CBS News exec takes Jerusalem out of Israel

An executive at CBS, in an email in August, instructed employees to “not refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel,”The Free Press reported on Thursday.

Mark Memmott, senior director of standards and practices at CBS, acknowledged that the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but added this did not mean that CBS should accept this.

“Yes, the US embassy is there and the Trump administration recognized it as being Israel’s capital. But its status is disputed. The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel regards Jerusalem as its ‘eternal and undivided’ capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war — as the capital of a future state,” Memmott wrote.

The revelation follows a controversy at CBS involving a Sept. 30 interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates about new book, which features one-sided anti-Israel talking points. (See Jonathan Tobin column)