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Today, President Obama will visit Israel. He was invited to speak to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem.
But he will not do so. Instead, he is speaking a few blocks away, at a convention center. The reason given is that he wants to speak to the "Israeli people" and not to politicians.
This is absurd. The real reason is that the State Department thinks that for the president to visit the Knesset, the seat of Israel's government in Jerusalem, implies that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel -- and they do not accept this. Indeed, they do not accept that Israel is sovereign over any part of the city, which is why the U.S. Embassy is still in Tel Aviv.
By the way, this has nothing to do with "occupation." The Knesset is located in West Jerusalem, which has been part of Israel since 1948!
Vic Rosenthal
