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On Israel, Obama Playing the Mideast Game Wrong

(U.S. News) Mortimer B. Zuckerman - The Middle East peace process is stalled thanks to a second deadlock engineered by the U.S. government. President Obama began the process with his call for a settlement freeze in 2009 and escalates it now with a major change of American policy on Jerusalem. The president seeks to prohibit Israel from any construction in its capital - in an exclusively Jewish suburb of East Jerusalem. This, despite the fact that all former administrations had unequivocally understood that the area in question would remain part of Israel in any final peace agreement. Objecting to housing in East Jerusalem is tantamount to getting the Israelis to agree to the division of Jerusalem - even before the start of final status talks with the Palestinians. In 1995, a substantial bipartisan majority in Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act calling for the movement of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - and equally importantly, stating that Jerusalem must remain united under Israeli sovereignty. Israel's claim for sovereignty over the whole, undivided city of Jerusalem predates the arrival of any Arabs to the region, and stems from biblical times. Jews in prayer turn toward Jerusalem. The Arks, the sacred chests that hold the Torah scrolls in synagogues throughout the world, face Jerusalem. Each year on Passover Jews say, "Next year in Jerusalem." When Muslims pray, they face Mecca, not Jerusalem. The Old Testament mentions Jerusalem, or its alternative name Zion, a total of 457 times. The Koran does not mention Jerusalem once. The Israelis have no intention of ever again being prevented from living throughout the city as they were between 1948 and 1967 when, under Jordanian control, Jewish communities were ruthlessly and violently driven out of areas where they had lived for centuries. To Israelis, there is no Jewish Western Jerusalem and Eastern Arab Jerusalem but simply a mosaic of people who are mixed and cannot be separated or divided. Dividing Jerusalem would put Palestinian forces and rockets a few miles from Israel's Knesset. Also, the Jewish neighborhoods bordering Arab neighborhoods would be within range of light weapon and machine-gun fire. This is exactly what happened after the Oslo Accords, when Palestinians fired from Beit Jalla toward Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, wounding scores of residents.
2010-04-26 11:27:14
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