Former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, Architect of Jerusalem Embassy Act, Dies at 84
Former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, a key architect of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act and a steadfast friend of Israel, has passed away at the age of 84.
Former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, a key architect of the Jerusalem Embassy Act and a steadfast friend of Israel in the Senate, has passed away at the age of 84. Kyl died due to complications from a neurological illness, having served 18 consecutive years in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2013 and briefly returning in 2018.
Kyl was widely recognized as one of the principal authors of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act. Working alongside Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, he advanced the legislation which mandated that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel and that the U.S. Embassy should be relocated there.
The act passed the Senate with an exceptional bipartisan majority of 93 to 5. For over two decades, successive U.S. presidents refrained from its full implementation, until President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017 and moved the embassy there in 2018.
Chaim Silverstein, chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP), paid tribute to Kyl, stating that Israel and Jerusalem have lost one of their greatest and most significant friends in the U.S. Senate.
