'Obama Has Made Jerusalem Campaign Issue'

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama's comment and subsequent backtrack on an "undivided Jerusalem" has turned the capital into an election campaign issue, the New York Jewish Week reported. Sen. Obama later softened his statement, saying that the status of the city will be decided by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Orthodox Union (OU) political director Nathan Diament commented, "Sen. Obama made it an issue by highlighting it in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) speech, so now it’s not just the issue, but whether the candidates, both Obama and [Republican presidential candidate Senator John] McCain, speak clearly and consistently about that issue."
The issue is...whether...Obama and McCain, speak clearly and consistently.


Sen. Obama hit the headlines with his original comment that "any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

Arab officials quickly and harshly condemned him for the statement, and less than 24 hours later explained on CNN, "Obviously it is going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues, and Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations. My belief is that as a practical matter it would be very difficult to execute. And I think that it is smart for us to work through a system in which everybody has access to the extraordinary religious sites in Old Jerusalem. But Israel has a legitimate claim on that city."

Jeremy Ben-Ami, director of the dovish J Street Lobby, charged that Israeli groups, such as the OU, are trying "to make it politically untenable for an American president to play the role of honest broker and mediator. They are attempting to inject this into the political process and make it costly for candidates to support what has traditionally been U.S. policy."

Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain stated, "Jerusalem is undivided. Jerusalem is the capital, and we should move our embassy to Jerusalem before anything else happens."

Republican party official Matthew Brooks said, "The Obama flip-flop on Jerusalem shows to the electorate that he is just another politician who will say anything to any group in order to get elected."

Jordan, when it occupied eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria until the Six-Day War in 1967, denied Christians and Jews access to holy sites. Israel opened up free passage to all religious sites after the area was restored to the Jewish state after 2,000 years.