attacked us. As I 
warned, “The United States will 
remember this day in which it 
was singled out for attack in the 
General Assembly for the very 
act of exercising our right as a 
sovereign nation. … This vote will 
be remembered.”
For too long, America acted 
like an international doormat. 
We worried more about upsetting 
enemies than defending friends. 
We looked the other way when evil 
regimes committed unspeakable 
crimes. We convinced ourselves 
that playing nice would make the 
worst countries in the world play 
nice, too.
They did not. All we did was 
embarrass ourselves.
Five years later, the U.S. embassy 
in Jerusalem is a proud symbol of 
American strength and the strength of 
the U.S.-Israel relationship. It is also a 
reminder of how America can and must 
ignore the bullies and do what’s right — 
not least because it puts the bullies in 
their place.
More than ever before, the United 
States needs to send the message that 
our friends can trust us, our enemies 
should fear us, and we’ll do what’s 
right no matter who stands in the way. 
That is the lesson of moving the U.S. 
embassy to Jerusalem. It’s a lesson we 
need to remember, and then remind the 
world of it. 

Nikki Haley was a U.S. ambassador to the United 

Nations during the Trump administration and is 

currently running against former President Trump for 

the 2024 Repubican presidential nominaton.

Nikki Haley

The plaque on the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem 
dedicated on Israel’s 70th anniversary in 2018.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

