(Jerusalem Post) Eugene Kontorovich - In its decision on the lawsuit challenging the U.S. State Department's refusal to write "Israel" on passports of Americans born in Jerusalem, the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was right as a matter of constitutional law to affirm the president's primacy in recognizing foreign governments. The court stressed that no U.S. government has ever recognized western Jerusalem as part of Israel - or any other country. Thus, the capital of the Jewish state has an absolutely unique status in U.S. law. There is no serious question that Jerusalem is as much part of Israel as Ashkelon or Beersheba. American presidents know that. They simply wish to avoid the threatened wrath of the Muslim world that would come from formally acknowledging Israeli sovereignty. Secretary of State Kerry is currently shepherding a diplomatic process aimed at securing negotiations that would commit Israel to return "back" to the 1949 Armistice Line, or the 1967 lines, as they are known. Yet the U.S. never fully recognized Israel's sovereign rights within those lines. Before Israel could go "back" to the 1949 lines, America should go "up" to them - recognizing western Jerusalem as the sovereign territory and political capital of the Jewish state. The writer teaches constitutional and international law at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.
2013-08-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive