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Unsettling developments in U.S.-Israeli relations

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Mount of Olives, where in this Sunday's gospel Jesus challenges the one "who is without sin" to cast the first stone, is located on a ridge overlooking Jerusalem. This week the city of Jerusalem--sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike--is front and center to a deepening diplomatic crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations.The conflict erupted last week after Israel announced during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that it would build 1,600 apartments for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem, the sector of the city Palestinians claim for a future capital.The Obama administration, fuming over what it called "insulting" Israeli conduct, has demanded that Israel call off the project. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, however, said such demands are "unreasonable" and predicted the row with the U.S. would blow over, saying neither side had an interest in escalation.But Washington notified Israel early Tuesday that U.S. envoy George Mitchell had put off a trip to the region indefinitely. Mitchell had planned on coming to wrap up preparations for relaunching Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Now it is not clear when the indirect talks will begin.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the project's approval, but he has not said it would be canceled. On Wednesday he praised President Obama and spoke by telephone with Biden. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cast more doubts on prospects for indirect peace talks with Israel soon, reaffirming a demand it first halt all settlement construction.In the heaviest clashes in the city in months, scores of Palestinians this week hurled rocks at police and set tires and garbage bins ablaze across the holy city's volatile eastern sector where the construction is planned. Source: Articles by Jeffrey Heller for Reuters, Andrew Lee Butters for TIME, and Amy Teibel for the Associated Press

israel diplomatic relations east jerusalem peace talks george mitchell settlements joe biden benjamin netanyahu mahmoud abbas united states jerusalem palestinians avigdor lieberman

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O Jerusalem!

09 Nov 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Letter of Ezekiel describes a Jerusalem in which an angel brings the prophet “back to the entrance of the temple,” while Jesus reminds the people of Jerusalem in this Sunday’s gospel that he is the living temple. The parents of an American child born in Jerusalem want his passport to say he was born in Israel. Long-standing U.S. foreign policy has been to maintain strict neutrality over the disputed status of Jerusalem. Under U.S. policy, the passport of a citizen born in the city shows the place of birth simply as “Jerusalem,” with no mention of Israel or Palestine. In 2002, Congress sought to change that, in part by passing a law that gives the parents of U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem the option of having the place of birth listed as “Israel.” The provision was part of a bill designed to encourage the U.S. government to jettison its neutral policy and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Shortly after the law was enacted, Menachem Zivotofsky was born in Jerusalem to American parents. When they applied for a passport for their son, they asked that it reflect the place of birth as “Israel.” Consular officials denied the request, listing “Jerusalem” instead. The Zivotofskys sued, arguing that the executive branch of government was ignoring a valid law passed by the legislature. Now the issue is before the Supreme Court, where the justices must decide whether Congress was operating within the scope of its constitutional authority or interfering in the president’s exclusive power to recognize foreign governments and speak with a single voice in foreign affairs. “The question of the status of Jerusalem is the most vexing and volatile and difficult diplomatic issue that this nation has faced for decades,” U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told the justices during the hour-long argument. He warned that if the court upheld the law, it would sharply undercut the credibility of the president and of the ability of American diplomats to serve as honest brokers in Mideast peace efforts. In urging the justices to uphold the statute, Washington appellate lawyer Alyza Lewin said the passport requirement does not amount to a formal recognition of sovereignty over Jerusalem by Israel. “What goes on a passport as a place of birth is not tantamount to recognizing foreign sovereignty,” she said. Justice Elena Kagan suggested that the U.S. government would not allow the parents of a citizen born in Northern Ireland to list “Ireland” as the place of birth even though that might be their preference. “This is a very selective vanity plate law,” she said, comparing the passport issue to drivers seeking to display messages on their car registration tags. Homily hint: Some have suggested the solution to conflicts over Jerusalem is to declare the entire city a world heritage site since it is revered by followers of all the “religions of Abraham”—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Let us all live in peace with the city of peace. Source: An article by Warren Richey for Christian Science Monitor

jerusalem diplomatic relations mideast relations

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The tide turns on U.S.-Cuban relations

21 Dec 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The house and kingdom of David will endure forever, likewise his throne will stand firm forever, the Lord promises in this Sunday’s first reading. The U.S. embargo and diplomatic isolation of Cuba, in force for more than half a century, seemed equally enduring, having been in place in one form or another since the 1959 Cuban revolution. On Wednesday President Obama said it was time to try a new approach.The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, President Obama announced.In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 miles off the American coast.“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” Obama said in a nationally televised statement from the White House. The deal will “begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas” and move beyond a “rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”The surprise announcement represented a dramatic turning point in more than five decades of hostility born in the depths of the Cold War and yet frozen in time long after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.Once a geopolitical flash point in a global struggle of ideology and power, Cuba obsessed American leaders of a different era, who sponsored covert schemes like the failed Bay of Pigs operation in 1961 aimed at toppling Fidel Castro, the charismatic revolutionary leader. A Soviet move to station nuclear missiles in Cuba led to a 13-day showdown in 1962 and the most perilous moment of the nuclear era.In more recent years, the Cuban-American relationship faded in significance yet remained a thorn in the side of multiple presidents who waited for Castro’s demise and experienced false hope when he passed power to his brother, Raúl. Even today, Cuba remains a powerful touchstone in American politics, and critics characterized Obama’s diplomatic thaw as appeasement of the hemisphere’s leading dictatorship.The United States will ease restrictions on remittances, travel, and banking relations. Although the decades-old American embargo on Cuba will remain in place for now, the president called for an “honest and serious debate about lifting” it, which would require an act of Congress. “These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked,” Obama said. “It’s time for a new approach.”Homily hint: Pope Francis played an instrumental role in bringing about this partial reconciliation between two Cold War adversaries. The pontiff has made it clear he intends to play an active role in promoting reconciliation among hostile neighbors on the world stage. Let’s do the same with neighbors in our own communities. Source: An article by Peter Baker for The New York Times

Pope Francis cuba diplomatic relations political reconciliation

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