President Trump’s first overseas trip in May 2017 coincided with a very special day — the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. The reunification, in 1967, was the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple by Roman armies 2,000 years ago, that Judaism’s holiest sites were finally brought under Jewish sovereignty.

Jerusalem is a vibrant, modern, thriving city. It’s a pilgrim site central to the history of Jews, Christians and Muslims — and open to people of all faiths. The city is the home of the Israeli government, parliament and high court. It is a city interspersed with universities, museums and ancient buildings.

Jerusalem is the perfect capital. What is missing are the embassies of other nations to the state of Israel.

President Trump vowed to change that.

During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; he also said that he would do it “fairly quickly.”

Yet in June of this year, Trump waived a 1995 law mandating moving the embassy — just as every president has done before him.

And recently, in an interview with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Trump poured cold water on the hope of relocation: “I want to give [the Israeli-Palestinian peace process] a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” Trump said.

Trump seems to have fallen victim to the persistent myth that the chances for peace would be undermined by affirming Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem.

Responding to Trump’s comment, Senator Charles Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, renewed his call for the president to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Criticizing Trump’s “indecisiveness,” Schumer said: “Moving the embassy as soon as possible would appropriately commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification and show the world that the US definitively acknowledges Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”

Schumer’s position is not as controversial as critics of the move like to claim. First, it’s a consensus view in Israel. And there has long been bipartisan support in the US for the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which authorized the relocation of the embassy.

“Non-fulfillment of the law does no good to the US-Israeli relationship or to prospects for Arab-Israel peace,” a group of Democratic and Republican senators once wrote to President Clinton, urging him not to invoke the waiver.

Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem could, in fact, have a positive effect on the Middle East. The move would show our strongest ally, Israel, that the US recognizes Jerusalem as its capital. And it would tell Israel’s enemies that the security of the Jewish state is non-negotiable for Washington.

The Russians would understand that the Americans are reasserting power in the Middle East, a region left at the mercy of brutal dictators and religious fanatics by the previous administration. And the Palestinians would come to realize that unilateralism will no longer be rewarded, and that the only acceptable path forward is genuine peace negotiations.

For too long, the decision to move the embassy has been delayed over misplaced concerns over Palestinian incitement. Incitement against Israel has been an integral part of Palestinian discourse for generations. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said two years ago about Jews in Jerusalem: “Al-Aqsa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem.”

It would therefore be a mistake to understand Palestinian incitement as a reaction to a political decision. Moving the embassy isn’t the reason that Palestinian leaders continue to spew out a constant barrage of poison against the Jews. The resentment is far more deep-rooted than that, propagated by central political institutions and celebrated on Palestinian streets.

When you name public squares and women centers after terrorists, you are encouraging a culture of hatred. When you celebrate suicide bombers as “martyrs” and role models for Palestinians, you are glorifying violence. When you deny Israel’s right to exist, you are preaching a genocidal ideology.

Former US peace negotiator Dennis Ross once warned that there cannot be successful negotiations with the Palestinians if there is one environment at the peace table, and another environment in the streets. “The Palestinians’ systematic incitement in their media, an educational system that bred hatred, and the glorification of violence made Israelis feel that their real purpose was not peace,” Ross said.

There has been a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem for three millennia, and Senator Charles Schumer should be congratulated for following a long tradition of bipartisan support for the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem.

Joshua S. Block is CEO and president of The Israel Project.

The opinions presented by Algemeiner bloggers are solely theirs and do not represent those of The Algemeiner, its publishers or editors. If you would like to share your views with a blog post on The Algemeiner, please be in touch through our Contact page.