Posted on 12/27/2012 5:50:47 AM PST by SJackson
- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com -
West Longs for Jew-Free Zones in Jerusalem
Posted By P. David Hornik On December 27, 2012 @ 12:56 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 4 Comments
Israel plans to step up the building of residences within the settlement blocs anddrawing particular irein parts of Jerusalem that were under Jordanian occupation from 1949 to 1967. The Jerusalem plans include housing for both Jews and Arabs.
In this holiday season, those plans should be cause for rejoicing instead of heightened rebukes. The citys status as a hub of three religions, and also of tolerance, pluralism, and across-the-board demographic growth, is being strengthened.
Instead, official Western reactions have been harshly critical (reports here, here, and here).
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: We are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action. The French Foreign Ministry called the building plans a provocation that further undermines trust and leads us to question Israels commitment to the two-state solution. British foreign secretary William Hague called the plans a serious provocation and an obstacle to peace.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton even hinted at repercussions, saying the EU would closely monitor the situation and act accordingly.
And 14 of the 15 countries on the UN Security Councilwith the U.S. as the only exceptionissued condemnations as well. Four of themBritain, France, Germany, and Portugalsaid in a joint statement that they were extremely concerned by, and strongly opposed, the plans all settlement activity, including in east Jerusalem, must cease immediately.
It should be noted that, except the U.S., all of the abovementioned countries either voted aye or abstained in last months UN General Assembly vote conferring a watered-down form of statehood on the Palestinian Authority. It was partly in reaction to the Palestinians move, which blatantly violated the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords that the EU once sanctioned, that Israel announced the new building plans.
Israel, though, couldnt win. It couldnt persuade the European states to oppose the Palestinian move; and once it reacted to the move, it was roundly condemned.
Israel was particularly disappointed by Germanys abstention in the UN vote, after Chancellor Angela Merkels government had seemed to be intending to vote nay. Germany, as already mentioned, then joined three other countries in demanding that even East Jerusalemwhere 200,000 Jews now live, 40 percent of Jerusalems total Jewish populationbe treated as a Jew-free zone.
Beyond these specific points, though, stands the ongoing spectacle of the worlds leading Western powers seeming to pine for a redivided Jerusalem, this time with the Palestinians ruling the Jew-free part. Even if a Palestinian sovereign entity were to arise in the West Bank, Ramallah, as David Solway notes in his new book, is a good enough Palestinian capital. Why, then, the insistence on East Jerusalem?
It doesnt seem reasonable that Washington, London, Paris, Berlin et al. would be nostalgic for the previous period of Muslim Arab rule over that part of the city. The Jordanian occupation was particularly hard on Jews, who were denied all access to their holy sites while Jordanian snipers fired repeatedly into the Jewish part of the city. But the Christians under Jordans control suffered as well, their number dwindling from 25,000 in 1949 to 10,000 in 1967 as they were given only paltry access to their holy sites and forced to teach the Koran in their church schools (accounts here and here).
Would it be better under the Palestinians? Not if one takes Bethlehemwhere the Palestinian Authority has wielded autonomy since late 1995as a test case. Palestinian Muslim control there has caused ongoing steep demographic decline for the towns Christians as they suffer from terror, intimidation, land theft, sexual assault, forced marriages, and the like (accounts here, here, and here)not surprisingly in light of the continuing severe persecution of Christians throughout the region.
Indeed, however eager the West is for Palestinian rule in East Jerusalem, it turns out that even the predominantly Muslim Palestinians there dont want it. As Evelyn Gordon notes, the numbers of these Palestinians requesting Israeli citizenship has dramatically climbed in recent years. Polls find that, even if the Palestinian state was established, most East Jerusalem Palestinians would prefer to remain Israeli.
Considering that the Palestinians supposed desire to shake off Israeli rule is a shibboleth of Western diplomacy, one might ask why that would be so. But anyone who has been both to Israel and the Palestinian Authorityone is tempted to say, anyone but Western diplomatsknows that the former is an island of Western democracy, prosperity, tolerance, and pluralism in a harsh region. Jerusalem Palestinians, exposed to those upsides since Israel reunited the city in 1967, have come to know their worth.
As Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat put it in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed,
Since [1967] the city has maintained freedom of access, movement and religion. Peace-seeking pilgrims of all faiths can again visit the holy places without limitation or restriction. Tourism to Jerusalem is thriving, as is the citys economy, and its per capita crime rate is among the worlds lowest .
Isnt it ironic that many in Europe who recently celebrated 25 years of the reunification of Berlin are at the same time calling for the division of another capital on another continent?
And as Barkat went on to ask: By 2030, the citys population will expand to one million residents from 800,000 today (33% Muslim, 2% Christian and 65% Jewish). Where does the world suggest we put these extra 200,000 residents?
If the answer is, Put them where you want, but make sure you keep some parts off-limits to Jews, Israels answer is: no.
Peace and goodwill to all.
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Nuke DC. And hang Christmas lights on the mushroom.
Seriously now, that’d disturb my sleep ~ I live far too close to the place. Find some other method.
The Israelis just cannot get it through their heads that trying to “be nice” in disputes it has with the Arabs makes things *worse*.
The world is wired for competition, not cooperation, except when cooperation is mutually desired by two reasonable groups. If one of the two is not reasonable, in this case the Arabs, trying to cooperate with them is mindless and self defeating.
Trying to do this for decade after decade has finally annoyed the rest of the world who more than anything else want to ignore the region, but keep being dragged back in because of Israel’s endless half-measures and unwillingness to force peace.
Had the Israelis just driven out all of the Arabs in the 1948 war, or the Reprisal Operations of the 1950’s-’60’s, or the Suez Crisis of 1956, or the Six-Day War of 1967, or the War of Attrition 1967-70, or the Yom Kippur War of 1973, or the other half dozen conflicts, there would finally be some peace in the region.
But no, the Israelis just *refused* to do the one thing that would separate themselves from their enemies.
And enough already!
It is about bad enough for Israel to be invaded by a foreign army *just* to drive the Arabs out for them despite their protestations, then to erect a wall around the rest of Israel so that they could not invite more Arabs to come back in to fight with them again.
Which they probably would. The Israelis would fret day and night that there were no Arabs around to hate them and fight with them. At least judging from the way they behave today.
Many in the so called “West” seem to be dreaming of the City of David, free of Jewish “pollution.”
I just love the way the world decries “ethnic cleansing,” but that’s exactly what they’re trying to do with Israel.
Mark
They hope to see these signs in Jerusalem.
It's important to remember that the majority of the wars between the arabs and Israelis were actually proxy wars between the US & USSR. As an example, with the Yom Kippur war, Israel, which had crossed the Suez across into Egypt proper, having surrounded the Egyptian military, and was about 50 miles from Damascus, Syria, with NOTHING to stop them (militarily), the war came to an abrupt end when the US pressured Israel to withdraw their forces because the USSR stated that if Israel did not withdraw, the USSR would directly join the war against Israel.
I have no doubt that years ago, the Israeli military would have LOVED to completely vanquish their enemies. However, since these were proxy wars, they had very stringent limitations placed on them.
And today? Well, I believe that the Israeli political class has "gotten used to" a constant low level state of war, and given the worlds' media's hatred of Israel, they're afraid to be portrayed as being "mean" to the "nice" murderers and terrorists.
Mark
Not a single Arab should get housing anywhere in Jerusalem, financed by Israel. There are far too many of these parasites already.
"The Vatican is actively taking part in the Middle East conflict - on the judenrein side. They've been there before."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2971398/posts
Roman Catholic Cleric, Celebrates Palestinian State - (12/24/2012)
In his pre-Christmas homily, Twal said the road to actual freedom was still long, but this year's festivities were doubly joyful, celebrating "the birth of Christ our Lord and the birth of the state of Palestine."
"The path (to statehood) remains long, and will require a united effort," added Twal, a Palestinian citizen of Jordan, at the patriarchate's headquarters in Jerusalem's Old City.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2972395/posts
But that makes it so much harder for the PA to make Jerusalem and all of Israel a Joooz!-free zone after the piece process has been concluded. How unilateral. Such bad faith. Apartheid now!/sarc
Thanks SJackson.
Pitchfork Pat: Why the War Party Fears Hagel
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2972865/posts
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