Washington – Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama did not rule out Palestinian sovereignty over parts of Jerusalem when he called for Israel’s capital to remain “undivided,” his campaign told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.
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“Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” Obama declared Wednesday, to rousing applause from the 7,000-plus attendees at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.
But a campaign adviser clarified Thursday that Obama believes “Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties” as part of “an agreement that they both can live with.”
“Two principles should apply to any outcome,” which the adviser gave as: “Jerusalem remains Israel’s capital and it’s not going to be divided by barbed wire and checkpoints as it was in 1948-1967.”
He refused, however, to rule out other configurations, such as the city also serving as the capital of a Palestinian state or Palestinian sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods.
“Beyond those principles, all other aspects are for the two parties to agree at final status negotiations,” the Obama adviser said.
Many on the right of the political spectrum among America’s Jews welcomed Obama’s remarks at AIPAC, but the clarification of his position left several cold.
“The Orthodox Union is extremely disappointed in this revision of Senator Obama’s important statement about Jerusalem,” said Nathan Diament, director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. He had sent out a release Wednesday applauding Obama’s Jerusalem remarks in front of AIPAC.
“In the current context, everyone understands that saying ‘Jerusalem… must remain undivided’ means that the holy city must remain unified under Israeli rule, as it has been since 1967,” Diament explained.
“If Senator Obama intended his remarks at AIPAC to be understood in this way, he said nothing that would reasonably lead to such a different interpretation.”
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America and another Jewish activist who had originally lauded Obama’s statement, now called the candidate’s words “troubling.”
“It means he used the term inappropriately, possibly to mislead strong supporters of Israel that he supports something he doesn’t really believe,” Klein charged.
What did you expect? The question really is what does he say in front of Muslim groups.
Thank G-d this came out now!
Now will all the “jewish groups” dump him already???
Nah, Nah, Nah. Nah, Nah Obama!
Please post comments responsibly as all comments are moderated.
oh, i thought he’s better than the clintons. nice trick there, Husain!
Barack Obama would be more friendly to Israel than Bush is currently. Bush is probably the worst president for the Jews. His blinded one sided bias towards Israel in essence is bad for Jews world wide
Obama is BAD NEWS FOR JEWS. Vote for JOHN MCCAIN!!
I disagree, this was an absolutely necessary clarification, since as those familiar with Islamic textual authority know, the question of Jerusalem is a non-negotiable for those of nearly all stripes of Islam, therefore to give the impression that Jerusalem is non-negotiable at this point would have presented a possibly insurmountable problem for success in any Islamic country–Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc, the animus would have been so high–and that would not be good for Israel either. I appreciate the speed with which this was clarified and neutrality made clear.
Obama will say anything to any audience. He is an empty suit full of cliches. Hillary is a psycho megalomaniac, but at least she is the real deal.
Remember the Palestinians as singing L’shana Hbaa as well…
“HITLER #2 !!”
Obama will do every thing and any thing to get elected just like hitler did, but hitler let me tell you something, this time we are smarter we wont go for your lies again!!
“VOTE FOR MCCAIN”
DOV3 is 100% right obama is a gilgel of hitler, look at all jewish news papers from the times when hitler became the “fuhrer” they all endorsed him and thought that he would be a great leader, my dear friends don’t be fooled again !!!!!
I am totally against Obama. That being said though, he is no worse than any other politician …as far as telling the particular audience what they want to hear……..that is how that game works.
How many U.S. presidents and wannabees, also rans, etc have told Jewish groups that they “promised” , if elected that they would move the U.S. Embassy to the capital (Jerusalem)–they all lie for votes.
non of them are good for jews or not good live meluchim vsurim byad hashem.
Mr. Obama should say what he means, really instead of making declarations with underlyings providing authoratative commentary.
Never in my life has a candidate for office has scared me so much.
orde, first of all i dont mind the explanation what i hate about him is that first he makes a statement with the intention to fool us into thinking that he’s pro undivided jerusalem when he doesnt really mean it. second, FYI the word jerusalem is not even mentioned in the koran not even once, so it has nothing to do with the religion. period.
look at what hagoan rav chaim stein shlita said last week scary
Babishka Says:
Obama will say anything to any audience. He is an empty suit full of cliches. Hillary is a psycho megalomaniac, but at least she is the real deal.
06-05-2008 – 9:32 PM
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Hill is not out yet?
Not only does he get caught in lies…he proactively creates them. Can’t trust a word of any of them…but if they are so blunt about “our” topics then lets make sure we do our hishtadlus
“the word jerusalem is not even mentioned in the koran not even once, so it has nothing to do with the religion. period.”
The word Jerusalem is also not mentioned in the Chumash either.
Sounds like we are back to what the definition of is is! Deja vu all over again.
Rabbeinu anonymous (6-6-08): What in the world did U mean by noting the absence of Yerushalayim in the Chumash??? everyone with brains knows very well the famous pshat that HaShem left it out for a great purpose: the shevatim should not fight over it when the land is divided by Yehoshua. Again and again it says instead “the place that Gd will choose.” This is not comparable to the Koran. The muslims never needed Yerushalayim for anything – they had Mecca and Medina. Their only need for Yerushalayim is to keep yidden out. Too bad they did not listen to Rabbi Goren when the city was conquered and he ordered the artilary to blow up the gold dome. Instead the fool called a one-eyed general who stopped it. acting as the dayan, or as if he thought he was Moshe rabbeienu.
to the anonymous two above: the word Yerushalaim is mentioned explicitely over 600 times in TaNaCh
he is an muslim arab, he has muslim intrests, he does not like jews, he will likely be worse then mccain, and keep reminding people HE IS MUSLIM the garbage faith all the ARABS that hate us believe and he could never be trusted to be a friend to israel or the jews.
dont forget all the MUSLIM terrorist acts in the world today and tomorow are done shouting ALLA ACHBAR””””
now we dont want out next president shouting ALLA ACHBAR”””” right before he presses the red button in the white house on the state of israel>>>
Obama hates jews and just wait for the media to pounce on this jew hater.
The media has alot in store come election time.
This OBAMA is a self hating american and should not be allowed to become president. Its a mitzvah to vote for mccain. Eventhough he may not be the best person for the job. He is capable of doing what we need at this time. If you are a registered DEMOCRAT change to REPUBLICAN NOW ….its shameful that the democrats have gone do low….
Obama is going to be not one of the worse presedents but THE WORSET ONE!!!Just now he wants the jewish vote so hes acting all nice, but look at who he is, he sat listining to he rev. wrong