US Embassy in Israel could move to Jerusalem by 2019

The U.S. Embassy in Israel could be relocated to Jerusalem by 2019, a far faster move than the State Department previously anticipated. 

The New York Times reported Friday that the State Department has decided to transfer the embassy to an existing consular building in the Arnona neighborhood of West Jerusalem, instead of building a new facility.

That plan will make the move significantly less expensive and allow U.S. Ambassador David Friedman and embassy staff to move to Jerusalem as soon as 2019. 

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Friedman had reportedly pressed to move the embassy in 2018, according to the Times. But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson lobbied President Trump on Thursday for more time to upgrade the consular building’s security. 

The Arnona building is relatively new, though it would need to be secured to allow the ambassador conduct classified operations, according to the Times.

After Trump announced in December that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the State Department estimated that it would take years to complete the move.

That timetable, however, was based on the assumption that a new embassy building would be constructed. Trump said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that his administration was still planning on “doing a beautiful embassy” in Jerusalem, “but not one that costs $1.2 billion.”