Next Year in Jerusalem
Relocate the U.S. embassy.

By NR Editors
December 19, 2001 1:25 p.m.

he Middle East at the moment is more than unusually rocky. Islamist extremism is a threat to several Arab regimes. On the run from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda terrorists can count on clandestine networks to help them regroup and start all over again. The Saudi royal family has never been so unpopular. Poverty and oppression everywhere are breeding discontent, perhaps revolution. Any day, some Palestinian suicide bomber may spark a wider conflagration involving Israel and its neighbors.

The good news is that the United States has fought and won a campaign that numerous critics judged certain to end in shipwreck. Victory, they held rather patronizingly, would inflame the "Arab street" with a generalized anti-American sentiment. Nothing of the kind has occurred. On the contrary, Arabs everywhere have taken note of American political resolve and military capacities. They know that the United States is doing what it has to do, and that power in the pursuit of national interest is only normal, not in the least shocking. Had the United States failed to react as it did to September 11, the Arabs would have lost all respect for it, and their anti-Americanism would have conveyed contempt for people too feeble to defend themselves.

The next immediate step should be to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the country's capital. In every presidential campaign, the candidates declare their willingness, even eagerness, to do this. The eventual president, however, discovers that somehow the moment is not opportune. This is supposed to be tactful to the Arabs, but more often than not they interpret it as a failure of political resolve.

As things stand now, Islamist extremists are attacking Israel in the expectation that one more suicide bomber will somehow blow the country apart, and there will be no more Jews in it. Like Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, they have parted company with reality. Yasser Arafat bleats that he can do nothing about the terrorists whom he is supposed to be governing. In this quandary, the Sharon government hesitates to adopt the obvious tactic of occupying Palestinian territory and cleaning out everyone who possesses a gun or a grenade.

To relocate the embassy is a simple but highly symbolic step, signifying that Israel's legitimacy and secure future are beyond question. This not only acts to reassure Israelis, but also serves notice on Islamist extremists that they are deluding and harming themselves in their attempt to eliminate Israel. After the Afghan success, even small symbolic acts of power may serve to enforce reality and stabilize the Middle East.