No one should be surprised that President Donald Trump followed through on his campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. What remains to be seen is whether the move jump starts efforts toward a two-state solution in the Mideast or derails it altogether.

The historic announcement makes good on a pledge made by every major party presidential candidate for more than 20 years. It also fulfills the requirement of the Jerusalem Embassy Act passed by Congress in 1995, which funded relocation of the U.S. embassy no later than May 1999. Further, it recognizes the reality of how much of Israel’s government operates from Jerusalem rather than the official capital of Tel Aviv.

Nearly all Jewish organizations, locally and nationally, have welcomed Trump’s decision. In St. Louis, the Jewish Community Relations Council noted that Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all signed a waiver delaying the move citing national security interests, and Trump did the same in June.

Why change now? In his carefully worded statement announcing his Jerusalem decision, the president expressed for the first time support for a two-state solution and reaffirmed his backing for a renewed peace process. Talks have stalled in recent months, so Trump apparently hoped dramatic action might get things moving again.

Predictably, his announcement set off demonstrations, in the Mideast and elsewhere including the Delmar Loop. But such dramatic, headline-grabbing action shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow the real and the symbolic importance of the administration’s decision.

At a meeting hosted by the JCRC last week, St. Louis native David Makovsky, a leading expert on the Middle East and Israel, said via satellite that the decision by Trump “rights an historic wrong.”  

David Harris, chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, also praised the White House announcement, saying that “by stating the truth of Jerusalem’s status as the capital of the State of Israel, President Trump has asserted U.S. global leadership towards ending a longstanding senseless anomaly.”

Harris added:  “With the Prime Minister’s Office, the Knesset, and nearly all government offices situated in Jerusalem since Israel’s independence nearly 70 years ago, it is inexplicable that countries around the world have refused to recognize Israel’s capital.  No other country is treated this way.”

Praise for Trump’s move was hardly universal. But much of the criticism of his decision cites actions that are not directly related to the question of Jerusalem — issues such as the Muslim travel ban, retweets of anti-Islamic videos and Trump’s equivocal initial response to the blatant anti-Semitism and racism in Charlottesville, Va.

The president certainly deserves to be criticized for his ill-advised decisions, thoughtless tweets and embarrassing gaffes. But he also deserves praise for sensible actions such as the Jerusalem policy shift. As New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman once said of another resident of the White House: “Just because George W. Bush says or does something does not make it automatically wrong.”

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman was warned that his secretary of state, George C. Marshall, might resign if he recognized the State of Israel, and that such a decision would trigger widespread violence in the streets of Arab capitals.   But Truman refused to be intimidated and righted the historic wrong that had denied the Jewish people a state of their own.

Similarly, Trump was warned that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital could wreck the peace process and lead to violence.  But Trump refused to let his decision be derailed by naysayers and did the right thing, just as Truman had done.

Now, he has to follow up his dramatic move with quieter, more nuanced diplomacy, winning the respect of all sides. Delicate issues remain. A freeze on major new settlements on the West Bank would certainly help, as would a concrete target date for recognition of an independent State of Palestine. The world will watch closely to see whether the Jerusalem announcement jolts talks back into place or proves to be yet another stumbling block.