Jon F. Weinstein’s December 15, 2017 letter wrongly attempted to deny Congress’s real, overwhelming devotion to recognizing Israel’s capital Jerusalem. Weinstein also proposed that recognition of Israel’s lawful capital (the Jewish nation’s capital for over 3,000 years) should continue to be held hostage to an agreement by Palestinian Arab leaders – the very same PA leaders who refuse to even negotiate, and who pay terrorists to murder Jews.
I’m sure that Mr. Weinstein is well meaning but his idea as to how to bring about peace ignores reality and the lessons of both the last 70 years and the present. Withholding recognition of Israel’s capital for the past seven decades (and for 22 years since the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 was enacted) brought us no closer to peace.
Successful negotiations require the parties to narrow the issues on the table.
Leaving the fate of the Jewish people’s holiest city on the table – despite Israel’s legal, religious, and historical entitlement to Jerusalem – only encourages the Palestinian Arabs’ belief that their intransigence, violence and threats “pay.”
The Arabs have repeatedly turned down overly generous peace offers (including in 1937, 1947, 2000 and 2008) – which would have given them far more than they are entitled to under international law.
Instead, the Arabs embarked on pogroms (1936-1939), wars (1948-1949) and intifadas (e.g, 2000-2005), in which they murdered and maimed thousands of Jews.
The reason why there is no peace has nothing to do with the recognizing Israel’s capital.
There is no peace because the Palestinian Authority and Hamas leadership do not want peace; instead they want to entirely eliminate Israel and murder her Jewish inhabitants.
The PA official maps, stationary, emblems, and school books all replace all of Israel with “Palestine.”
And the PA continues its “pay to slay” payments to Palestinian Arab terrorists to murder Jews – despite President Trump’s repeated demands to PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas to end these horrific payments.
Mr. Weinstein is also wrong to claim that Congress’s repeated virtually unanimous resolutions recognizing Israel’s capital Jerusalem were “mere posturing” that Congress “knew wouldn’t happen.”
In fact, Congress voted for and overwhelmingly passed actual laws supporting recognition of Israel’s capital Jerusalem – as well as resolutions.
The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (S. 1322, Pub. L. 104–45, 109 Stat. 398) was enacted overwhelmingly, on a bipartisan basis: The law passed by 93 to 5 in the Senate, and by over 90 percent of the vote in the House (374–37). (I’m proud to say that the Zionist Organization of America spearheaded the campaign for the Jerusalem Embassy Act.)
Thus, almost 500 members of Congress voted that recognizing Jerusalem and promptly moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is the law of the land.
Does Mr. Weinstein seriously want us to believe that all these bipartisan congressmembers were all hypocrites who voted for a law in the belief that this law would be ignored forever?
The congressional history of the Jerusalem Embassy Act reveals that in fact Congress passionately believed in what it voted for: Congress sought to have the U.S. Embassy moved to Jerusalem promptly.
Sen. and former Vice Presidential candidate Bob Dole (one of the law’s drafters) testified: “Our intent is that the Embassy be established in Jerusalem by May 1999.” See Congressional Record Vol. 141, No. 165, Oct. 24, 1995 (Senate).
Sen. Dole also testified that more than sufficient votes were there to pass the Jerusalem Embassy Act without granting the president waiver authority. (The ZOA also saw that this was the case.)
Further, the waiver authority was limited; invoking the waiver repeatedly was unlawful. Senator Dole testified: “The President cannot lawfully invoke this waiver simply because he thinks it would be better not to move our Embassy to Jerusalem or simply because he thinks it would be better to.”
Congress also reiterated its commitment to moving the embassy and urged the president to “immediately begin the process of relocating the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem” in subsequent law of the land, Section 214 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, FY 2003.
And in November 2017, Congress held hearings chaired by Congressman Ron DeSantis (at which Zionist Organization of America President Morton A. Klein; former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, former Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold and international law Professor Eugene Kontorovich testified), to once again demonstrate Congress’s fervent desire that the Jerusalem Embassy Act should be promptly implemented. The hearing can be viewed on C-Span at https://www.c-span.org/video/?437017-1/hearing-examines-impact-moving-us-embassy-jerusalem
Allowing the embassy relocation to be held hostage to Islamist threats would only beget more threats and more violence.
As ZOA President Morton Klein testified at last month’s Congressional hearing:
“The embassy relocation will also strengthen American security and enhance worldwide respect for America by demonstrating that the United States can be counted on to keep her commitments to her allies. The move will demonstrate that America does not allow American policy to be determined by radical Islamist terrorist threats. Succumbing to such Islamist threats begets more threats and more violence, especially in the Middle East, where strength and maintaining one’s honor are the coin of the realm. Concessions to the Palestinian Arabs have consistently led to more violence. Thus, if we want to reduce violence in Israel and throughout the Middle East, moving our embassy is the correct path.”
Israel has been the only country having diplomatic relations with the U.S. whose U.S. embassy has not been located in that nation’s capital.
Mr. Weinstein states that he is a staunch supporter of Israel, realism and progress. Real progress means ending this intolerable discrimination against the only Jewish state.
It is particularly fitting and meaningful that President Trump’s announcement of this real progress came just before Hanukkah – the celebration of the Maccabees’ rededication of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 164 B.C.E. (eight centuries before the birth of Islam).
As for Mr. Weinstein’s statement that President Trump recognized Israel’s capital Jerusalem “only to satisfy the likes of” Sheldon Adelson and the ZOA: I’m very pleased that the ZOA helped end the discrimination against Israel’s capital.
But many more – including the overwhelming will of Congress and the American people – should be given credit for President Trump’s excellent decision to recognize Israel’s capital, keep his campaign promise and follow the law.
Liz Berney, Esq., Great Neck
Liz Berney, Esq. is the Director of Special Projects and Long Island-Queens Executive Director for the Zionist Organization of America
