"Jerusalem The Eternal, Indivisible Capital Of Israel?"

Jerusalem - Eternal, Indivisible Capital of Israel?

"Writing in The Jerusalem Report (Feb. 28, 2000), Leslie Susser points out that the current boundaries were drawn after the Six-Day War. Responsibility for drawing those lines fell to Central Command Chief Rehavan Ze'evi. The line he drew 'took in not only the five square kilometers of Arab East Jerusalem - but also 65 square kilometers of surrounding open country and villages, most of which never had any municipal link to Jerusalem. Overnight they became part of Israel's eternal and indivisible capital.'" Allan Brownfield in The Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, May 2000.

Let me be clear. Israel's security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper — but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.

The position of the United Nations on the question of Jerusalem is contained in General Assembly resolution 181 and subsequent resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council concerning this question. A total of six UN security council resolutions on Israel have denounced or declared invalid Israel's attempts to unify the city, though none of them have been Chapter VII resolutions.

The UN Security Council, in UNSC resolution 478, declared that the 1980 Jerusalem Law declaring unified Jerusalem, including annexed East Jerusalem, as Israel's "eternal and indivisible" capital was "null and void and must be rescinded forthwith" (14-0-1, with United States abstaining). The resolution advised member states to withdraw their diplomatic representation from the city as a punitive measure.

In 1980, the Israeli Knesset approved a Basic Law, which is a foundational statute in the country's unwritten constitution. This 1980 law is entitled "Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel." The law establishes Jerusalem as the country's official capital. The Basic Law has four clauses. First, that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."

The Palestinians claim Jerusalem (al-Quds) as the capital of a future Palestinian state. In the Palestine Liberation Organization's Palestinian Declaration of Independence of 1988, Jerusalem is stated to be the capital of the State of Palestine. In 2000 the Palestinian Authority passed a law designating East Jerusalem as such, and in 2002 this law was ratified by President Arafat.

In a 1991 letter, United States Secretary of State James Baker stated that the United States is "opposed to the Israeli annexation of east (sic) Jerusalem and the extension of Israeli law on it and the extension of Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries". However, the U.S. Senate in 1990 had adopted a resolution "acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel's capital" and stating that it "strongly believes that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city." Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act on October 23, 1995, which declared that Jerusalem should remain undivided and that it should be recognized as Israel's capital.

From the solemnity of a Holocaust museum to a dusty village battered by Hamas rockets, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Wednesday professed "an unshakable commitment to the security" of Israel, whether the threat comes from terrorists, Iran or elsewhere.

At his news conference, Obama brushed aside a question of whether he had backed off his statement this spring that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel. Palestinians also lay claim to the city as the capital for any state they establish as the result of peace talks, and the two sides have agreed that the final decision is to be negotiated.

Criticized by Abbas after he made that comment, Obama subsequently amended it. "Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations," he said. He added that "as a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute" a division of the city.

Abbas issued a statement saying he and Obama had not discussed the issue in their hour together.

Asked by an Israeli reporter about the matter, Obama said, "I continued to say that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel. And I have said that before and I will say it again. And I also have said that it is important that we don't simply slice the city in half. But I've also said that that's a final status issue."

    The  issue of Jerusalem as a capitol city is crucial for peace between Israel and Palestine. After seizing East Jerusalem, the UN mandated capital of the future Palestinian State, during the 1967 Six Day War, Israel has declared all of Jerusalem as it's capitol, without UN recognition. The United States, it it's "lapdog" support of Israel has officially condoned Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem and Israel's designation of Jerusalem as it's "undivided" capitol. Senator Barack Obama, the self proclaimed "agent of change" has aligned himself with Israel's position on Jerusalem, thus crushing any hopes of the occupied Palestinian people of any "change they can believe in" when it comes to ending the Israeli Zionist occupation of their territories and would be nation of Palestine. After all there are very few Arab Palestinians voting for President in '08. Obama's and McCain's call for an "undivided" Jerusalem gets the Jewish vote, unjust occupation of East Jerusalem be damned!

tags: israel  palestine  middle east  jerusalem  barack obama  politics  war  warpeace  zionism  

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