Israel Matzav

Obama: Israel has no more claim to Jerusalem than Russia does to Crimea

The Obama administration's solicitor general argued in the Supreme Court on Monday that Israel has no more claim to Jerusalem than Russia has to Crimea. The argument was part of the Zivotofsky case. This is from the first link.

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who is rumored to be in the running to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, drew the comparison on Monday while he attempted to convince the Supreme Court that Jerusalem is not officially part of Israel.

...

During Monday’s arguments before the court, Solicitor General Verrilli maintained that a formal acknowledgment of Jerusalem being part of Israel would be tantamount to the United States putting “Crimea, Russia” on a citizen’s passport.

Verrilli was referring to the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Russia forcefully seized earlier this year.

“The position of the executive [Obama] is that we recognize, as a practical matter, the authority of Israel over West Jerusalem,” Verrilli argued, according to court transcripts. “With respect to the rest of Jerusalem, the issue is far more complicated.”

“I do think, for example, Your Honor,” Verrilli said to Justice Samuel Alito, “if [we] were to start issuing passports to people born in Crimea tomorrow that identified Russia as the country of birth, that would carry obvious implications for our foreign policy position, and it would contradict the foreign policy position in a way that could be quite deleterious.”

As with the disputes over Crimea’s status, stating that Jerusalem is part of Israel also would interfere with the White House’s policy positions, Verrilli argued.

I don't know in which hospital Menachem Zivotofsky was born, but every Jewish hospital in Jerusalem  is in 'west' Jerusalem, with the exception of Hadassah Mount Scopus, which was part of an enclave that was within Israel between 1948-67. So even according to the administration's own arguments, we ought to be able to put "Jerusalem, Israel" on our children's US passports as their birth place.

Hmmm.

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

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:03 PM