Jerusalem the Capital of Israel

Jerusalem the Capital of Israel

By Sherwin Pomerantz

During Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel earlier this week there was widespread negative reaction, particularly from the Palestinian Arab leadership about his remark that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.  This came after last week’s bumbling by President Obama’s press secretary when, during a briefing of the White House press corps, he was pressed to answer this question as well and did not.  Rather he kept repeating “you know our position on this issue and it has not changed.”

Odd that any of this should have raised any eyebrows or that the press secretary had a problem with the question.  One need only go to the CIA’s World Factbook which certainly reflects Washington’s position on the issue (see https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/is.html) where it says the following for Israel:

            Capital - Name: Jerusalem

Then it follows with a note that says “Israel proclaimed Jerusalem its capital in 1950, but the U.S., like all other countries maintains its Embassy in Tel Aviv. “

This actually makes sense.  Every country has a right to determine which city will be its capital.  In Israel’s case, the government designated Jerusalem as the capital and all of the government’s offices, the home of the President and Prime Minister as well as the Knesset and the Supreme Court are all situated here.  So there can be no argument with the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and even the U.S. officially acknowledges this, as shown above, even though its embassy is in Tel Aviv which is the choice of any overseas government.

But the Palestinian Arab leadership immediately reacted negatively to Romney’s statement even though President Obama said the same thing on June 6^th 2008 as well when he was a candidate (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWrvPvo8yXc).  Saab Ereket made the incredibly stupid statement saying that Romney’s remarks were an insult to the entire Muslim world.  Really?  Is that all it takes?  By acknowledging what your host government states as a given that insults the entire Muslim world?  Over 20,000 people have died senselessly in Syria over the past 18 months, many of them shot by troops loyal to and directed by the president of the country.  Where is the outrage in the Muslim world about that?

But there is simply no end to this insanity.  The BBC in preparing for the London Olympics put up country pages for all of the participating national delegations.  Each page contained the name of the country, its capital and other pertinent information.  When it came to Israel the capital entry was left blank.  For the non-country of Palestine they listed “East Jerusalem” as the capital for the Palestine Olympic Team.  Of course, once it was called to their attention they changed the Israel page to say that “the seat of government is in Jerusalem” and then added the footnote about the fact that most embassies are in Tel Aviv. 

Perhaps there will come a time when everything will not boil down to symbolism and, as a result, accommodation will find its place in this region.  The late King Hussein of Jordan once said “I want to say a simple thing that the dividing line exists not between Jordan and Israel but between the proponents of peace and the opponents of peace.”  That approach allowed him to make peace with Israel.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the present day leadership of our neighboring lands understood that as well?