Schumer Says Obama Must Address Israel in Convention Speech

President Barack Obama is sure to talk about Israel tonight in his nomination acceptance speech, especially in the wake of a dispute over excluding any mention of Jerusalem from the party’s platform, Senator Chuck Schumer said.

“I know he will,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters at a breakfast meeting of the New York delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

His comments today follow an amendment of the Democratic Party’s platform yesterday to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a provision that had appeared in previous policy statements and was initially left out of this one.

“It was a mistake,” Schumer said. “It was an act of omission, not commission.”

Representative Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said he has urged White House aides to make sure Israel is part of Obama’s speech.

“It has become even more important,” Engel said. “He’s got a record of support he could be proud of.”

Representative Carolyn Maloney, also a New York Democrat, said the issue showed that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is being disingenuous when he claims that he disagrees with some of the Republican Party’s platform planks.

If Obama could tell the Democratic convention to change its platform and add provisions on Jerusalem and God, then the Republican nominee could have demanded changes at his party’s convention in Tampa, Florida, she said.

“If you disagree with the platform, why didn’t you try to change it?” asked Maloney, a Democrat. Obama “went in and changed it. Romney could have gone in and changed the things he disagreed with.”