Ze'ev Bielski

The Republican Party is amending its platform to include a slightly altered position on Israel, JTA reported Monday. The latest draft of the platform reinstates a reference to Jerusalem as Israel's "undivided" capital and removes a reference to "Palestine." The language shared with members of the Platform Committee by the Republican National Committee at an orientation on Sunday night was first reported by CNN . The 58-page draft platform, which supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, could change several times before the start of the Republican National Convention which will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 18. In the party's 2012 platform, the word "undivided" was deleted from the platform of four years earlier and the reference to “Palestine” was added. The 2012 platform read, according to JTA , "We support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state with secure, defensible borders; and we envision two democratic states – Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and Palestine – living in peace and security." The 2008 platform had declared, "We support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to that undivided capital of Israel." The changes to the platform reflect the positions of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Before the AIPAC policy conference this past March, Trump reiterated that he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the American embassy there if elected. In January, in an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network , the real estate mogul was asked if he agreed with his then-rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in their pledges to move the embassy if elected. "They want it in Jerusalem. Well I am for that 100%. We are for that 100%," Trump said , in his first promise to have the embassy resituated in the 3,000-year-old capital of the Jewish people. Trump adviser David Friedman last month said the Republicans' presumptive nominee would consider support of an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would not openly oppose Israel’s policy decisions, noted JTA . Friedman also recently said that Trump may support Israel annexing parts of Judea and Samaria, should he be elected. “I don’t think he will have a problem with that but he would expect Israel to continue seeking peace. He has no doubt that Israel wants peace,” Friedman told Haaretz in late June. The reported changes to the Republican platform come after the Democratic party voted down an anti-Israeli amendment to its own platform. During a meeting of the Democratic party drafting committee Saturday, supporters of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders proposed an amendment to the Democratic party platform which would urge an "end to occupation and illegal settlements," in Judea and Samaria, as part of a general statement in the platform about the promotion of a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The proposal was voted down 95-73, largely thanks to Hilary Clinton supporters who opposed such language.

Ze'ev Bielski

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