Kredo Reveals the Truth about White House Jerusalem Photos
David Streeter — August 10, 2011 – 4:03 pm | Barack Obama | Israel | Stop the Smears Comments (5) Add a commentToday, Washington Jewish Week’s Adam Kredo set the record straight on the White House’s captioning of photos taken in Jerusalem. Kredo wrote:
Obama’s detractors quickly latched on to the finding, touting it as evidence of the administration’s uncontrollable disdain for the Jewish state.
However, a search of the White House’s online archives has revealed that former President George W. Bush did the same thing: photos of him in Jerusalem do not denote that the city is located in Israel….
[I]t actually seems that the [Obama] White House was correcting the captions to reflect longstanding U.S. policy.
After searching the White House’s online archives, it becomes clear that George W. Bush also found the issue problematic—and chose to err on the side of caution.
Here’s just one archived photo:
President George W. Bush walks with Israel’s President Shimon Peres, right, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, center, as they arrive Friday, Jan. 11, 2008, to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, in Jerusalem, where the President laid a wreath in honor of Holocaust victims before departing Jerusalem for Galilee. White House photo by Eric Draper (*Emphasis added)
Another search of the Bush White House’s archives revealed a trend—Jerusalem is never explicitly labeled as part of Israel.
While the overall policy might infuriate pro-Israel stalwarts, the record shows that the White House’s policy has been consistent under both Bush and Obama (and probably further back.)
Just to hammer home the point, take a look at this photo of Laura Bush touring the Western Wall tunnels, which, according to the former administration, is located simply ‘in Jerusalem.’
In his article, Kredo also spoke with an unnamed “pro-Israel Democrat” regarding the matter. The source told Kredo:
Those who say Obama is anti-Israel because of these captions must also say Bush is anti-Israel.
Comments
This piece tells us nothing. It is normative to name cities that are recognizable without the next larger unit. It would be odd for a reference to Washington, DC or NY to have USA beside them, or Paris to be identified as in France. Lesser known places such as Stuttgart will be identified as in Germany. Unless that is not the case on White House photos, this is a non-issue, and this article does not address the matter.
I usually don’t say or write Jerusalem, Israel, not because I don’t know that Jerusalem is in Israel, but because everyone already knows that Jerusalem is in Israel.
Facts are facts, history is history…Despite editing out ‘Israel’, the archives prove otherwise….Shame on Obama administration! Obama administration just can’t be honest when it comes to Israel…...http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/08/16/obama-bush-jerusalem
Jewish self-denial seems to know no bounds when it worships at the altar of Obama. For shame to sell yourselves out for the mess of pottage that our venial president offers us.
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So, if a photo in an Israeli collection described the location as Washington, D.C. would it be necessary to also add “U.S.A.” to avoid seeming anti America? Good grief!