(National Review) Clifford D. May - Israel is considering building homes on barren hills adjacent to Jerusalem. The E1 area covers 4.6 square miles. For the sake of comparison, Denver International Airport is 53 square miles. E1 lies within a territory that has a much older name: the Judean Desert. Might Jews think they have a legitimate historical claim to the Judean Desert? Developing E1 would help in the defense of Jerusalem, and would connect Jerusalem to Maale Adumim, an Israeli town with a population of 40,000. It has been widely reported that if Israel should build in E1, the possibility of a two-state solution would be shattered. But the New York Times later published a correction stating that building in E1 "would not divide the West Bank in two," nor would it cut off the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Anyone looking at a map would see that. The writer is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2012-12-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive