Update: Dr. Barry Rubin explains why PM Netanyahu has frozen further Jewish building in Jerusalem. He puts it in context right here. Rubin links to this blog but goes further. He writes:
“Here’s a mystery: Why has the recent crisis in U.S.-Israel relations suddenly seemed to clear up?
Here’s an answer: A secret understanding between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama to stop construction in Jerusalem outside its 1967 borders for a while.
There hasn’t been — and won’t be — any public confirmation of such an understanding, yet it seems quite likely that this has happened. In effect, Netanyahu is saying: We are cooperating in every way possible, so how can you complain about us?
Behind this argument is an Israeli belief that Obama will now be able to see the difference between a cooperative Israel and an intransigent Palestinian Authority, which will block any progress on peace. Indeed, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has already provided an example of that paradigm — he publicly stated that he wants a solution imposed from outside, not one negotiated with Israel and requiring any compromises or concessions on his part.”
Read Rubin. Then spend some time reviewing the Life magazine 1948 archives posted by BenAtlas. Pay special attention to the evacuation of Jews from the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem by the Jordanian Arab Legion assisted by the occupying British. Read the text which accompanies these searing photos.
According to the Associated Press, Prime Minister Netanyahu has just “frozen” all building in East Jerusalem.
“Israel’s prime minister has effectively frozen new Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, municipal officials said Monday, reflecting the need to mend a serious rift with the U.S. and get Mideast peace talks back on track.”
This is, no doubt, meant to help the United States and Obama’s reputation as a tough negotiator, if not in Teheran than in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; perhaps this will allow Israel and America to return to the negotiating table where Israel can, yet again, be treated as America’s vassal state and punching bag.
Jewish families waiting outside their homes to be evacuated by Arab troops. Jerusalem, Israel. June 1948. John Phillips
Alright — fine. Can someone ask our president to look into the purchase by Hamas of property and territory in West Jerusalem — and for that matter, into the motivation or rewards to the Israeli Arab citizens who are fronting the deal for Hamas? Wealthy Gulf Arabs have also been buying up private land in Israel.
Fine. Let them… go, let Hamas’s people go, let their people return to South Syria, Egypt, Transjordan, Jordan too. Does Obama and company truly understand who the Palestinians are, and once were?
Some Israeli legislators are not sure what a “de facto” freeze on building really means. Some believe that Netanyahu was just trying to save face after caving in. Others believe that it was just a bureaucratic snafu.
God only knows.
The Life magazine photographic archives of Jerusalem, 1948, may be found here.
Rubble lying in the streets after Arab looting of Jewish homes. Jerusalem. June 1948. John Phillips
Collectively, the archive paints a haunting and instructive picture of Jews being evicted from the Jewish quarter, their homes and synagogues destroyed, their elderly rabbis being shot at and held hostage by the Jordanian Arab Legion. Please see with your own eyes how Arabs treated Jewish human beings and their holy sites in Jerusalem–long before they again attacked them in 1967.
I am grateful to Ben Atlas for mounting this website and to Yehuda for sending it my way.
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