President Bush , at the risk of angering the Arab and Muslim worlds, signed legislation on Monday that requires his administration to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Faced with a choice between endorsing the controversial bill passed by Congress and shutting down U.S. diplomatic activity, Bush put his signature on the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for 2003, which gives the administration more than 4 billion dollars for running the State Department.
In a written statement, Bush said U.S. policy regarding Jerusalem "has not changed."

If Congress meant the language on Jerusalem to be mandatory, then lawmakers were encroaching on the president's right to conduct foreign policy, he said.

"The purported direction ... would, if construed as mandatory rather than advisory, impermissibly interfere with the president's constitutional authority to formulate the position of the United States, speak for the nation in international affairs and determine the terms on which recognition is given to foreign states," Bush said.

The bill goes further on Jerusalem than previously demanded by Congress, which for years has pressed successive presidents on the related question of moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Administrations have promised to make the move but repeatedly have put it off because of the ill feeling it would create in the Arab world, which considers Arab East Jerusalem to be occupied territory and the capital of a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

'A JUST AND LASTING PEACE'

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday that the United States continues to believe that the status of Jerusalem should be decided in "permanent status" talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

"We have always opposed legislative action that hinders the president's prerogatives in advancing our interests in the region and promoting a just and lasting peace," he added.

Israel captured the eastern part of the city in the 1967 war and later annexed it. Israeli governments have said the whole city is Israel's eternal capital.

The new legislation, passed last week, does not go beyond previous calls on the administration to start immediately the process of moving the embassy to Jerusalem.

But it adds three mandatory provisions that change the way the United States treats the city.

Firstly, it says that the administration cannot spend money on the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem unless the consulate is under the supervision of the U.S. ambassador to Israel. The U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, who deals mainly with Palestinians, now reports directly to the State Department.

Secondly, any U.S. government document that lists countries and their capitals will have to identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Thirdly, in official U.S. documents such as passports, birth certificates and nationality certifications, U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem may insist that the documents record their place of birth as Israel.

'DEEPEN RESENTMENT AMONG ARABS'

The Arab American Institute wrote to Bush on Friday urging him to veto the bill on the grounds that it overturns existing U.S. policy and presidential authority.

"At a time when you are building a coalition to support our goals in the Middle East, Congress should not be undermining your efforts," said George Salem, chairman of the institute.

"If made into law, (it) will further inflame and deepen resentment among Arabs and Arab countries toward the United States," added the institute's president, James Zogby.

Bush had the power to veto the bill, but the provisions on Jerusalem were only a small part of a piece of legislation that covers the whole world and gives his administration the money needed to run diplomacy.

The legislation also withholds 10 million dollars in aid allocated to Lebanon in 2003 until the Lebanese army deploys to the Israeli-Lebanese border and the Lebanese government asserts its authority in the area where the army deploys.

Boucher said the Bush administration also had opposed this part of the legislation. "Those kinds of provisions are not helpful," he told a news briefing."

After Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, the Lebanese army did not take over all the territory, giving some freedom of action to the guerrilla group Hizbollah.

Israel wants the Lebanese army to deploy south to the border and restrain Hizbollah, which often exchanges fire with Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, at the juncture of Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

The total amount of U.S. aid planned for Lebanon in 2003 was not immediately available.

PHOTO CAPTION

President George W. Bush, at the risk of angering the Arab and Muslim worlds, September 30, 2002 signed legislation that requires the administration to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a U.S. official said. Bush attends a fundraiser for Bob Beauprez, who is running for Congress, while in Denver, Colorado, on Sept. 27. (Larry Downing/Reuters)