On June 4, 2008 as he campaigned for office, Barack Obama said: “Jerusalem will remain Israel’s capital, and no one should want or expect it to be re-divided.” Quite right too, but he has been wriggling from this position ever since.
The following month he said: “You know, the truth is that this was an example where we had some poor phrasing in the speech. The point we were simply making was, is that we don’t want barbed wire running through Jerusalem, similar to the way it was prior to the ’67 war, that it is possible for us to create a Jerusalem that is cohesive and coherent… I was not trying to predetermine what are essentially final status issues.”
Then this week, speaking about the Gilo apartment construction, he said: “I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel’s security, I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbours. I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous.”
The Gilo apartments have nothing whatsoever to do with settlement building. Gilo is a Jewish neighbourhood that lies within the borders of Israel as anticipated by the Clinton parameters and the Geneva Accords. If Jerusalem is to “remain Israel’s capital” and will never be “re-divided” then Israel has every right to build whatever it wants there. So why doesn’t President Obama grow a pair and confront something that really could end up being very dangerous.
Leaving aside the picture of some guys in a power station,how do you feel about Jerusalem remaining Israels capital,but also being the capital of a future Palestinian state(if humanity hasn’t ceased to exist in 44000000 years hence)? Given that Israel desperately wants peace and all,that would seem to be appropriate.It’s called sharing.Or making a compromise for the sake of peace.Whaddya reckon Chas?
blahblahblah, have you heard of dog in the manger? Jerusalem had almost no Islamic significance until they realised the Jews wanted it back. Then, suddenly, it became Mecca II. Every nationhood has its special place, its capital, its significant historic centre. But even so, at the moment, Jerusalem is a vibrant, multicultural capital not in spite of its Israeli stewardship, but precisely because of it. Do you believe that a Hamas “partner” would add to the “sharing” mix?
Exactly Chas.
Every word a gem, Chas. When Obama terms Gilo a ‘settlement’ he is further contributing to the encouragement of unrealistic expectations on the part of the P.A. and certainly not helping bring a solution any closer.
It is indisputable that there are bigger priorities in the Middle East than construction-building in southern Jerusalem.
Gilo – lies within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, in the Southern part of Jerusalem – it is outside the Green Line delineating the pre-1967 boundaries, as shown in the U.N. map.
Hi Chas. I’m a big fan of yours, but I’m not sure that Gilo was within the Green Line. This is what I have unearthed: “Gilo is a neighbourhood of Israel’s capital Jerusalem. The vacant land in the Gilo area was purchased, before World War II, by a group of young Jewish lawyers, including Dov Yosef, who later became one of David Ben Gurion’s most important advisors and government ministers. When the land was reclaimed from the Jordanians in 1967, it was returned to its owners. The West has been influenced by Arab propaganda which describes Gilo as a neighborhood built on “West Bank land annexed to Jerusalem” that the Arabs consider an “illegal Jewish settlement”. So suddenly Gilo, an integral part of Jerusalem proper for years, is a subject for negotiation, at least in the minds of the Obama administration & the EU.”
Commenting on US objections to the Gilo plan, former Israeli Ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval said “the demand not to build in Gilo seems strange and even bizarre since it has been inhabited for 30 years and over. It’s not east Jerusalem – Arabs have never lived in Gilo and its houses weren’t built on private Arab land. ” http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3807511,00.html
Herb Keinon’s article is spot on: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1258566462450&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Municipality is going ahead with plans for construction of more than 5,000 housing units in Arab neighbourhoods with Mayor Nir Barkat noting that the authority is acting to meet the demands of both Jewish and Arab residents for new housing on a basis of equality. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134495
(No objections from the US, EU et al about these construction plans!)
Thanks very much – as ever – for your contribution La Cumparsita, I have updated the post to clarify what I meant.
I wholeheartedly agree with this post, Chas. Thanks for writing it.
Thank you.
Well done for some admirable postings this week and also the same to Chris for his.