I'm just having fun with you, dear readers, although it might have spared him a lot of questions:
"Mideast politics in passport dispute" May 02, 2011|Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A dispute over a passport for an American boy born in a Jerusalem hospital could land in the Supreme Court.
Then he's not a citizen, right? Or he just can't run for president.
Two months after Menachem Zivotofsky was born in 2002, his mother showed up at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to get him a passport.
Menachem’s parents, Ari and Naomi, were born in the United States so there was no question that he was American, too.
But when the mother asked that her son’s passport and other documents indicate that he was born in Israel, State Department officials refused....
--more--"
And the case is fast-tracked to the Supreme Court?
"Supreme Court to hear dispute over passport birthplace listing; Parents want Israel, US policy says Jerusalem" May 03, 2011|By Mark Sherman, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear an appeal from an American boy born in Jerusalem over whether he can have Israel listed as his birthplace on his passport even though US policy does not recognize the once-divided city as belonging to Israel.
The court is stepping into a case that mixes the thorny politics of the Middle East and a fight between Congress and the president over primacy in foreign policy.
The justices will review an appeals court ruling against Jerusalem-born Menachem Zivotofsky and his parents, US-born Jews who moved to Israel in 2000. They filed a lawsuit after State Department officials refused to list Israel as Menachem’s birthplace.
More dual nationals.
And the kid is a citizen of America? That's f***ed up.
The boy was born in a Jerusalem hospital in October 2002, shortly after Congress directed, in a federal law, that Americans born in Jerusalem may have Israel listed as their place of birth.
Israel: AmeriKa's 51st state.
But the Bush administration said Congress may not tell the president what to do regarding this aspect of foreign relations. The Obama administration agrees with its predecessor.
Was there ever any change, although in this case I agree?
When the high court hears arguments in the fall, the issue will be whether the congressional directive impermissibly interferes with the president’s power.
The State Department’s longstanding policy has been to refrain from expressing a view about Jerusalem’s status, despite the congressional action as well as Israel’s assertion of sovereignty over all of Jerusalem and declaration of the city as its capital. Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War brought the entire city under Israeli control.
The United States, which keeps its embassy in Tel Aviv, and most nations do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital and say the city’s status should be resolved in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Ari Zivotofsky, the boy’s father, said in an interview in Israel that he considers Jerusalem part of Israel. “As a US citizen and a resident of Israel, I find it a little bit strange that the US doesn’t recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, and certainly the western half, where the hospital is located,’’ he said.
“Jerusalem is subject to dispute as to its future status. Its current status seems to me pretty clear. When the US government mails its consular officials mail, they mail it to Jerusalem, Israel,’’ he said.
Had Menachem been born in Tel Aviv, the State Department would have issued a passport listing his place of birth as Israel. The regular practice for recording the birth of a US citizen abroad is to list the country where it occurred.
But the department’s guide tells consular officials, “For a person born in Jerusalem, write Jerusalem as the place of birth in the passport.’’
Israel’s supporters in Congress have long objected to the official position on Jerusalem. In 1995, Congress essentially adopted the Israeli position, saying the US should recognize a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
That is really no surprise to anyone who follows Congress with any regularity.
How telling it is tat Israel's concerns usually breeze through with near-unanimous support (maybe a handful of brave souls in the House vote against them) while your concerns are a tooth-and-nail struggle that can rarely survive a filibuster, Americans.
In 2002, lawmakers passed new provisions urging the president to take steps to move the embassy to Jerusalem and allowing Americans born in Jerusalem to have their place of birth listed as Israel.
The measures were part of a large foreign affairs bill that President George W. Bush signed into law. But as he did so, Bush issued a signing statement in which he said that “U.S. policy regarding Jerusalem has not changed.’’ The president said Congress could not tell him what to do in this matter of foreign affairs....
--more--"
Also see: US Immigration separates Palestinian mother from her 4 children
Yeah, the Palestinian didn't make it into Boston Globe print.
