The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a non-binding resolution Tuesday declaring that “Jerusalem is and should remain the capital of the State of Israel.”
The 378-34 vote came despite a threat Tuesday from a little-known Palestinian terrorist group in Beirut, which announced it would kill Americans unless the Senate rescinded an identical resolution it adopted a month ago.
The resolutions were initiated by Sen. Daniel Moynihan and Rep. Eliot Engel, both New York Democrats, after President Bush said he was concerned about Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem. While American presidents have objected to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, only Bush has raised questions about Jews living in parts of Jerusalem.
The Bush administration, like prior ones, has not recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and believes the city’s final status should be decided through negotiations. It did not lobby against the resolution.
Thomas Dine, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said he was “delighted” with the vote by House members, saying they “affirmed their commitment to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), who voted against the resolution, argued that Congress did not have to respond “collectively” to what he called Bush’s “misstatements.”
Obey, who is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over foreign aid, said he would have preferred to have members of Congress respond individually to Bush’s statement.
“I happen to personally believe Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and that Jerusalem should and will remain undivided. Everybody knows that,” he said.
CHRISTIAN QUARTER ISSUE RAISED
But Rep. Dante Fascell (D-Fla.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that it was “incumbent, particularly given the sensitivity of the political situation in Israel” to calm Israel’s fears that the United States was shifting its stance on Jerusalem.
Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.), who is of Arab descent, was the sole lawmaker to raise questions about the Israeli government’s admission this week to aiding Jewish settlers in their efforts to buy a building in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Bonior called passage of the resolution “especially pernicious” coming soon after that incident.
“The Likud government has been providing this aid while lying, lying about the action, saying that they were providing no such aid,” said Bonior.
“They even kept the fact from Jerusalem’s mayor, who accused the government of covering up and said that these actions strained the delicate fabric of relations in the Old City.”
“Today we should be asking tough questions” about whether Congress should approve $400 million in loan guarantees to Israel for settling Soviet Jews in Israel, “instead of passing this resolution, which can only encourage more destabilizing settlements,” Bonior added.
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