Jerusalem: The City Without A Country
“Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided,” Barack Obama once told a pleased American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC). “As president I will never compromise when it comes to Israel’s security,” he assured the powerful US-Israel lobby. That was June 3, 2008.
Less than three-and-a-half years later, the Obama administration has pushed a different position regarding Jerusalem. The administration’s extreme reluctance to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital came to light in August, when the U.S. State Department issued a press release to say that United States citizens born in Jerusalem could not have “Israel” listed as their birth location. The White House even removed all references to “Jerusalem, Israel” from photo captions of Vice President Joe Biden’s March 9, 2010 visit to the Holy Land, leaving just “Jerusalem” – a city bereft of a country.
Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to rule on a 2002 law that gives U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem the right to declare “Israel” as their birth country in contradiction of a U.S. State Department policy. Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 on Consular Affairs (7 Fam 1300 Appendix D) states that “Jerusalem” alone will be listed as the birth place of American citizens born in the city after 1948.
When Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky, the American parents of eight-year-old Menachem Binyamin, tried to use the 2002 law to have their son’s birth location listed as “Israel”, the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv refused. The State Department’s policy has been enforced, even though Menachem Binyamin was born in Shaare Zedek Hospital, which is in West Jerusalem.
“If a US citizen is born in Tel Aviv, his passport will designate his place of birth as Israel. But in the case of Jerusalem, the US Consular Department will not give the country of birth as Israel,” Menachem’s father told The Jerusalem Post in August. “And on his Consular Report of Birth, it’s even more blatant – the document is supposed to list both the city and the country of birth, and in Menachem Binyamin’s case, the country field has been left completely blank.”
Before The Justices:
Arguments in Menachem Zivotofsky vs. Hilary Rodham Clinton were made before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, November 7, and the high court’s decision could affect more than 50,000 Jerusalem-born Americans.
The court case is actually not so much about what the justices think of Israel as it is about which branch of government – the executive or the legislative – currently has the greatest say in this situation. Does the State Department’s foreign policy have greater import than a law passed by both houses of Congress (and signed by a former president)?
In arguments on Monday, the Zivotofsky family’s lawyer, Nathan Lewin, argued that Congress’ long-held power to regulate passport content trumps the Executive Branch’s foreign policy prerogatives. In response, the Obama administration’s Solicitor General Donald Verrilli claimed that the president has had exclusive authority to recognize foreign nations since the time of Washington.
For their part, the Zivotofskys would like to avoid discrimination as supporters of Israel. According to the State Department, persons born before 1948 are free to designate “Palestine” as their place of birth in areas later annexed by Jerusalem, yet persons born in Jerusalem after 1948 have no freedom to designate “Israel” as their place of birth.
While the State Department has had a longstanding policy against declaring the national status of Jerusalem, previous administrations have not seriously enforced it. Elliot Abrams, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the National Security Council for Near East and North African Affairs under George W. Bush, rejected the idea that the Bush Administration had refused to place Jerusalem in Israel. “The record will show that the Bush Administration did not have a hard and fast rule that prohibited referring to Jerusalem that way at all times and in all statements and press releases,” Abrams told Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post. Rubin points out that the Bush administration did not use continued building in Jerusalem as a barrier to peace negotiations, either.
At the same time, the Zivotofskys were not able to get “Israel” on their son’s passport and birth certificate even back in 2002 when Bush was president.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has jumped into this fray on behalf of the Zivotofskys. ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman has energetically attacked the State Department’s policy, saying, “Unfortunately, it has been tolerated and defended for so many years regardless of what administration was in office. It’s insulting that the State Department refuses to make this simple change to identify American citizens as having been born in Jerusalem, Israel. It borders on the irrational, and it’s time it ended.”
Perhaps the biggest question is whether the Supreme Court should be getting into the mess at all. Justice Antonin Scalia agreed that Congress “has an innumerable number of clubs with which to beat the executive.” And if the other two branches have their own means to work through the issue then, Scalia asked, “Why is it any of our business which is the better foreign policy position?”
Related Links:
- Dispute Over Jerusalem Engages Court
- The New York Times - U.S. Supreme Court Hears Case To List ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ On Foreign Passports
- AP - White House Cleanses Israel from Website
- The Weekly Standard - Defining Jerusalem: Israel-Palestine Conflict Comes To The Supreme Court
- The Huffington Post - Obama Is No George W. Bush When It Comes To Israel
- The Washington Post - Place Of Birth Names In Passports
- U.S. State Department - US Olim Want ‘Israel’ On Passport Of Their J’lem-Born Son
- The Jerusalem Post
12:10 am
I find this to be an interesting article. In doing some additional research on the subject, I have found that tis is more of a perception thing than a legal issue. By this, I mean that our government wants to be perceived as neutral on the issue of what country owns the city of Jerusalem. Interestingly, this is a view that has waffled back and forth since Israel was first able to claim the city.
I also find it interesting that the issue of a birthplace on a passport has no implications on the world stage. There have been incidences where the birthplace has been listed as Israel, through clerical error, with no affect on political relations (Chang & Wang, 2011).
I believe that what this shows, is a continuing reluctance on the part of the Executive branch of our government, to be too closely aligned with Israel. It is like our government is trying to play to both factions, the Israeli government, and the Palestinian factions, by telling both what (our government believes) they want to hear.
This brings to mind this passage in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” KJV. While our country would hardly acknowledge any world masters, I believe that this applies on spiritual level. We, as a nation profess God as our master (in God we trust), yet seek to follow the master of the world. We cannot follow both, so must be following the master of the world while giving lip service to the creator. Just something to think about.
Sources:
Chang, A., & Wang, T. (2011). Zivotofsky v. clinton (10-699). Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/10-699
Blessings Don
5:23 pm
It has always seemed to me that the end times fury with Israel is about her refusal to give up her nation status, standing alone finally on a one world government stage, in defiance of the status quo. Disallowing the historic and correct connection of Jerusalem with Israel takes the Surname away from the given name, a manipulation tool of the agents of identity theft … the Surname defines the family, does it not? The genealogy. Rather like the Romans naming her Palestina so as to diminish and insult her identity. Part of the “wipe her off the face of the earth” agenda. Ah, the power and authority of language! CS Lewis nailed it with Abolition of Man.
No nation status, no individual rights, no family rights, no family names … Mr Obama, where were you born we wonder? No man’s land?
1:52 am
Several things come up for me in reading this article, but will just address the primary two. First, how little Obama thinks of his own words – going from a statement “As president I will never compromise when it comes to Israel’s security” to failing to acknowledge their right to Jerusalem which endangers their security in a myriad of ways.
Second, I was unaware that this issue existed in our State dept for so long. The idea that people born in Jerusalem after 1948 have no freedom to list “Israel” as their place of birth is astonishing and to see it being upheld is appalling. Why wasn’t this corrected long ago since USA was the first country to acknowledge the existence of Israel?
5:30 am
This is quite a shock to read, at first glance. Yet, as I sit back and think about it from a spiritual perspective, it makes more sense. Satan will absolutely do everything in his power to demean the Jews and to try to discredit them in the eyes of the world. He is desperately trying to come against the land that God said in Deuteronomy is His! It is shameful and disgraceful that our President continues to side with those who want to give land to the Palestinians that is rightfully the Jews, but he is just a pawn in the hand of Satan, but we all know that in the end, God will redeem His land and His people, and Satan will not prevail! Israel will not be a byword much longer.
7:58 am
Hi Tony,
I am 100% with you. The Satan uses Pres. Obama to destroy Israel. Pres. Obama is definitely not a friend to Israel. But every scheme of Satan has been already projected and God indeed will redeem His chosen nation. Now we have a new election coming up, I am very interesting to see how Israel will be affected by it. Keep praying for peace in Jerusalem…
11:22 pm
It appears that the executive branch is attempting to once again ’bully’ congress by legislating law. The Congressional bill allowing United States citizens born in Jerusalem to designate on their identifying passports Jerusalem, Israel as their origin of birthplace was passed by the 2 houses and then signed into law by the President in 2002. Yet the Executive Branch has refused to acknowledge or enforce the law. This is a blatant disregard for the Checks and Balances created by the Founding Fathers. The bill was signed into law and should be respected whether or not the Executive Branch wants to stay ‘on the fence’ about whether Jerusalem belongs in the country of Israel or Palestine.
God has ordained the hierarchy of authority at the governmental level. God should be at the head of the 3 branches of government and then the branches would function accordingly. When there is no absolute justice and truth (God’s standards) then 1 branch may take more and more power. Romans 13 says: Everyone must submit themselves to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except that which God has established. He who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment upon themselves. (Romans 13:1,2)
12:03 am
I find it very sad that the public will just accept that ‘politicians will be politicians’ and expect them to say one thing, and shortly thereafter say another. Its almost as if the government is so corrupt now, that integrity is not a quality you look for …
2:34 am
I don’t know that the public accepts that ‘politicians will be politicians’. But to be good citizens we are supposed to vote and so we pick among those running. We voice our opinion by voting and then pray for those in office. God puts those whom He wills in authority. And we deal with the consequences.
8:52 am
Hi Laurie,
I fully agree with you that we must pick, and believe that according to scripture, not only does a democratic vote win, but God, as He is outside our time realm, knows the next leader before we even knew he/she was standing for office. To pray for them surely is a Biblical command, but my hope and my joy is that God can not be surprised, that He will use ALL to accomplish His will and that His Word will be fulfilled to the letter.
The Obama-regime, and the U.S.A. turning against Israel is no surprise, but rather should fill us with hope, as we look for the return of our Lord and Saviour.