Senate Overwhelmingly Votes to Keep U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem

The Senate overwhelmingly voted Thursday night in favor of keeping the U.S. embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, solidifying former President Donald Trump’s historic move to relocate the facility from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital city.

The 97-3 vote came as part of an amendment offered to a massive budgetary bill passed in an overnight session of the Senate. Only three lawmakers voted against the measure: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass), and Tom Carper (D., Del.)

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.), one of the amendment’s authors, said the vote made the embassy’s location “permanent,” and would prevent further attempts to have it moved.

“It’s an important message that we acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Inhofe said.

Moving the embassy was one of Trump’s signature foreign policy decisions and President Joe Biden promised while on the campaign trail to not undue the move, which formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, bucking years of traditional American foreign policy positions on the city and its status.