Daily Alert Archives

U.S. Double Standards on Jerusalem

(Commentary) Tom Wilson - The State Department has condemned plans by the Jerusalem municipality to issue building permits for 558 new homes in Jewish neighborhoods of the city. This reaction highlights the administration's confused policy on Jerusalem, which has become a tangled web of inaccuracies, double standards, and even outright hostility to Israel's right to enforce the law in its own capital. It's far from true that the State Department opposes unilateral moves by both sides. When it comes to claims in Jerusalem, they only condemn the Jewish side. The municipality issues housing permits all the time for both Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, yet only the permits for the Jewish neighborhoods provoke a reaction. The State Department has actively supported unilateral building by the Arab side, while opposing building homes for Jews in Jerusalem. The very notion that this is somehow about "prejudging final status issues" is absurd. All of the building permits are for housing in existing Jewish neighborhoods. The WikiLeaks documents revealed that in 2008 the Palestinians already accepted that the "final status" of these neighborhoods would be Israeli. Thus the State Department is condemning Israeli building in Israeli neighborhoods that even the Palestinians say will remain part of Israel.
2014-02-07 00:00:00
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