Let’s be clear, the US Embassy should be in West Jerusalem. Indeed, Israel may be one of the few countries in the world in which the United States does not maintain its embassy in the host country’s capital. But those who argue that the United States needs to correct this problem now, whatever the cost, are thinking too narrowly — and only about Israeli interests.

The problem is that Israel has declared the entire city to be its eternal and undivided capital, including the eastern part of the city where many Palestinians reside and where the Palestinian Authority hopes to establish a capital once a Palestinian state is created. If Trump asserts that US policy is that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, it would be tantamount to saying that Washington now recognizes Israel’s sovereignty over the entire city. If he simply says that just West Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, he risks alienating the Israeli government by suggesting that the eastern part of the city isn’t included.

The peace process appears dead. Why bury it?