After the president spoke at the Israeli statesman’s funeral last week, the White House issued a press release with the text of his remarks—and then, shortly thereafter, a correction. In the revised version, the location of the speech is given as “Jerusalem” instead of “Jerusalem, Israel.” Elliott Abrams comments:
The absurdity of this move is striking. The ceremony was at Mount Herzl, the Jerusalem cemetery where many of Israel’s greatest figures are buried: Theodor Herzl himself, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Menachem Begin, Golda Meir, Yitzḥak Rabin, and innumerable military heroes.
It lies in western Jerusalem, near Yad Vashem and Jerusalem Forest—a place Palestinians do not even claim when they claim a share of Jerusalem. Only those who seek to destroy Israel think this place will ever be anything but a part of the Jewish state. U.S. policy is that Jerusalem is a final-status issue, so we have our embassy in Tel Aviv. But there is no dispute about west Jerusalem, where the Knesset, the prime minister’s office, the Supreme Court, the National Library, and Yad Vashem—and Mount Herzl—all lie.
One wonders if President Obama, speaking about the meaning of Peres’s life for Israel, actually thought as he spoke those words at the gravesite that he was not standing in Israel, and that Shimon Peres was not being buried in Israel. I doubt it. Which suggests, again, how foolish the current and longstanding American policy really is.
Read more on Pressure Points: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2016/10/01/in-what-country-is-shimon-peres-buried/