Charlotte, NC – Needled by Mitt Romney and other Republicans, Democrats hurriedly rewrote their convention platform Wednesday to add a mention of God and declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel after President Barack Obama intervened to order the changes.
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The embarrassing reversal was compounded by chaos and uncertainty on the convention floor, requiring three votes before a ruling that the amendments had been approved. Many in the audience booed the decision.
The episode exposed tensions on Israel within the party, put Democrats on the defensive and created a public relations spectacle as Obama arrived in the convention city to claim his party’s nomination for a second term.
The language in the party platform – a political document – does not affect actual U.S. policy toward Israel. The administration has long said that determining Jerusalem’s status is an issue that should be decided in peace talks by Israelis and Palestinians.
Obama intervened directly to get the language changed both on Jerusalem and to reinstate God in the platform, according to campaign officials who insisted on anonymity to describe behind-the-scenes party negotiations. They said Obama’s reaction to the omission of God from the platform was to wonder why it was removed in the first place.
The revisions came as Obama struggles to win support from white working-class voters, many of whom have strong religious beliefs, and as Republicans try to woo Jewish voters and contributors away from the Democratic Party. Republicans claimed the platform omissions suggested Obama was weak in his defense of Israel and out of touch with mainstream Americans.
GOP officials argued that not taking a position on Jerusalem’s status in the party platform raised questions about Obama’s support for the Mideast ally. Romney said omitting God “suggests a party that is increasingly out of touch with the mainstream of the American people.”
“I think this party is veering further and further away into an extreme wing that Americans don’t recognize,” Romney said.
Added to the platform was a declaration that Jerusalem “is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.”
That language was included in the platform four years ago when Obama ran for his first term, but was left out when Democrats on Tuesday approved their 2012 platform, which referred only to the nation’s “unshakable commitment to Israel’s security.”
Some delegates were angered by the change.
“There was no discussion. We didn’t even see it coming. We were blindsided by it,” said Noor Ul-Hasan, a Muslim delegate from Salt Lake City, who questioned whether the convention had enough of a quorum to even amend the platform.
Also restored from the 2008 platform was language calling for a government that “gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”
For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have said it is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to settle Jerusalem’s final status – a position reiterated earlier Wednesday by the White House. Both sides claim Jerusalem as their capital, and the city’s status has long been among the thorniest issues in Mideast peace talks.
The U.S. has its embassy in Tel Aviv, although numerous Republicans – including Mitt Romney – have vowed to move the embassy to Jerusalem.
During his 2008 campaign, Obama referred to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a speech to AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby. But as official policy, his administration has repeatedly maintained that Jerusalem’s status is an issue that Israelis and Palestinians should decide in peace talks. The platform flub gave Republicans an opening to revive their attacks on Obama’s support for Israel just as Democrats were hoping to bask in the glow of first lady Michelle Obama’s Tuesday speech and gin up excitement for her husband, who will accept his party’s nomination for a second term on Thursday.
But restoring the language did not placate Republicans, who used it to suggest that Obama’s party is now more supportive than he is of the Jewish state.
“Now is the time for President Obama to state in unequivocal terms whether or not he believes Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.
Even as Democrats worked to quell the political fallout from the omission, some Democrats in Charlotte were in open revolt. Angry delegates screamed and threw their hands in the air as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the convention chairman, declared the amendments approved.
“The majority spoke last night,” said Angela Urrea, a delegate from Roy, Utah. “We shouldn’t be declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said the move was a “reasonable adjustment,” but suggested the party could have avoided the skirmish.
Republicans declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel in the platform the party approved last week at its convention in Tampa, Fla. GOP platforms in 2004 and 2008 also called Jerusalem the capital.
Never trust a politician! Pirkay Avos said it best when our Sages cautioned us to be wary of those in power, “the establishment”. Their only motivation in accomodating us is to benefit themselves.
Right. Are we supposed to be impressed? Too little, too late.
The democratic party has shifted radically to the left and let slip their intentions vis-a-vis Israel. God was out and now God is in? Jerusalem should be divided and now, suddenly, not? Give me a break.
How do you spell disingenuous? What, do they take us all for fools?
Too little too late , wake up sleeping people Obama will promise anything to get ele ted BUT will NOT keep his word.
If you get a chance to hear this on the radio: Villaraigosa put this amendment for voice vote three times, and every time it sounded that not only they didn’t have the necessary two thirds of the votes, but the anti-Semitic Democrat NOs were actually more numerous. When Villaraigosa was forced to cheat to cover up Democrat anti-Semitism and declared that the amendment won, he was drowned by the chorus of anti-Semitic Democrat boos.
Not that any of it will stop conservative reform and about half of the modern allegedly orthodox to think whether to vote for Hussein: thinking is one thing they are really incapable of.
This is the face of the democratic part in 2012 under the leadership of Barack Obama
These socialist pigs voted against reinstating Jerusalem and G-d!
The Nays were much louder than the Yeas but they are so corrupt that this mayor overruled his own vote and did whatever he wanted, because democracy has no place in the Socialist Democratic Party USA!
I understand the issue, but still, it’s not good when Israel (or Jews) is (are) too much in the spot-light.
It can (and usually does) backfire in the end. Heaven forbid.
Flip Flop, this may very well be what will end his presidency.
They defended it and the retracted that? They really think people will buy in to it that the president intervened after they said otherwise last evening.
My take on this is as follows; this was a trial balloon meant 1; to test the waters, 2; to push fwd with an anti religious, Israel agenda.
They may want us to think it was a mistake, what they really want is people should say, hey that’s not a bad idea and the war on this issue just begun.
Loving This! OBAMA on the defensive!
“Obama personally intervened”
Of course he did, he wants to be re-elected.
put up the video where they ACTUALLY voted to keep it out of the platform.
let every Jew know how evil the democratic party has become.
also put up the video where Kappo Debbie Wasserman Schultz denies the fact the majority of all democratic delegates (this includes congressmen, governors, mayors, state legislators, city legislatures ext.) voted against God and his Holy city
Loving This! OBAMA on the defensive!
It was the godless Jews who lived in Yad Mordecai , former partisans from Russia and Poland, who fought the Jordanian legionnaires in hand to hand combat when the run out of ammunition. It was the leftist Palmach [Mapam] who fought back the Syrians in the Galil haelyon. It is the “socialist” democrats who passed the food stamp, section 8 so all the holy parasites can pursue their holy studies while “shochrim” have to work and of course you must wear a Borsalino and the wives at least a $ 2,000 hair piece. Parasites or “pigs”
which ones?