Posted on 11/24/2016 12:34:45 PM PST by SJackson
The US Consulate in Jerusalem is an affront to the State of Israel.
It is expected that when a country sets up a consulate in a foreign land it is within diplomatic protocol and parameters. This is especially true when that foreign land is an important ally and alone in the area in upholding their shared values and principles.
The US Consulate in Jerusalem presents itself as being somewhere other than the capital of Israel. It is an affront to the State of Israel.
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It is also an affront to the sensitivities of Americans and their expressed desire through their representatives in Washington to respect the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel. Just look at the consulate’s website (https://jru.usconsulate.gov/). Even the address contains “jru” but no hint of the host country, Israel, as if Jerusalem were an independent country.
If you browse the website, you will see mention of Palestine, Gaza, Ramallah – but nary a comment as to the host country. There are facilities offered for Arabic speakers, but not Hebrew. There are pictures of children and activities, but not for or of Israelis.
Jerusalem is a beautiful and thriving capital city. The US Consulate has the good fortune to be situated in a beautiful neighborhood in the capital. If they look beyond the corner they have painted themselves into, the consulate staff would see the beauty of their host city and country.
They would see many creeds and races living and working together. They would see the holy places of three of those creeds and their various sects protected and respected.
This bizarre and hostile attitude feeds directly into an international audience who harbor hatred toward the Jewish people and exhibit oldschool antisemitism. It aids the absurd claims of those, like UNESCO, who seek to delegitimize the state and “remove” the Jewish people from their homeland.
Of course, the website has carried mention of President Barack Obama’s recent visit for the funeral of president Shimon Peres. However, just as the State Department made sure to crudely cross out “Israel” from the transcript, their consulate website makes it all occur in a Jerusalem, with no reference to what country the city might be located in.
In letting fellow Americans know, I have been met with disbelief and consternation that our country should be so misrepresented and so callous in considering the feelings of our ally.
It is unimaginable that the United States should be doing this to a good friend. Let us consider if we did this to an avowed enemy. Picture, if you will, the US Consulate in Berlin, East Germany before the wall came down.
What if that consulate acted as if it was not in Germany? Imagine if that consulate absurdly displayed only the benefits of living in Switzerland.
Similarly, the consulate in Jerusalem speaks only of Gaza, the Palestinian areas and the Arab countries and culture of the rest of the Middle East.
However, the host country in this case is supposed to be a close friend of the United States. Yet, there is an official, uncalled for and obvious snubbing of the host country.
Congress, speaking for the American people, has done its part more than once in attempting to change the status of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Several presidents came into office with the promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem. President-elect Donald Trump has come in with that promise emphasized in his campaign platform.
President Reagan famously implored that the Berlin Wall be taken down.
There is now an opportunity to take down the propaganda wall that separates the US State Department presence in Jerusalem from its host country, America’s strong friend and ally in the Middle East.
Mr. Trump, take down this affront!
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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I doubt President Trump will have any problem with Jerusalem, Israel. Alternately they could move the US Consulate to Ramallah. Good views and restaurants there I'm sure
Actually it will become more Israeli friendly now. NO longer will it be an affront.
I think I read that he plans to do so. But I suppose it’s not certain until it happens.
I think Israel and advocates for the Jewish people there will be amazed at Donald Trump. They won’t have had to complain (at least not very much). It will be like where Nehemiah wept to Cyrus that “the gates of the city have been burned.” It wasn’t long before it had new gates and was building a new wall.
He knows where America’s bread is buttered; he has a phalanx of spiritual advisors who all agree with this; he has an emphatic commitment to common sense and blessing; and P.C. has less weight than a feather to him.
If this is not a work of God, I’ll eat my proverbial hat.
Perhaps someone who knows more will weigh in, but it's my understanding this Consulate deals primarily with Palestinians and isn't particularly friendly to Israelis. From their website
The U.S. diplomatic presence in Jerusalem, first established in 1844, was designated a Consulate General in 1928. It now represents the United States in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip as an independent mission, with the Consul General serving as chief of mission. We also provide services to American citizens in this district. Throughout its history, staff of the Consulate General has included Muslims, Jews, and Christians, demonstrating that people of different faiths and nationalities can work together in peace in this region.Our overarching strategic objective remains the achievement of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the emergence of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Consulate General has served as the de facto representative of the United States government to the Palestinian Authority. In tandem with our efforts to shepherd a conflict-ending Israeli-Palestinian settlement, we help the Palestinian Authority build the sustainable institutions of a future independent, viable, democratic, and sovereign Palestinian state. Our tools include a significant foreign assistance program, utilizing USAID , International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the United States Security Coordinator, public outreach, the Middle East Partnership Initiative, and of course our diplomatic engagement. A major U.S. priority is to help move the Palestinian economy to a model of healthy and sustainable private sector-led investment, growth and job creation. In Gaza, the United States provides development and humanitarian assistance. This assistance includes reconstruction projects to help stabilize local economic conditions and projects to help revitalize the private sector and support recovery, as well as carefully managed contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Through public diplomacy, we harness the power of U.S. higher education and promote U.S. values and interests, including through collaborative academic and professional exchanges, English language learning, and promoting women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship development, as well as initiatives for young Palestinians to tap into career-enhancing opportunities involving science, technology and innovation.
If they are independent of the US Embassy in Israel, and their purpose is to aid Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip , I wonder why they aren't located in the West Bank or Gaza. Plenty of cities there, and I'm sure real estate is available. Locate where the aid we're providing is spent.
He said he’s going to follow the law and move the US Embassy, which deals with Israel not palestinians, to Jerusalem. I’d speculate he knows nothing about this. It’s not that big an issue. Just change the address to Jerusalem, Israel.
That pretty much fits with the hostile attitude of the Big Ears administration.
Well there is a “consulate” which sits in Jerusalem now (but is focused mostly on non-Jews)... and then there is an “embassy” which sits in Tel Aviv.
Whatever the physical logistics, whether it is reuse of the “consulate” facilities, or the opening of new facilities, the embassy will be going to Jerusalem, complete with stern warnings from Trump that no Pallie uprising will be tolerated.
Agreed.
At least they took it out of the French Hill neighborhood, and it no longer looks like a food stamps office in the States.
OF COURSE! The consulate should be moved to Tel Aviv and the embassy to Jerusalem. I can think of no other country on planet earth which USA insults this way. Hopefully, President Trump will fix this (and stop all of Obama’s screwing, insulting, under-cutting, sabotaging, and back-stabbing of Israel and our other natural allies). He needs to do a THOROUGH top=to=bottom cleansing of the SnakeDepartment, which has been a Nazi Lair for years. Pray for America, I think Mr. Trump can and will fix the Obama damage....here and abroad...
I disagree. A link to the Consulate web site is up the thread. They’re proud to be an “independent” mission, I presume independent of the Embassy not the US, and to service residents of Jerusalem (I’ve been told not too happy to service Jerusalem residents of a certain ancient religion), the West Bank and Gaza. Yes, the Embassy should move to Jerusalem, but the Consulate should relocate amongst the people they service. Perhaps Ramallah Or Gaza City, they have a nice beach.
Well what was will be no more with a new Trump Administration.
(Jerusalem holds unique spiritual and religious significance for the world's Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.) Following the World War I, the victorious Principal Allied Powers recognized these as "a sacred trust of civilization", and stipulated that the existing rights and claims connected with them should be safeguarded in perpetuity, under international guarantee.[5][6][7] The terms of the British Balfour Declaration of 1917 were included in the Mandate for Palestine by the League of Nations. The US government was not a party to these agreements; but stated official foreign policy in 1919 was to ‘acquiesce’ in the Balfour Declaration, but not officially support Zionism.[8][9] On September 21, 1922, the US Congress passed a joint resolution stating its support for a homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people but not at the expense of other cultures present at the time.[10][11] This occurred virtually the same day the Palestine Mandate was approved by the League of Nations; although official government findings about the affected peoples' choices concerning self-determination were available in government circles, they were withheld from the public until the following December.[12] US foreign policy remained unchanged. These competing nationalist claims led to increasing civil violence during the inter-war period; following World War II, the "Question of Palestine" was placed before the United Nations, as the League's successor agency.
On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine; it contained a recommendation that Jerusalem be placed under a special international regime, a corpus separatum, administered by the United Nations and be separate from both the Jewish and Arab states envisioned. Following the conflict that ensued, cease-fires and the 1949 Armistice Agreements were negotiated and accepted by both sides. One of these resulted, in part, in a temporary division of Jerusalem. The relevant Armistice Agreement with Jordan was signed on April 3, 1949,[13] but it was considered internationally as having no legal effect on the continued validity of the provisions of the partition resolution for the internationalization of Jerusalem.[14] On April 25, 1949, King Abdullah officially changed the name of Transjordan to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He had secured the support of Great Britain (albeit qualified—Great Britain did not recognize the incorporation of East Jerusalem, maintaining that it ought to be part of a corpus separatum, an international enclave).[15]
On December 5, 1949 the Israeli Cabinet, meeting in Tel Aviv, declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and on January 23, 1950, the First Knesset proclaimed that "Jerusalem was, and had always been, the capital of Israel."[16] Moreover, on April 24, 1950, the Jordan House of Deputies and House of Notables, in a joint session, adopted a resolution annexing the West Bank and Jerusalem. Because the status of Jerusalem had been included previously in the UN Partition Plan, most countries did not accept this Israeli position, and most embassies have been located elsewhere.[14][17]
The United States has stated that its policy on Jerusalem refers specifically to the geographic boundaries of the area that were set out for the "City of Jerusalem", or Corpus Separatum, in Resolution 181, but since 1950, US diplomats have traveled regularly to Jerusalem from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to conduct business with Israeli officials.[18] The United States has also stated that, in a de jure sense, Jerusalem was part of Palestine and has not since become part of any other sovereignty.[19] After the capture of the entire city and the adjacent West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War, the United States again reaffirmed the desirability of establishing an international regime for the city of Jerusalem.[20]
Advocacy for the Jerusalem Embassy Act reached a zenith during particularly critical times in negotiations for the Oslo Accords of the peace process, despite opposition from both the Israeli and American administrations.[21] The embassy move was, and continues to be, delayed by successive United States government in order to appear neutral on the issue of Jerusalem.
I saw some Jewish kid saying he feels scared in London, where anti-Semitism is on the rise “due to the actions of Israel.” Stockholm Syndrome at its worst.
Give it back to Turkey.
They ran the Levant and Arabia for 800 years and kept the locals under control. The post-WW I arrangements have brought catastrophe everywhere.
Time to recognize it as the capital of Israel. We will no longer have a g-d muslim in the WH.
May need to be done but doesn’t merit the First 100 Day Critical list.
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