Slow March to Jerusalem: Domestic Politics and the History of the U.S. Embassy in Israel

By narrating the seventy-year history of debates over relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, this chapter analyzes how domestic politics influenced public discourse over U.S. foreign policy. What was originally a peripheral issue in U.S.-Israel and Middle East diplomacy developed, by the 1970s, into a frequently discussed and bi-partisan congressional cause. The embassy move took on significant domestic political symbolism even as U.S. administrations resisted the move. When President Donald Trump enacted the move in 2017, the U.S. embassy and its location had become a powerful grassroots symbol of American values. This chapter is thus a case study in how domestic politics has influenced the course of U.S. foreign policy.