GOP Calls for One Israel ‘For All People’
The Republican National Committee adopted a resolution calling for “a united Israel governed under one law for all people.”
The resolution passed last week at an RNC conference in New Orleans. Some liberal bloggers suggested that it effectively called for a single state in Israel and the West Bank, with citizenship rights extended to all.
With a preamble that describes the land of Israel as God-given to the Jews, the resolution resolves “that the members of this body support Israel in their natural and God-given right of self-governance and self-defense upon their own lands, recognizing that Israel is neither an attacking force nor an occupier of the lands of others; and that peace can be afforded the region only through a united Israel governed under one law for all people.”
“There is no interpretation possible other than that the RNC is also advocating complete Israeli annexation of the West Bank, including granting citizenship to the Palestinians living there,” wrote Mitchell Plitnick, the blogger who first reported on the resolution on Thursday.
However, the preamble’s language also suggests that the lands it refers to are those that Israel held before 1967. “The Nation of Israel declared its independent control and governance of said lands on May 14, 1948, with the goal of re-establishing their God-given lands as a homeland for the Jewish people.”
“I’m not sure it takes a position on borders beyond allowing the state of Israel to have secure ones,” Ralph Reed, a top Republican strategist, told JTA in an email on Friday.
The resolution also called for member lawmakers to institute similar legislation in their legislatures.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
