Israeli President Reuven Rivlin hosted visiting US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey on Wednesday, speaking for many Israelis by declaring that he was born in Jerusalem and is an Israeli despite a US Supreme Court ruling on Monday overturning a law earlier passed by Congress allowing US citizens born in Jerusalem to mark “Israel” as the country of their birth on official documents. The ruling was based on US policy, going back to 1967, that Jerusalem is not the sovereign territory of Israel. Every US president since Harry Truman has affirmed the Executive branch’s authority to change that policy, or not, according to the judgment of the sitting President. The Court’s ruling stated, in effect, that Congress does not have the authority to encroach on this area of foreign policy and the Obama Administration was quick to applaud the move. Read More
