Members, chairman of Congressional Israel Allies Caucus come out against Supreme Court decision to nix law allowing "Israel" to be listed on birthplace of citizens born in Jerusalem.
US President Barack Obama must use his executive power to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, pro-Israel Congressmen said after last week’s US Supreme Court decision to strike down as constitutional a congressional law allowing “Israel” to be written as the birthplace on passports of Jerusalem-born Americans.
The Supreme Court took the side of US President Barack Obama’s administration in Zivotovsky v. Kerry last Monday, saying that the law encroached on the president’s policy to set foreign policy.
Members and chairman of the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus came out against the decision, with many calling for Obama to use the power the Court ruled he alone holds to do what the now-canceled law authorized.
“The sad and unfortunate truth is that this President has done all he can to diminish the standing since he walked into office,” Rep. Ted Franks (R-AZ), a CIAC co-chairman who introduced the Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of the State of Israel Act, stated.
Franks said that, because Obama “refuses to reflect the unified American voice that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Congress has been placed in the very uncomfortable position of having to confirm to the world who our allies are.”