O.U. slams Bush on embassy

The Orthodox Union expressed “deep disappointment” in President Bush’s decision to waive a law that mandates moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. “The Orthodox Jewish community is deeply disappointed that, once again, President Bush has invoked a waiver and delayed the relocation of America’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” the umbrella group said in a statement Monday, noting that Bush issued the waiver Friday night. “The United States locates its embassies around the globe in the cities designated by a nation as its capital. Jerusalem has been the eternal and political capital of the Jewish people for millennia and should be accorded the same respect.” Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, have routinely exercised the six-month waiver since 1995, when Congress enacted the law. The statement said this week’s waiver was “particularly painful” because it marked 40 years since the city’s reunification in the Six-Day War. It commended leaders in Congress who have set a vote tomorrow on a non-binding resolution that would urge Bush to move the embassy.