Posted on 05/04/2006 2:11:14 PM PDT by mazack
JERUSALEM -Israel's new government is drawing up a blueprint for dividing the holy city of Jerusalem — a once inconceivable notion — giving the Palestinians nearly all the Arab neighborhoods while holding onto Jewish areas and disputed holy shrines.
Otniel Schneller, an architect of the plan, described it in interviews this week with The Associated Press, giving the clearest picture yet of how Israel plans to separate from the Palestinians, abandoning most of the West Bank.
"We will not divide Jerusalem, we will share it," he said.
Most of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods would go to the Palestinians, he said. "Those same neighborhoods will, in my assessment, be central to the makeup of the Palestinian capital ... al-Quds," Schneller said, calling Jerusalem by its Arabic name.
Israel would keep Jerusalem's Old City with its shrines sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians alike — an unacceptable plan to Palestinians, particularly if carried out unilaterally.
Still, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert determined to draw Israel's final borders by 2010, likely without waiting for Palestinian agreement, a division of Jerusalem looks realistic for the first time.
The plan reflects a sea change in the thinking of most Israelis, who once considered sacrilegious the idea of abandoning any part of the holy city.
Since Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War, Israelis had been in broad agreement that the city could never again be divided. But after five years of intefadeh bloodshed, Israeli voters swept Olmert's Kadima Party into office in March 28 elections on a platform to separate from the Palestinians for the good of the Jewish state.
A plan to divide Jerusalem was first brought up in 2000 peace talks but failed to materialize. Schneller — a Kadima lawmaker — is reviving that plan with his blueprint. But he cautioned that the ideas are still in the planning stages, require international backing and that there's no clear timetable for carrying them out.
Under the plan, which would be executed unilaterally if efforts to resume peace talks fail, Jerusalem's Old City, its holy shrines and the adjacent neighborhoods, would become a "special region with special understandings" but remain under Israeli sovereignty, said Schneller.
The Old City and the adjacent "holy basin," which includes the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Silwan and Sheik Jarrah, would fall on the Israeli side of the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank, another Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because plans are not final.
The plan also calls for moving the barrier westward. That means much of East Jerusalem would no longer be cut off from the West Bank and most Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem could become part of a future Palestinian state on the eastern side of the barrier, the official said.
The United States has long held the position that "borders and Jerusalem and all final status issues ... ultimately have to be decided in negotiations between the parties," U.S. Embassy spokesman Stewart Tuttle said.
But Washington is not likely to oppose unilateral Israeli pullouts from the West Bank.
Olmert's plan involves dismantling dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank with tens of thousands of people and moving them to larger settlement blocs in the territory that Israel hopes to hold onto under a final peace deal.
Israel has said it will give the Hamas-led Palestinian government time to agree to international demands to recognize Israel, accept past peace deals and renounce violence. More than a month into its rule, Hamas has rejected the demands, Israel has cut off all ties with what it has labeled an enemy entity, and it appears increasingly likely the Jewish state will draw its borders on its own.
"The continuation of the scattered settlements throughout the West Bank creates an inseparable mix of populations that will threaten the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state," Olmert told parliament as he presented his government Thursday.
If necessary, he said, "we will also act without the Palestinian Authority's agreement to reach an understanding that will first and foremost be based on the correct definition of Israel's borders."
That's a position hotly rejected by the Palestinians, who say the result will be a truncated territory on which it will be impossible to build a viable state.
"President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to accept any unilateral steps and rejects any provisional solutions," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior spokesman for Abbas, a moderate who wields considerable power as president even though Hamas controls the parliament and Cabinet.
Under Olmert's plan, the 460-mile West Bank separation barrier will roughly serve as the border, with some alterations. The barrier, as envisioned now, puts some 9.5 percent of the West Bank inside Israel, including Jewish settlement blocs and other areas Israel considers to be strategically important.
Schneller, himself a West Bank settler, would not say which settlements or how many settlers would be evacuated under Olmert's plan — although he said it would be fewer than the 70,000 settlers Israeli media had speculated.
Schneller said Israel plans to hold on to two main settlement blocs near Jerusalem, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion, and the large Ariel settlement bloc jutting deep into the West Bank. Israel also plans to hold on to the Jordan River Valley as a security border. Settlements on the eastern side of the barrier, including Schneller's, will likely go.
Yeah. "Palestinian" Arabs east of the Jordan, in Jordan, and "Palestinian" Israelis west of it, in Israel.
The world would be far safer if that agreement had been scrupulously enforced...
Ultimately King Jesus the Jewish God/man will rule from a united Jewish Jerusalem for a thousand years.
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In the year 3828 (68 A.D.), at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, Palestine was under the dominion of the Romans.
In the year 4092 (332), under Emperor Constantine, the Greek — Romano-Greek Empire.
In the year 4374 (614), under King Kusarai (Chosroes?) for a brief space, Persian, but later, again under the government of the Greeks.
In the year 4397 (637) under Calif Omar, Arab or Mahomedan.
In the year 4502 (742), it was for a short time under the dominion of the Turks or Tartars, but at a later period again under the Arabs.
In the year 4628 (868), under the Califs of Egypt.
In the year 4800 (1040), again under the Turks or Tartars.
In the year 4859 (1099), under the European Christians.
In the year 4947 (1187), under Saladin, Calif of Egypt. In the year 5004 (1244), under Casiunus, i.e. under Turks or Tartars.
In the year 5051 (1291), under Sultan Asa of Egypt, under Mameluks.
In the year 5161 (1401), under Timurlan [Tamerlane], for a short time, i.e. under Mongols, than again under the Mameluks.
In the year 5278 (1518), under Selim of Constantinople, under Ottomans.
In the year 5591 (1831), under Mahmud Ali, Pacha of Egypt.
In the year 5600 (1840), under Abd al Medjid, Ottoman.
In the year 5678 (1918), under the mandate of Great Britain
In the year 5708 (1948), the State of Israel
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
"There has never been an independent Arabic state of Palestine. And giving them even part of Jerusalem would be a disaster."
Yup!
It won't work.
All they want is to squeeze the Jews into a tiny spot and "wipe them off the face of the earth."
Hey Alouette and History freepers I got question if Arabs always thought of Palenstie back in da day
HOW COME They never develop the land
HMMMM make you think eh????
What lands have Arabs EVER developed? They don't build, they conquer and destroy.
Look at Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Yemen. Whatever is developed there, is either from Greeks, Romans, Christians BEFORE the Mohammedan conquest, or developed by modern infidels.
When will they abandon Masada?
If Israel does this they will live to deeply regret it. Or perhaps they regret it because they will cease to live.
Thank you Alouette that the point LOLOL!!!
Before 1948 Israel was dust of history thennn Jewsss cameeee
Develop that land THANK YOU LOL!
Israel's Left has plummeted from Ben Gurion to this self-hating nonsense. I wonder what the old socialist kibbutzniks and Palmachniks would think of their ideological descendants?
As I said on the other thread, it was once unthinkable for Israel to negotiate with the PLO. Now they have their own state mechanism. Israel is welcoming Jew-hating Europeans into the country and into the IDF.
The whole Zionist project has become farce.
I have a map that says North America on it but there has never been an independent state of North America.
Where is Jerusalem mentioned in the Koran?"
The ancient Chinese warrior Sun Tzu instructed his men to "know your enemy" before going into battle. For if "you know your enemy and know yourself," he wrote, "you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." But, Sun Tzu warned, "If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."
Because we must know the enemy before we can win our war with Islam, we must know the facts, lies and the truths in all related matters. In the Near East, each protagonist, antagonist, and warring faction, both passive and active, considers no city more politically strategic than Jerusalem. Christians, Jews and Muslims, each claim a religious obligation to find a just solution to the problem of who will govern Jerusalem. Christians, Jews and Muslims each claim their Holy Books as the source and reason for their claims.
So in May 2001 in the Tzavta Club in Jerusalem, Jews and Muslims held a debate in an attempt to clarify who should be responsible for Jerusalem's affairs. The debate was resolved after Moshe Feiglin asked Feisal Husseini the question [paraphrased] ". . . where [is] Jerusalem . . . mentioned in the Koran?"
A short history of the event follows:
“Shortly before the death [in May 2001] of Feisal Husseini, who was appointed by Arafat to be responsible for Jerusalem affairs, Husseini and Jewish Leadership founder Moshe Feiglin held a debate in the Tzavta Club in Jerusalem. The debate was held under the auspices of a left-wing organization, and was attended by foreign reporters. The moderator attempted to have Feiglin and Husseini shake hands, but Feiglin refused, saying that he does not shake hands with people who wish to destroy him. "This of course lost Feiglin some points amidst the mostly left-wing crowd," reports Segal.
“When Feiglin's turn to speak came, he pulled out a Koran and asked Husseini, "Is this your holy book?" When Husseini said yes, Feiglin pulled out a Tanach (Bible) and said, "And you agree that this is my holy book, correct?" After that point was agreed as well, Feiglin said, "In my holy book, Jerusalem is mentioned hundreds of times by name, and additional hundreds in other references," and he gave several examples from various verses. After this point was also agreed upon, Feiglin said, "Now you show me one place where Jerusalem is mentioned in your holy book!" Husseini almost "swallowed his tongue," Segal reports, and after a few uncomfortable seconds of silence, a loud wave of applause swept the room.
"Although it was clear that the debate had ended," Segal concluded his story, "the moderator asked another question or two in order to soften the impression, but it was clear the Moshe had won with a total knock-out. A few days later, Husseini set off for the Persian Gulf, where he died of a heart attack."
http://www.netanyahu.org/jerinkor.html
What's wrong with Jordan? Is it not a viable state?
Unimaginable such an offer is even uttered. Give them a portion, they will devour the rest. Isn't recent history enough evidence for the long term memory challenged? We gave them settlements - they trashed them. We gave them power and voice with a vote - they showed us they prefer to be helpless and mute. Genug! (Enough already)
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