The Senate voted 97-3 on Feb. 4 in favor of a resolution to keep America’s Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.
Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe pushed for the resolution to be included as part of the budget Congress is currently considering. He called the embassy move “an important message.”
Later today, I will be pushing for a vote on my budget resolution amendment that would make the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem permanent, effectively preventing it from being downgraded or moved. It’s an important message that we acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
— Sen. Jim Inhofe (@JimInhofe) February 4, 2021
The vote is a win for former President Donald Trump, who recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and began plans to move the embassy from Tel Aviv in 2017. New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer welcomed the move at the time. (RELATED: FLASHBACK: All The Times Past Presidents Promised To Move US Embassy To Jerusalem)
Many countries in the United Nations opposed Trump’s decision, but the United States blocked a Security Council resolution condemning the move.
“Over many years, the United Nations has outrageously been one of the world’s foremost centers of hostility towards Israel,” then-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said at the time.
Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, and Delaware Democrat Tom Carper were the only senators to oppose Inhofe’s resolution, according to Newsweek. Sanders also opposed the move during the Democratic presidential primaries.
Moving the embassy back to Tel Aviv was an issue “we need to take into consideration,” Sanders said during the Feb. 25, 2020 debate, according to Haaretz.