Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The resolution marked the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, when Israel won the West Bank, Sinai, Gaza, and the Golan Heights from Arab armies. It passed the House just four days after the White House exercised — for the 14th time — the Jerusalem Embassy Act waiver, which allows the president to ignore Congress. Since the act's passage, Presidents Clinton and Bush have exercised the waiver without fail every six months, as required.
The new resolution "commends Israel for its administration of the undivided city for the past 40 years, during which Israel has respected the rights of all religious groups." It also urges Arabs and Palestinian Arabs to take steps to seek peace but does not include similar language for Israel...
Update: Lynne notes it's all overruled...as usual.
W promised to move the embassy when he ran in 2000. This resolution came just a couple of days after the President's bi-annual waiver of the requirement to do it.
The 1995 embassy law has no teeth; it sets deadlines that the administration can ignore by resetting the clock. So every couple of years, we get these useless, feel-good resolutions. How about some action, for a change?
This is an issue I've never really understood.
As long as the embassy is to be placed in undisputed pre-1967 West Jerusalem, and not in the part of the city that was conquered in the Six Day War, what objections can there be?