Government

What Mystery City is Hillary Clinton Going to Visit in Israel? (the State Department Won’t Say)

State Department Still Wont Admit Jerusalem Is Israels Capital

AP Photo

As The Blaze reported last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to visit Egypt and Israel in mid-July. Along with her stops in the Middle East, the secretary is visiting six other countries. A reporter attending the daily State Department briefing on July 5th noticed something unusual about the trip’s press release. He raised the issue with Press Office Director Patrick Ventrell:

QUESTION: I just have a logistical one on the schedule.

MR. VENTRELL: Yeah.

QUESTION: For every single country she’s going to, it lists the cities that she’s visiting, except for Israel. So this is a semi-trick question: Is she going to be visiting the capital of Israel?

MR. VENTRELL: The Secretary will be in Israel and she will meet with Israeli officials.

QUESTION: Where?

MR. VENTRELL: At this point, I don’t know where those meetings are going to be, but obviously as we get closer, the team will have more information.

QUESTION: You don’t know if they’ll be in Jerusalem or if they will be in Tel Aviv?

MR. VENTRELL: We can presume that she will visit multiple sites in Israel on this trip.

QUESTION: She will?

MR. VENTRELL: That’s the presumption.

Rick Richman from Commentary Magazine writes:

They just can’t bring themselves to say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, can they?

They can’t answer the question of where the capital is, or where Clinton will visit (although the answer to both questions is obvious), lest someone press them on whether Jerusalem is in Israel. Perhaps while she is there on July 16 or 17, Secretary Clinton will be asked if she still takes the position that even symbolically treating Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would jeopardize the non-existent peace process.

Israel calls Jerusalem its capital, and it is the location of the Prime Minister’s Office and official residence, the Knesset, the High Court of Justice and all other major government agencies. Still, with the Palestinians claiming Jerusalem is their capital, the Obama Administration has remained noncommittal, sometimes to an extreme degree. Last year, The Weekly Standard discovered that the White House had “cleansed” its website of references to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

This principled non-decisiveness has made rhetorical contortions on Jerusalem boilerplate content of State Department briefings. This past March, for instance, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to label Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a back-and-forth with a reporter over the question of the U.S. embassy which is in Tel Aviv, Israel’s most populous city and business center, though not its capital.

Nuland attributed the administration’s ambivalence on the basic issue of this close ally’s capital to its desire to remain a neutral arbiter in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks (which appear to be on indefinite hold). She said the administration “was not going to prejudge the outcome of those negotiations, including the final status of Jerusalem” which the administration believes to be “a permanent-status issue. It’s got to be resolved through negotiations.”

Three presidents – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – have signed a presidential waiver against moving the embassy to Jerusalem as required by the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act. The act also calls for Jerusalem to remain Israel’s undivided capital.

So while Clinton is visiting Paris, Tokyo, Ulaanbaatar, Hanoi, Vientiane, and Phnom Penh, will she be calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?

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Comments (36)

  • adeleeeee
    Posted on July 10, 2012 at 4:59am

    I don’t care where is she and where is she gonna go. She can simply go disappear and never get back. This world is better without her.

    Report this comment

    adeleeeee  
  • setoguro
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:14pm

    Wish she would just go back home.

    Report this comment

    setoguro  
  • LeFaux Jew
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 7:18pm

    Ashmurah……

    Report this comment

    LeFaux Jew  
  • 65Plus
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 4:35pm

    “Al Kuds.”

    Report this comment

    65Plus  
  • euragone
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 3:34pm

    Israel should strap her to a Missle and shoot her at Iran..

    Report this comment

    euragone  
  • Moozmom
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 3:31pm

    Hillary and I are the same age. Hillary needs a new hairdresser. Please at least do the french twist-get the hang doggy stuff away from your face. We are old and require softness around our faces. There, had to get that off my chest.

    Report this comment

    Moozmom  
    • mdb749
      Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:41pm

      She’s working hard for you. She will clean up her act when Barry dumps Biden and picks her up as VP. He can’t win with Biden – no way. In the meantime, she’s PRETENDING to be a stand up gal. She’s not.

      Report this comment

      mdb749  
  • sillyfreshness
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 2:36pm

    She is going to visit Tel Megiddo in Israel…..home to where her Kenyan born, Muslim fraud president will be carrying out WWIII in the very near future when his little fight with Iran and Syria blows up.

    Report this comment

    sillyfreshness  
  • Portwine
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 1:24pm

    It really is time to address the elephant in the room. Radical Islamist Terrorists now contol the world. I repeart, radical Islanst Terrorists, NOT all Muslims. The president said he his own book, paraphrasing here, he will support his Muslim brothers. Those might actually be some of the only true words in his books. He has proven by his own actions, that he will, in fact, side with those who oppose Isreal. He has snubbed their leader, never been there. England is hosting the olympics, and terrorist suspects carefully watched. It seem like only one group of ppl are the terrorists people and countries fear. I’m sure I’m now being considered a threat and may be silenced. This administration seems quite clear on where it’s priorities lie.

    Report this comment

    Portwine  
  • nolefan2
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:54pm

    Regarding the executive order taking over communications: the camel is almost all the way under the tent. This occupant of the WH has made a bigger power grab than any president in the history of our nation, and all we do is worry about the “rights” of homosexuals.

    Report this comment

    nolefan2  
  • darrylroger
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:23pm

    hillary the hag send her to mars with obama and the rest of the scocialist democrat party.

    Report this comment

    darrylroger  
  • Tom70
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:01pm

    It will probably be where ever Arafat’s slimy finger have been so she can pay tribute, and capitalize on the rumor of him being poisoned.

    Report this comment

    Tom70  
  • straitshot
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:54am

    I don’t care where they send her. Just make it a one way ticket.

    Report this comment

    straitshot  
    • Bluebonnet
      Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:53pm

      Which ever city it is, I’m sure she’ll claim she had to duck down to avoid the bullets, like she did when she was 1st lady, that they had to dodge the fire power getting off the airplane someplace. Once a liar, always a liar if it makes you look more important.

      Report this comment

      Bluebonnet  
  • jamesctheman
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:09am

    Barak has to send somebody. He hasn’t been there yet. The ultimate insult to the country of Israel when the closest ally they have can’t find a way for the head of the state to show up & support our ally on their streets. Not just from the safety of Penn. Ave. Be a man & stand with Israel. The nature of their existence is at stake. Regional threats are growing. I think if we want to keep the Israeli nuclear arsenal in their silo’s we better make some strong moves. Barak, SHAME. Hillary is a stronger man than you are.

    Report this comment

    jamesctheman  
    • rickc34
      Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:47am

      Leave it to Obama to send someone else to do his job. His numbers really suck in Israel that is why he won’t go, They will throw something that looks like Humus at him but does not smell like Humus. Hillary go to the dead sea and stay.

      Report this comment

      rickc34  
  • SquidVetOhio
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:00am

    I can’t believe I’m defending Hillary Clinton but, she’s smart enought to know that the American people view Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol and that it belongs to them ( at least those who aren’t leftist or libertarian anti-semites). I’m sure she thinks Obama is an idiot when it comes to Israel and we should probably be glad that of all the left wing Pink-O’s the he could have appointed to SoS, we at least have Hillary.

    I just threw up a little in my mouth.

    Report this comment

    SquidVetOhio  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:59am

    I bet it will be at both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. First Jerusalem for the official stuff and then Tel Aviv for the parting stuff…down a few for me Hillary. LMAO.

    Report this comment

    SamIamTwo  
  • NOBALONEY
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:36am

    Neither Clinton or Obama deserve any sort of dignified treatment, because of actions with the Muslin Brotherhood, President Morsi, Afgamistan a major non-NATO ally, allowing Turkey to exclude Israel as an Invitee to the Chicago NATO meetings, ‘Freinds of Syria’ less Russia and China was used by Clinton to meet with PA’s Abbas, and enforce Obama’s call for the two state solution, and a return to pre-1967 borders. P5+1, and IAEA meetings are also useless, with China and Russia the biggest violaters of the UN’s non-proliferation treaty backing Iran with its nuclear enrichment program that President Obama said he would accept as Iran’s “civilian nuclear program”.

    Report this comment

    NOBALONEY  
  • momrules
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:58am

    Jeruselem is the capital of Israel. Period. It does not matter what Obama, Clinton, the U.N. or the Palestinians say or think.

    I hope while Clinton is in Jeruselem meeting with Netanyahu that he lays down the law to her. That Israel will do what is best for Israel, not what is best for Obama and his re-election campaign.

    Report this comment

    momrules  
  • v15
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:47am

    If they had worded the question as “Will you be visiting Al Quds for the next Caliphate, Mrs Clinton?” then maybe they would have received an affirmative response.

    Report this comment

    v15  
  • nzkiwi
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:46am

    I wouldn’t worry about this minor bit of political slipperiness.

    I think that Israel is going to emphatically and unequivocally state its position in the very near future.

    Report this comment

    nzkiwi  
  • mike_trivisonno
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:37am

    Hillary goes where the House of Saud tells her to.

    Traitor.

    Report this comment

    mike_trivisonno  
    • kickagrandma
      Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:50am

      You are right. Personally, I hope she visits the “Lost City of Atlantis” without diving equipment!

      Report this comment

      kickagrandma  
  • Baddoggy
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:32am

    Executive order signed on Friday. FULL CONTROL of all communications….

    They now have more control than HITLER did!!

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/06/executive-order-assignment-national-security-and-emergency-preparedness-

    Report this comment

    Baddoggy  
    • straitshot
      Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:59am

      And another one slips under the radar. Whatever happened to due process and debate? It no longer seems to exist.

      Report this comment

      straitshot  
    • SimpleTruths
      Posted on July 9, 2012 at 1:36pm

      Better get that extra large roll of tin foil, lots of hats to be made.

      Report this comment

      SimpleTruths  
    • Meyvn
      Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:11pm

      I read that. They must be worried about something, you think?

      Report this comment

      Meyvn  
  • Joyzee
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:15am

    Never Trust a Clinton…!!

    Report this comment

    Joyzee  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:12am

    She is going to visist Jerusalem, this is self evident given the fact the administration refuses to call it such or acknowledge it being in the hands of the Israeli people.

    Report this comment

    Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • Meyvn
    Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:11am

    Zechariah 5 & 6… there may be some insight here.

    Report this comment

    Meyvn  

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