The Foreign Service Journal, March 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2017 13 The 2017 version of the bill contains a proposal to cut in half spending desig- nated for security at embassies world- wide. U.S. diplomats and staff working under threat conditions, wherever they serve, will incur even greater risks if this passes. The principles that underlie our Middle East policies have been in place since the post-World War I era and the independence of Israel after 1948, and they apply to the status of Jerusalem, at the epicenter of complex local, regional and global fault lines across that part of the world. The United States has, from the recog- nition of the independence of the State of Israel, maintained a consistent position on the Jerusalem question and its cen- trality to the conflicting stances by Israel and the Palestinians as to Jerusalem’s primacy as their capital city. Certainly, since 1948, there have been efforts to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as part of the U.S. commitment to the very existence of Israel. Such a move—or even the suggestion that this relocation might be considered in the near term, or even the foreseeable future—runs great risks that would touch a “seismic” zone that extends beyond Jerusalem and our commitment to Israel as a state. In its basic application, the U.S. stance on Jerusalem that has stood for almost 70 years maintains the prin- ciple that the parties to the central dispute must themselves negotiate how Jerusalem can best exist in a crucible of conflict that goes far beyond the narrow focus of the city itself. Many who have commented on the current simmering of the issue know well the wider implications of the dis- pute, and the historic political, religious and geographic complexities that make this Gordian knot impossible (at this time, at least) to untie. The present state of affairs throughout the Middle East (and bordering lands), and the inability of the United Nations and the major powers outside the region to modify the “tectonics” of the issue, require that policies meant to avert slip- page in the central fault must remain in place until a modern-day Solomon descends on the scene. In the meantime, to move our embassy to Jerusalem will only exacer- bate the stresses on the fault. Ignoring the inherent potential for disaster in such a decision would be folly, pure and simple. David Rabadan FSO, retired Annandale, Virginia CORRECTION In “Notes to the New Administration” in the January-February FSJ , the entry by Michelle Dworkin (“Set an Example of Respect for Diversity”) misstated the number of Locally Employed staff sup- porting USAID overseas. According to the June 2016 USAID Staffing Report, the number is 4,935, not 10,000. n Share your thoughts about this month’s issue. Submit letters to the editor: journal@afsa.org