THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

One of his more stunning campaign promises was to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, in contradiction of 60 years of US policy. As with most of his promises, he has yet to keep that one.

Israeli officials say Trump has led them astray by failing to follow through on repeated promises to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“For the record, we recognize Washington, D.C.,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who now serves as deputy minister for diplomacy in the Netanyahu government. “We’re not going with Philadelphia. We’re not going with New York. We’re sticking with Washington, D.C. But that recognition is not reciprocated. It’s odd.”

For the last 60 years, U.S. policy has been to recognize no state as having sovereignty over Jerusalem. The issue is so contentious that the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and ruled that Jerusalem-born Americans can’t list Israel as their birthplace on their passports.

Oren, a member of the centrist Kulanu party, said Trump had lost credibility with some Israelis who believed him when he promised during his campaign for the presidency to move the embassy. Oren said he understood that doing so would be controversial and would anger some Palestinians, but he thinks the repercussions will be greater if Trump backs down from his promise.

“If it had been a one-off and he said it one time,” Oren said, the promise could be forgotten. “But he said it several times. It was a staggering campaign promise.”

The battle over the embassy is only one example of the issues that are testing Trump’s bond with the Netanyahu government.

Some Israeli officials were on edge after Trump allegedly disclosed highly classified intelligence gathered by Israeli officials to Russian officials. Even Trump’s visit Monday to one of Judaism’s holiest sites, the Western Wall, was complicated by Israeli reports that U.S. officials had told Netanyahu he should not join Trump because the wall, which was captured from Jordan in 1967, “isn’t your territory.”

“This is in the West Bank. It is a private visit by the president, and it’s not your business,” a U.S. official said last week, according to Israel’s Channel Two News.

The same news report quoted a White House spokesperson later saying the comments “do not reflect the U.S. position, and certainly not the president’s position.”

Another worthless promise from an incompetent man. Why is anyone surprised.