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The Unfortunate Supreme Court Decision on Jerusalem

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - By siding with the administration in the case of Zivotofsky v. Kerry, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the executive branch's constitutional power to recognize foreign governments. In this instance, that meant allowing the president to declare that, contrary to an act of Congress as well as the facts on the ground, he is entitled to pretend that the city of Jerusalem isn't the capital of Israel or even part of the Jewish state. Due to an awkward diplomatic dance it has been conducting since 1948, the U.S. has never recognized that Jerusalem is part of Israel. The administration thinks being upheld by the Court on this point is good for America because it allows it to continue maintaining the fiction that Jerusalem isn't part of Israel. So long as the U.S. is encouraging the Palestinians to think they can have a portion of Israel's capital as part of a Palestinian state - including mostly 40-year-old neighborhoods where hundreds of thousands of Jews live - they'll never come to terms with the fact that they are going to have to accept a compromise and leave those people in place and allow the city to remain united. This makes a resolution on Jerusalem even less likely to happen in the foreseeable future.
2015-06-09 00:00:00
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