POLITICS ’88 : Shultz Criticizes Dukakis on Moving Embassy in Israel

Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis’ proposal to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be “a gigantic mistake” and would derail U.S. Middle East peace efforts, Secretary of State George P. Shultz said Friday.

“It’s shocking that anybody would make such a proposal. It would be a great mistake to do that,” Shultz said on NBC’s “Today” show. The secretary of state said Jerusalem’s status is still in dispute between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the United States should not do anything to upset negotiations.

Israel has claimed Jerusalem as its capital since the state was founded in 1948, but the claim is challenged by Arab countries. Israel and its neighbors have clashed over Jerusalem’s Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites.

Dukakis expressed support for moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem--a perennial stance of politicians seeking American Jewish votes and campaign donations--in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on May 26.

“If Israel wants its capital in Jerusalem, then, as far as I’m concerned, its capital is in Jerusalem,” Dukakis said in the interview. “I think it’s a basic principle of doing business with other nations. They say their capital is in X, then that’s where we go.”

When asked Friday at a press conference in Boston about Shultz’s criticism and whether it meant he was advocating a change in U.S. policy, Dukakis replied: “I didn’t say that. I said that our practice traditionally has been to go where the host nation says its capital is.”

When reporters continued to press him on the issue, Dukakis said: “If a nation decides that part of a community within its borders is its capital, traditionally we have accepted that. I would do the same in this case.”

“So you would move it (the embassy)?” a questioner persisted.

“If Israel says that’s where its capital is--yeah,” Dukakis said.

Shultz, in Madrid on his way back to Washington after his latest round of Mideast shuttle diplomacy, said that Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights are considered occupied territory, seized by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

“Now, what happens to it (Jerusalem) is subject to negotiations,” Shultz said. “Our view is that Jerusalem must remain a unified city . . . but that its status remains subject to negotiations. I have no doubt that the capital of Israel will stay there, will be a unified city, and so on. But, in the meantime, if you want to proceed with negotiations, you don’t wind up in effect declaring an outcome that hasn’t been agreed to yet.”

The U.S. government has insisted that the American Embassy be kept in Tel Aviv unless Arab nations and Israel work out a peace agreement endorsing Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is its undivided capital.