OBAMA'S OPPOSITION WILL KILL BILL TO RECOGNIZE JERUSALEM AS ISRAEL'S CAPITAL

U.S. SENATRORS ACT TO FORCE RECOGNITION OF JERUSALEM AS CAPITAL
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

IsraelNationalNews.com
November 7, 2009

Seven United States senators have sponsored a bill that would abolish the “security” waiver that American presidents have used to prevent implementing a 1995 law declaring that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback, a long-time supporter of Israel, introduced the bill and said, "It is long overdue for America to recognize the sovereign right of Israel to choose Jerusalem as its capital city.”

The proposed Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act law, number S. 2737, is "a bill to relocate to Jerusalem the United States Embassy in Israel" and has six co-sponsors--five Republicans, from Kentucky, Texas, Arizona, and Louisiana and Independent Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

It would remove the current waiver, which gives the president authority to delay recognition of Jerusalem as the capital on the premise that doing so would endanger the security of the United States. Previous presidents, including George W. Bush, vowed during their election campaigns they would recognize Jerusalem as the Jewish State’s capital but they have failed out to carry out their election promise.

U.S. policy regards eastern Jerusalem, restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, as “occupied territory" and wants the status of the city to be part of an agreement to establish the Palestinian Authority as a new Arab state on all of the land in eastern Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

The Democratic party has a majority in the Congress but includes legislators who support Israeli sovereignty over all of the capital. The certain opposition of the Obama administration to Senator Brownback's bill may prevent its passage.