Israel Matzav: Any day now....

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Any day now....

Rick Richman reports that a decision in Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State - the case about 11-year old Menachem Zivotofsky's demand to have "Jerusalem, Israel" listed as his birthplace on his American passport - could come any day now from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Richman argues that the White House's characterization of President Obama's recent trip to Israel destroys the claim that allowing young Master Zivotofsky to have "Jerusalem, Israel" on his passport would destroy the 'peace process.'

In oral argument before the D.C. Circuit on March 19, Master Zivotofsky’s lawyer, Nathan Lewin, began by noting that the administration’s invocation of a threat to the “peace process” was difficult to square with the manner in which President Obama’s latest trip was being described on the White House website:

“[T]he White House has issued a press release publicizing the trip to ‘Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan,’ and listing an itinerary that is almost entirely within the City of Jerusalem: meetings in Jerusalem with the President of Israel and Israel's Prime Minister, two overnight stays in the King David Hotel, a speech in the Jerusalem Convention Center, and visits to Mount Herzl, Yad Vashem, and the grave of former Prime Minister Rabin. It's hard to imagine any more symbolic and concrete official recognition of Jerusalem as being within Israel than the way the White House describes this trip by the President to prominent Jerusalem sites as a trip to Israel.”

Richman goes on to argue that it's not clear why the Obama administration did not drop the case after the Supreme Court ruled that it should go to trial.

It is not clear why the administration didn’t simply drop the case after the Supreme Court ruled Zivotofsky had a right to bring it. The case could have been resolved the way President Clinton treated the 1994 law that gave Taiwan-born Americans the right to have “Taiwan” on their passports instead of “People’s Republic of China.” Clinton faithfully executed the law, but announced U.S. “one China” policy would not change. President Obama could have done the same thing – apply the law to Zivotofsky’s passport but announce it signaled no change in U.S. foreign policy.

President Obama could even have blamed President George W. Bush in the process. In any event, it seems a bit disingenuous at this point to continue to assert that denying Master Zivotofsky his right under the 2002 law is necessary to preserve the “peace process.”

Well, yes, it's disingenuous to deny Master Zivotofsky his rights because it's necessary to preserve the non-existent 'peace process.'

But the Obama administration will go to any length to avoid officially recognizing Israel's capital in any way, shape or form - something that is not done to any other country in the world - and that is precisely why it has continued to pursue this case. In fact, Obama's itinerary during his recent trip listed his stops as "Tel Aviv, Israel" and "Jerusalem" (see the schedule at the bottom of the page). If anything, they are quite consistent about it.

Hopefully, it will cost them dearly. In a monetary sense, at least, it already has.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, State Department obsession with Israel, US State Department