REPUBLICAN PLATFORM CHANGED TO BE MORE FAVORABLE TO ISRAEL: The Republican Party has amended its platform to include an altered position on Israel. The latest draft of the platform reinstates a reference to Jerusalem as Israel's "undivided" capital and removes a reference to "Palestine." In the party's 2012 platform, the word "undivided" was deleted from the platform of four years earlier and the reference to “Palestine” was added. The 2008 platform had declared, "We support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to that undivided capital of Israel." This week’s changes to the platform reflect the positions of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who reiterated in March 2016 that he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the American embassy there if elected. Attorney Marc Zell, who chairs the Republican Party's Israel branch, praised the GOP's new party platform, hailing it as the most "pro-Israel platform" ever. Zell noted that the latest version removes all reference to Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution. "After 25 years, finally a new version has been accepted with reference to Israel, which rejects the two-states solution and embraces Israel." (INN)