The DNC Jerusalem Back Story
Update: The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday added an amendment to its 2012 platform saying Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The language, almost identical to that in the DNC 2008 platform, was added after its omission came under criticism from some Republican groups.
“Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel,” the amendment added to the platform Wednesday states. “The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.”
“President Obama personally intervened to strengthen the language,” a Democratic aide involved in the process told Al-Monitor Wednesday.
Obama campaign officials saw the issue as an unnecessary distraction, a source said, adding:. “They were and continue to be comfortable with the original language [in the DNC 2012 platform] that they feel is stridently pro-Israel. But they felt that the manufactured controversy over Jerusalem was an unnecessary distraction.”
“The platform is being amended to maintain consistency with the personal views expressed by the President and in the Democratic Party platform in 2008,” DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement Wednesday.
The pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), praised the decision.
“We welcome reinstatement to the Democratic platform of the language affirming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” the statement from AIPAC said. “Together, these party platforms reflect strong bipartisan support for the US – Israel relationship.”
Officials with the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC did not raise concerns about Jerusalem when they were given a chance to preview early drafts of the Democratic National Committee platform and offer proposed amendments to it at a meeting in Detroit last month, several Democratic sources and experts involved with the platform drafting process tell
Al-Monitor. AIPAC advisors did provide written materials early in the process proposing using language from the 2008 DNC platform, Democratic sources acknowledge, but did not propose amendments on the Jerusalem issue at the DNC drafting committee meeting reviewing the document in Detroit last month.
The
DNC 2012 platform, released Tuesday, omitted language in the 2008 document saying Jerusalem “is and will remain the capital of Israel.” In fact, the entire DNC 2012 foreign policy platform was rewritten to reflect President Obama’s national security record in office, Democratic sources told
Al-Monitor.
The Obama administration has provided some $10 billion in security assistance to Israel since taking office, including $70 million in military support signed into law by Obama at a Rose Garden ceremony in July.
“We made a conscious decision to not make the platform a purely political and aspirational document, but instead make it a document about how we’ve actually governed,” a Democratic foreign policy expert involved in writing the DNC platform told
Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity Wednesday. “So, in the foreign policy section, [we] threw out all the old platform stuff, and talked about our record.”