Trump and the embassy

He said he’ll still move it but is only delaying the timing of the move.

What’s the big deal? Even if it stays in Tel Aviv, who cares.

Is it getting much covfefe from the press?

Does Israel have any control over the location of the embassies?

For that matter, how that does work in general? If France decided to move their U.S. embassy to New Orleans, could they do that? Or does the U.S. decide on the location?

If France were to move its embassy to New Orleans (or more realistically, if israel were to move its embassy to Brooklyn), the United States would be insulted. The only option would be to break diplomatic relations. That means client states, such as Israel, which need the superpower’s help more than the reverse, are stuck when the patron chooses to insult them. Given the Tel Aviv is the economic, cultural and political center of Israel, having an embassy in Jerusalem is not all that important. Nothing prevent the current ambassador from living in Jerusalem, and one can argue that Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are no further apart than, say Far Rockaway or the southern tip of Staten Island from mid-town Manhattan. The bottom line though, is that by not recognizing Israeli ownership of territory gained in the 1947-49. the US is officially agreeing with those question the legality of the medinah’s existence under international law.

Actually,
A country can’t move its embassy without the permission of the host country. The embassy and its grounds function as quasi-sovereign territory of the host country. Over the years we have seen examples of asylum seekers spending years living in an embassy compound unmolested by the host country. Each existing embassy in Washington DC and to the UN in NYC were approved by the US government before the property was purchased and the foreign flag hoisted. The embassy property often has foreign military with arms, something a host country would not allow to be placed willy nilly around the country. This is why countries establish consulates outside capital cities. The Consul is generally a citizen of the host country with limited Diplomatic Authority granted by the foreign country to serve visiting nationals and stimulate business and cultural/travel exchanges.

Sorry Joseph…
I don’t agree with you about Consuls (and I was not talking about ‘Honorary’ ones). For many years my Israeli cousin was the Consul for a Central American country. While he was still active in business a room in his Tel Aviv offices functioned as the Consulate. After his retirement, there was a plaque on his Herzylia Pituach home stating Consulado de XXXXXX. He issued travel Visas for Israelis traveling to that country and promoted tourism and business.

In the 1980s I was the Consul General for a small European country in one Connecticut city where I had both a factory with many of their citizens as employees and several retail establishments.
There are career diplomats below the rank of Ambassador with the title of Consul representing some countries, but small countries find it far more cost effective to appoint citizens of the country they wish to be represented in to handle these part time duties.
My cousin in Israel loved the position which he held for more than 30 years because he and his wife got diplomatic passports, ‘CC’ plates for their cars and the ability to purchase most things without import duty or VAT.

There are some small countries who do not maintain embassies in all countries with which they have diplomatic relations. It is just too expensive Sometimes they appoint an ambassador to serve several countries and he is based ion a physical embassy in one of them. He occasionally travels to the others as needed, but a consulate handles every day needs. When my cousin was the Consul for the Central American country they did not maintain an embassy in Israel. When they finally established one it is in an office in Herzylia Pituach and is not staffed by a resident ambassador.

Or get a State Department Diplomatic license plate?

No special license plates.
BTW…The US State Department does not issue Diplomatic license plates in the assorted states. You register your car and get a plate issued by the Motor Vehicle Dept in your own state. No special designation. No ability to be a scofflaw and not pay parking tickets.
No tax breaks, etc.
Being the Consular representative cost me out of pocket money. I operated out of my office and a secretary on my staff handled calls and took messages. I had open office hours one afternoon each week from 2-4 when I assisted with travel visas, those nationals who had stayed long and needed to renew passports, etc. All I did was collect the documents and send them on to the embassy in Washington for processing via a weekly courier.
There was a large immigrant community from this country and I was the ‘polished’ local face of authority. Appearing at cultural events, speaking at Chamber of Commerce and Business Industry association meetings trying to facilitate trade. I was not responsible for stimulating the leisure tourist trade, that was handled by regional sales reps from the national airline.

I owned a garment factory in that city in addition to a departments store. About 25% of my employees in the factory and 15% of my customers were immigrants from that country. Most were not yet US citizens. I was approached by some prominent members of the community and told that they had lobbied their embassy in Washington for a Consul in the city. They put forward my name, an attorney born in the a good working relationship with the immigrant community who could read, write and speak the language.
This was just good citizenship by providing service to that community and at the same time helping with applications for relatives to come to the US and many became employed in my factory. This was a time when most Americans were no longer interested in the needle trades.
It is now 30 years since I stopped doing business in that city and gave up the Consul’s position. I made many business and political connections that have been useful over the years. Most satisfying was helping more than 400 immigrants become citizens and 250 potential immigrants to come legally to the US with Visas I helped facilitate.

Who cares where the US embassy is? Well, when Obama was president, the Obama-haters cared and wanted it in Jerusalem. Now that Trump is president, the Obama-haters seem not to care.

So it looks increasingly likely that Trump will take this step, and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in the next 24 hours or so, although it seems as if he will not move the embassy there. I for one hope that he can be dissuaded from carrying this out, as frankly the only people who will welcome this move will be certain sections of the Israeli right. But as a nascent Jerusalemite, I have no wish for an unnecessary return to the increased dangers of recent years. I’m writing this literally on the border between East and West, and am relatively safe standing here. I have no interest in being needlessly endangered over a purely symbolic move. I’d be astonished if anybody considered this good news for the Jewish inhabitants of Yerusholayim. Best case scenario, there’s significant unrest, worst case, another Intifada.

If this nitwit makes the announcement to “deliver” on a campaign promise and we have dead or injured government employees or citizens in foreign capitals, their blood will be on Trump’s hands. Recall when another symbolic effort by an Israeli politician to visit har habayis set off rioting which resulted in deaths and injuries which he glibly dismissed as the collateral damage from fulfilling a political imperative.

If the driving force to make the change comes from the Israeli government, and the U.S. merely supports the change, then any negative effects can be blamed on Israeli policy.

There are no embassies in New York. Those are only consulates. All the embassies are in Washington.

@Neville

@Joseph

There are 8 countries who have designated their Missions to the United Nations in NYC to also serve as their Embassy to the USA.

This is not an unusual situation, as some countries will designate an Ambassador to serve as representative to more than one country. Israel, for example maintains only 69 embassies while having diplomatic recognition from more than 150 countries. In Latin America and the Caribbean the Israeli Ambassador may serve multiple countries from one embassy and have use of a consular or other office when visiting them

The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 is a public law of the United States passed by the 104th Congress on October 23, 1995. It was passed for the purposes of initiating and funding the relocation of the Embassy of the United States in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, … The act also called for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city and for it to be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel. … Since passage, the law has never been implemented, because of opposition from Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump, who view it as a Congressional infringement on the executive branch’s constitutional authority over foreign policy …

From Wikipedia article “Jerusalem Embassy Act”.