Jerusalem

Hi Humans,
I am disturbed by the recent difficulties between the US government and the Israeli government over the announcement by Israel that it is authorizing the building of new housing units in East Jerusalem. I love America, Israel, and President Obama. For me it’s like an argument within my family and friends. On the one hand, the timing of the announcement during Vice President Biden’s visit was stupid. One can disagree with a friend, but that’s no reason to blazingly embarrass the friend. On the other hand, there is logic to Israel building housing in East Jerusalem. Israelis do not view Jerusalem in the same way as the West Bank. The Israeli mantra since 1967 has been that Jerusalem should remain undivided. Israel already demonstrated a willingness to dismantle the West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements and cede the land to a new State of Palestine a decade ago in the Clinton/Barak Plan which Ehud Barak offered to Yasser Arafat and was rejected by Arafat. Barak also offered Arafat some kind of limited presence in Jerusalem, but that is as far as the negotiations went because Arafat rejected the offer, did not proceed with further negotiation, and instead started the Intifada. So that is where the negotiations left off. To stop building in East Jerusalem would be to concede something over which the Israeli people feel strongly before even beginning negotiations.
Religious zealots and ultra-nationalists in Israel exist, but as a minority (percentage-wise smaller and less radical than on the Palestinian Arab side). The majority of the Israeli people are secularists who would like to simply get on with their lives without being subject to suicide bombers and incoming rockets, and without putting their children in harms way in the military. There are 2 reasons why Netanyahu, who is know as a hard liner, is prime minister of Israel. The lesser reason is that Israel’s parliamentary system of government allows minority parties ( including the most right wing) to hold the balance of power in elections. The greater reason is that every effort to make peace by more liberal governments has been rejected by the Arabs resulting in disaster, for example the Clinton/Barak plan and the more recent unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza strip. The Hezbollah rocket invasion of northern Israel also occurred during a liberal administration. The most effective peace keeper has been the wall that separates Israel from Palestine (although one might question on which side the West Bank settlements should be located).
So, why should the Israeli people feel confident that a Palestinian Arab peninsula jutting into their capitol city would not be used as a staging ground for another Intifada? I think the majority of Israelis might have agreed to the idea in the name of peace a decade or so ago when the confidence level between both peoples was at an all time high. But the events since then have made the Israeli people wary of any concession that is not made after tough negotiations, backed up by tangible safety concessions by the other side, and after a long period of normalcy has occurred.
Whichever country ultimately has sovereignty over the Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the people living there should become citizens of the country in which they live. Perhaps the Palestinian capitol might some day be located in East Jerusalem, contiguous or not. But a real peace must come first.
Anyway, that’s what this dog thinks.
Chloe