Sen. Gary Hart, in two separate press statements over the weekend, affirmed that he would move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, if elected President.
He repeated this in a televised debate with former Vice President Walter Mondale and the Rev. Jesse Jackson last night in Chicago, two days before a cruicial primary is to take place in llinois, to be followed by primaries in Pennsylvania and New York. All three states have large Jewish populations.
The Colorado Democratic Presidential hopeful issued his two statements after his campaign headquarters in New York and in Washington were asked to respond to reports that Hart was opposed to moving the Embassy. The reports were based on a statement issued from the Senator’s Washington headquarters dated March 13.
No one at his headquarters either in New York or in Washington was able to explain the circumstances under which it was issued, if it was issued by one of his press aides with Hart’s approval or whether it was issued without Hart having approved. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency made repeated calls to both headquarters in an effort to track down the origin of this statement.
THE SEQUENCE OF STATEMENTS
The statement said, “The final status of Jerusalem can only come about through negotiations involving all sides of the issue. I am hesitant to commit my future Administration to such a narrow policy that would severely limit my capacity as President in future negotiations.” The statement added that should the negotiations “provide Israel with the sole responsibility for Jerusalem, then I see no reason why the U.S. could not move its Embassy there.”
But in another statement a few days later, Hart declared: “Through the years, I have always supported Israel’s right to make her own internal political decisions and have respected her right, like every other nation on earth, to locate her capital anywhere in the nation. As I said last year at a conference of Jewish leaders in Washington, ‘I support the traditional position of Israel on Jerusalem and I believe that should be a strong commitment of this country.
“I intend to maintain my position for Israel’s decision to locate her capital in Jerusalem. If elected President, I would move the U.S. Embassy to West Jerusalem. Attachments of other cultures to the holy places of Jerusalem should of course be respected, as Israel has carefully and sensitively done since 1967.”
In a statement released yesterday afternoon, Hart repeated the previous statement word for word but added that he would vote for Sen. Daniel Moynihan’s bill, now before the Senate, calling on President Reagan to move the Embassy to Jerusalem. This is the first known time that Hart has publicly come out in favor of the bill which now has 36 co-sponsors.
In the televised debate last night, Hart said, in response to a question, that as President he would order the Embassy moved, adding, “It seems to me not to make a great deal of sense to have our Embassy outside the West Jerusalem area where Israel has maintained that its capital exists.” Responding to the same question, Mondale said he “strongly favored” the move. He noted Hart’s change of view and called his previous view a “bad idea, poorly thought through Jackson responded that it would be a “mistake” to exacerbate Mideast tensions.
WILL MEET WITH JEWISH LEADERS THURSDAY
Hart, who is regarded as a strong supporter of Israel, will meet with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Thursday morning in New York. Several of the other Presidential hopefuls, including some who have dropped out of the race, met with the Conference earlier.
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