John Bolton: Obama Administration Denying Jerusalem Is in Israel Was ‘Thumb in the Eye to Bibi Netanyahu’

Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton told SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily that the Obama White House’s redacted press release removing reference to Jerusalem’s location in Israel was a “thumb in the eye” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Marlow asked for Bolton’s take on the Obama administration’s redacting a press release that originally identified Israel as the country where Jerusalem is located, after President Obama gave a speech at the funeral of former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

“It’s a reflection of their ideological view that the status of all of Jerusalem still is undecided, but, in fact, that’s a more radical position than the official position of the United States,” Bolton explained:

Now, whether they intended it or not, it’s hard to say, but you know Jerusalem has been divided since the cease-fire in 1949. In the post-1967 world, after the Six Day War, Israel has controlled the entire city, and the final boundary line remains to be determined by negotiation. That’s the official line, or at least it has been.

But no one has argued ever before, as far as I know, that Western Jerusalem – where the Parliament, the Knesset of Israel is, where most of the government offices are, and by the way where we could build an American embassy if we wanted to – West Jerusalem is not for negotiation. The Palestinian Authority, the PLO, no one has ever claimed that the territory held in West Jerusalem by Israel since 1949 was going to go back to the Palestinians. The issue is about East Jerusalem, and where the line will be drawn.

So, unambiguously, part of Jerusalem is in Israel today. There’s no question about it. And that’s where the President spoke. So this is just a thumb in the eye to Bibi Netanyahu. Obama’s got three more months to insult Netanyahu and to demean the state of Israel. This is just another example of it.

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

LISTEN: