Nikki Haley on Jerusalem: ‘All Due Respect’

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The New York Sun

Our favorite part of Ambassador Nikki Haley’s new book — “With All Due Respect” — is her account of the move of the American embassy in Israel to the capital at Jerusalem. Our erstwhile envoy to the United Nations provides a glimpse of the attempt by the State Department to suborn President Trump into betraying a bright-line campaign promise. She relates Mr. Trump’s decision to keep faith with his campaign vow.

And with Congress. That’s the thing that makes the episode over the embassy so remarkable. The Trump saga is littered with examples of Mr. Trump ignoring advice from the “deep state” or what have been called “adults in the room.” These are often over matters that haven’t been fermented by the Congress or, for that matter, the press. Some seem to be Mr. Trump’s whim, rarely vetted by, say, Congress. Fair enough, we say.

The Jerusalem embassy, though, is a case of the supposed adults of the “deep state” who were seeking to drive the President off a policy that was debated for years. The move was a bipartisan goal. When we were editing the Forward, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a leading Democrat, once came to our office to argue for moving the embassy. The Jerusalem Embassy Act was first offered by a Republican, Senator Dole.

When the Jerusalem Embassy Act was finally passed, Congress was almost unanimous. The House voted 374 to 37, the Senate 93 to five. The embassy move became legislated foreign policy of America, though Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama, maintained the Congress’ constitutional power on foreign affairs was, owing to the doctrine of separated powers, merely advisory.

Congress compromised, writing into the embassy law a waiver by which the president could delay the move to Jerusalem — for six months. The blasted waiver was signed every six months for a generation. In 2016, the Republicans vowed in their platform to move the embassy. The voters finally decided the matter, when Mr. Trump underlined the vow on the stump — and went on to win 60% of the states.

It is just amazing that in such a context, any secretary of state — in the event it was Secretary Tillerson — would fetch up in the new administration plumping to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv. Yet that is what Ambassador Haley reports was the case. Within six months of becoming ambassador, she writes, Jerusalem emerged as a point of contention within the cabinet, with dissenters asserting that the move would beget violence.

Ms. Haley writes that “one White House official” attempted to “enlist” her “in convincing the president to back off his promise.” Writes she: “I refused, because I wanted the president to go ahead with it.” Resistance continued. “In every meeting of the president’s cabinet and national security advisors, there was a faction that seemed to think they, not the president, should make the final decision when it came to policy.”

“They thought they could team up and spin the president — and they tried. Some, like Secretary of State Tillerson, seemed to be thinking primarily about how the decision would affect their reputations. He declared in the middle of the meeting that he wanted to be on record opposing the move.” He ended up on the same side of the issue as Al-Qaeda and Hamas, as well as President Macron, Prime Minister May, and Chancellor Merkel.

The Jerusalem Embassy yarn helps one understand why so many Americans stick by Mr. Trump despite all the controversies. It causes one to appreciate his predicament — and to marvel that even after the American people made themselves so clear, only Mr. Trump, Vice President Pence, and our magnificent ambassadors, David Friedman and Mrs. Haley were prepared to act without truculence.

________

Correction: 93 to five is the tally of votes in the Senate for moving the embassy to Jerusalem; the tally was misstated in earlier editions of this editorial.


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