Much has been made of President-elect Donald Trump’s promise during the presidential campaign that his administration would move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That promise was reinforced by Trump’s ambassador-designate to Israel, David Friedman, who said he “look[s] forward to [advancing the cause of peace in the region] from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

Now three Republican members of the U.S. Senate – Dean Heller of Nevada, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Ted Cruz of Texas – have introduced the “Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act.” The measure would restrict funding for the State Department for FY2017, stipulating that not more than 50 percent of funding would be appropriated to the department until the secretary of state reports that the embassy in Jerusalem has officially opened.

Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries in Minnesota, believes the bill was spurred by what she calls “that atrocity” last month when the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved an anti-Israel resolution that the U.S. could have vetoed but chose to abstain.

“… I think some of this is a reaction to that abomination that happened with America stabbing her best friend in the back,” Markell tells OneNewsNow.

In 1995, Congress passed “The Jerusalem Embassy and Relocation Act,” which called for the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel along with a pledge to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But in the past 21 years it hasn’t happened.

“They’ve all promised to move the embassy and none of them do it – so we’ll see,” states Markell. “I’m far more optimistic that Donald Trump will carry through with this than [I was with] all the others.”

Senator Cruz, speaking of the bill, said: “… It is finally time to cut through the double-speak and broken promises and do what Congress said we should do in 1995: formally move our embassy to the capital of our great ally Israel.” The legislation, notes Senator Rubio, should eliminate the loophole “that has allowed presidents in both parties to ignore U.S. law” and delay the embassy’s relocation.