Several top Democratic lawmakers from New York State slammed US President Donald Trump for his decision to sign the waiver delaying the relocation of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital, Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Trumped signed the waiver delaying the embassy move last Thursday, June 1.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: "As someone who believes that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel, I am deeply disappointed in President Trump’s decision.”
He "Will those who criticized president Obama for not moving the embassy make their voices just as loud and just as strong when it comes to President Trump’s failure to move the embassy?”
Congressman Elliot Engel, the ranking member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said that Trump's campaign promise to move the embassy was the only issue he had agreed with the president on. "The one campaign promise I hoped President Trump would keep was to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. But like much of what he said during the campaign, that, too, was a lot of bluster and is now another example of the president sending mixed and confusing signals to our friends around the world.”
"It just doesn’t make sense that our embassy in a closely allied country isn’t in the same city as the government with which we need to work so closely,” he added.
The Trump Administration remains adamant that Trump did not renege on his campaign promise to move the embassy and still plans to do so at a later date.
No one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the president’s strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters last week following the signing of the waiver. “President Trump made this decision to maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, fulfilling his solemn obligation to defend America’s national security interests. As he has repeatedly stated his intention to move the embassy, the question is not if that move happens, but only when."