israelinsider: Move the embassy now

Bob Westbrook, of Tampa, Florida, is a computer professional with his own consulting business. He writes commentaries from a Christian Zionist perspective, endeavoring to encourage Christian support for Israel. He is the Bible Prophecy moderator for the website Israel My Beloved and the author of Trumpet Sounds.

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Move the embassy now
By Bob Westbrook April 29, 2001

As an American, I've been dismayed for some time at my government's obstinate refusal to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For many reasons, the US embassy should have been moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem long ago. When I heard that Presidential candidate Bush had promised to "begin the process" of moving it immediately after achieving the White House, I was heartened. Yet my optimism was tempered by some well-earned cynicism about the nature of the political process, where words often seem to mean nothing.

Of course, candidate Bush is now President Bush. By this time, one would expect to see, based on his word, construction equipment busily working at the site along Hebron Road in Jerusalem. How silly of us to think that a candidate would actually perform what he stated regarding Jerusalem.

In a case of doublespeak that is positively Clintonesque in scope, Secretary of State Colin Powell has explained what candidate Bush really meant. It turns out that "begin the process" doesn't mean what those of us who make a practice of assigning meaning to simple English thought it meant. Silly us.

You see, "begin the process" doesn't mean they intend to actually do anything. As Powell explains to us in his class of Doublespeak 101, to "begin the process" means to think about it and talk about it and assess it and analyze it, and perhaps someday they might actually do something. Perhaps.

Later, in another televised interview, Powell tripped over himself a few times, mistakenly stating the truth, declaring that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. But after being promptly scolded and reeducated by his Arabist underlings, who after all have much more experience in this type of thing, he quickly recanted.

So, according to that official convoluted explanation, the Bush administration could easily be "beginning the process" for the entire 4 year period of his administration. In fact, it appears that this is their intention. They officially regard the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be decided with negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. Therefore, according to this policy, they cannot actually "begin the process" because that would be an unilateral action in support of Israel, and might upset some oil-pumping types.

Anyone with any degree of integrity can discern that the Bush administration's twisting of the English language is disingenuous at best. President Bush, let's suppose that your adolescent daughter asks you to remodel her room. You gladly respond that you will "begin the process" next month after you get a bonus you are expecting. Next month, the bonus comes, but no remodeling is forthcoming. When she goes to you to inquire as to the reason, you tell her that you have already "begun the process" of remodeling, but this means that you need to think about it for awhile to gauge the feasibility of it. Months pass, and then years, with the same explanation. Would it be any wonder that this young woman would begin to regard her parent with no small degree of disgust and mistrust, because he did not keep his simple word to her?

This is the essence of the matter. President Bush, be a man of your word. Move the embassy now. Begin the process - give the order to the builders. It is long overdue.