Obama campaign flip-flops on “undivided” Jerusalem
By Israel Insider staff

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama did not preclude Palestinian sovereignty over parts of Jerusalem, or the possibility of the city being the capital of Palestine when he called for Israel’’s capital to remain “undivided,” his campaign clarified.

“Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” Obama thundered Wednesday, earning an ovation from the 7,000-plus attendees at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.

But a campaign adviser told the Jerusalem Post Thursday that what Obama really meant is that “Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties” as part of “an agreement that they both can live with.” The adviser explained that “two principles should apply to any outcome,” which were: “Jerusalem remains Israel’’s capital and it’’s not going to be divided by barbed wire and checkpoints as it was in 1948-1967.”

That claim by itself is problematic: the United States does not recognize Jerusalem — even the Western part of the city — as Israel’’s capital, and has consistently refused to move its Embassy there. Obama was not challenged on whether he, like many presidential candidates in the past, would promised to move the embassy to the place he recognized as Israel’’s capital.

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The adviser refused, however, to rule out the possibility city would also serve as the capital of a Palestinian state or that the Palestinians would be sovereign over neighborhoods of the city, nor did he take a stand with respect to the position of the Old City and the holy places.

“Beyond those principles, all other aspects are for the two parties to agree at final status negotiations,” the Obama adviser said, non-committally.

Many on the right of the political spectrum among America’’s Jews had welcomed Obama’’s remarks at AIPAC, but the subsequent “clarification” of his position left some disenchanted at yet another example of the candidate’’s backtracking.

[Source: read full story here, web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12903.htm]

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