Dole Urges Repeal of Senate’s Jerusalem Stance

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said Friday he will work to repeal a Senate resolution recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel when he returns from a Middle East tour.

In an interview from Jerusalem with the CBS television network, Dole called the resolution a mistake and said he will try to correct it next week.

“They (Arab countries) are very upset about a Senate resolution, which in effect said that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel, and some of us who found ourselves co-sponsors on that resolution have been sharply attacked.

“I told (Israeli) Prime Minister (Yitzhak) Shamir that that was a mistake . . . and I would try to correct that next week,” he said.

Dole, leader of a five-member Senate delegation that also visited Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, met with Shamir early Friday and urged him to make concessions for Middle East peace.

The Senate passed a non-binding resolution last month that urges the White House to acknowledge that Jerusalem “is and should remain the capital of the state of Israel.”

Israel annexed the eastern half of the city after it was captured in the 1967 Middle East War and declared a united Jerusalem to be its capital. However, the United States and most other nations do not accept the declaration.

Palestinians revolting against Israeli rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip hope to set up an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

In Amman, Jordan, about 350 people staged a candlelight demonstration Friday night across the street from the U.S. Embassy to protest the Senate resolution, among other issues. It was the first officially permitted protest in many years outside the embassy.

Earlier in the day, King Hussein also criticized the Senate action. In a television interview broadcast in Jordan, he said Jerusalem should be kept united and given special status, but with Arab sovereignty over the mostly Arab eastern sector.

In their meeting with Shamir in Jerusalem, the U.S. senators said they urged the caretaker Israeli prime minister to accept U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III’s proposal for Israeli-Palestinian talks.