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Is Jerusalem in Israel?

(Washington Times) James Morrison - The issue of Jerusalem has dogged U.S. presidents since 1995, when Congress approved the Jerusalem Embassy Act, requiring the U.S. to relocate the embassy to the Israeli capital. However, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have invoked a waiver that allows a president to postpone moving the embassy for national security reasons. The chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), faulted all three presidents for evading the issue. "The Obama administration has followed in the flawed footsteps of its predecessors by refusing to fully implement U.S. law and move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem," she said. The issue reached the Supreme Court last month, when the parents of a 9-year-old boy born in Jerusalem challenged the State Department for refusing to recognize his birthplace as being within Israel. The court, in an 8-1 decision, ruled that the State Department was ignoring a 2002 law that allows U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their birthplace on their passports.
2012-04-20 00:00:00
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