BICOM

The White House will this week announce its decision about the future location of the US Embassy in Israel.

US President Donald Trump missed Monday’s deadline to sign a waiver delaying implementation of the US law requiring the embassy to be moved to Jerusalem. White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters on Air Force One that a decision will be made in the coming days. A speech by the President is expected on Wednesday.

In 1995 the US Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act obligating the State Department to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Since then every President has postponed the move by signing a waiver every six months.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to  President Trump on Monday and expressed his concern about a shift in the US position and warned that Jerusalem’s status must be decided “within the framework of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians”.

The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Abul Gheit, said such a move would pose a threat “to the stability of the Middle East and the whole world”. “Any US announcement on the status of Jerusalem prior to a final settlement would have a detrimental impact on the peace process and would heighten tensions in the region,” said Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Khalid bin Salman.

The security establishment in Israel is preparing for the possibility of an outburst of Palestinian violence, mainly in Jerusalem. The US administration has also instructed its delegations, mainly the consulates and the embassies in the Middle East, to be on alert for demonstrations against its institutions.

Alex Fishman writes in Yediot Ahronot that “security officials stress that as of now, the statements by the Palestinian leadership against the American course of action have still not crossed a line and have not pushed the street to violence. However, they say that this line could be crossed in the blink of an eye, even without the Palestinian Authority’s urging, as happened five months ago.”