Fact Check: Obama and the status of Jerusalem

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to please a pro-Israel crowd this week by saying that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel and that the holy city should not be divided.

That angered Palestinians, who claim part of the city, and Obama clarified his remarks to say that the fate of Jerusalem should be a matter for negotiation. That angered some Israelis and their U.S. supporters.

By week’s end no one was happy.

WHAT HE SAID:

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., speaks at a Chicago 2016 Olympic rally… Full Image

Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.” The remark Wednesday followed an endorsement of peace talks with the Palestinians to form an independent state.

On Thursday, Obama was asked if that didn’t send the wrong signal to Palestinians who look to the United States to be an honest broker in negotiations with Israel.

“Obviously, it’s going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues,” Obama told CNN. “And Jerusalem will be part of the negotiations.”

He added that he remains opposed to division of the city.

“My belief is that as a practical matter it would be very difficult to execute,” he said. “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 that Israel has a legitimate claim on that city.”

THE SPIN:

Republicans said Obama had backtracked. His campaign said no, he merely explained himself more fully.

THE FACTS:

Obama is trying to have it both ways, but there is nothing new about that. So does President Bush. President Clinton did, too.

A 1995 U.S. law recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the U.S. embassy to move to Jerusalem from a neutral site in nearby Tel Aviv.

Using their presidential power, Clinton and then Bush have routinely suspended the relocation of the embassy while saying the U.S. is still committed to doing it. Bush issued the latest waiver just this week.

At the same time, both the Clinton and Bush administrations considered Jerusalem a matter for negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians, just as Obama said he would do. Jerusalem is on the table in the current U.S.-backed negotiations on so-called ‘final status issues” in the six-decade conflict.

THE BACKSTORY:

Jerusalem is an ancient city with historic religious sites sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Jerusalem’s modern history is tortured: The United Nations proposed international jurisdiction for Jerusalem when it wrote the mandate for a Jewish state in 1947, but the plan fell apart the next year when the 1948 war divided the city between Israeli and Jordanian control. Israel captured the Old City in the 1967 war, reuniting the city under its disputed jurisdiction.

Israel claims all the city as its capital, and maintains the seat of government there. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

_By AP Diplomatic Writer Anne Gearan