After reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was removed from the 2012 Democratic platform the Republicans rushed to the attack. The reference had been in the 2008 platform. Faced with a Republican attack questioning Obama's credentials as pro-Israeli appaently the president directly intervened to ensure that there would be an amendment to the platform that would say again that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Robert Wexler a member of the platform committee said that President Obama intervened directly to support the motion the JTA(Jewish Telegraphic News) reported. Wexler said: "They are returning the language to the 2008 situation...The president directly intervened to make sure this amendment happened." Democratic insiders described the omission of the reference as an inadvertent error!
Romney had a field day with the issue saying:“It is unfortunate that the entire Democratic Party has embraced President Obama’s shameful refusal to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. During his visit Romney had stated the Jerusalem was Israel's capital. However Romney did not mention that the Republican party had altered their own statement about Jerusalem being Israel's capial. Originally they had said Jerusalem was Israel's undivided capital but "unidviided" was removed, as was a promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Actually both Republican and Democratic administrations follow the same official policy that the status of Jerusalem should be settled by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. In fact initial statements from the Democratic National Committee were not that the omission was inadvertent but that the aim was to bring the platform in line wiith the fact that it has never been the policy of any president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. But the reference to final status negotiations also appeared in the 2008 platform along with the statement about Israel as the capital of Israel.
No one seems to know how exactly the statement about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel was left out. It is rather surprising since apparently AIPAC officials were present during the drafting of the platform in Minneapolis last month. However apparently the group did not see the full final text.
The appended video showing the vote on the amendment that would restore the reference to Israel as the capital of Israel is astonishing. The chair obviously does not like the first vote. It is not clear which side won. There is supposed to be a two thirds vote in favor of the amendment. The only faiir way to decide would be to have a recorded vote. Of course there was no intent to do that. Those with experience in ramming motions through would just declare the motion carried as if there were no doubt whatsoever and go on to the next bit of business.
The chair is perplexed and has another vote. The resullt is no less unclear. So he calles a third vote and then declares the amendment carried, eliciting many boos from the crowd. They call the meeting a convention but it seems more like a circus and it is certainly not democratic. For more see this article.
No doubt the Republicans will point out that the Democratic party is full of atheists who boo God and do not want him in the Democratic platform. But even worse they boo Israel and do not want to say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
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