White House Press Secretary, who has the job of speaking to the press and answering questions, received a question "What city does this Administration consider to be the capital of Israel? Jerusalem or Tel Aviv?"
He refuses to answer and keeps saying "our position has not changed", then goes on to insist the reports hammering him already know the answer to that questions.
[WATCH]
Transcript via RCP:
Reporter: What city does this Administration consider to be the capital of Israel? Jerusalem or Tel Aviv?
Jay Carney, White House press secretary: Um... I haven't had that question in a while. Our position has not changed. Can we, uh...
Reporter: What is the capital [of Israel]?
Jay Carney: You know our position.
Reporter: I don't.
Lester Kinsolving, World Net Daily: No, no. She doesn't know, that's why she asked.
Carney: She does know.
Reporter: I don't.
Kinsolving: She does not know. She just said that she does not know. I don't know.
Carney: We have long, lets not call on...
Kinsolving: Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?
Carney: You know the answer to that.
Kinsolving: I don't know the answer. We don't know the answer. Could you just give us an answer? What do you recognize? What does the administration recognize?
Carney: Our position has not changed.
Kinsolving: What position?
Carney then moved on to another question.
With the recent news of the massive $6.5 million Buyer's Remorse ad campaign that the Republican Jewish Coalition is launching against Barack Obama, refusing to answer this question in such a public forum and manner, is akin to helping the RJC peel away Jewish votes from Obama.
[Updated] Via Michael J. Totten, World Affairs: "Like it or Not, Jerusalem is Israel's Capital"
It’s a fact—not an opinion—that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Anyone who insists otherwise is in denial. You may wish Tel Aviv was its capital. You may even wish a united Al Quds was the capital of the Arab state of Palestine. But those things can only be true in an alternate universe or in the future. In this universe, in 2012, Israel exists and Jerusalem is its capital.
Only one of Israel’s national government buildings—the ministry of defense—is in Tel Aviv. All the others are in Jerusalem. And all of them are on the western side of the city inside the internationally recognized borders. The only people who dispute Israel’s right to exist in west Jerusalem are those who dispute Israel’s right to exist anywhere.
I can understand why Carney sighed when he first heard the question and preferred not to answer. He doesn’t want Arab governments to have a conniption fit.
