I’ve stated it time and time again on this Blog; the Jews will not back off. They are relentless. They care only about themselves and will not make the slightest of compromises for the sake of peace in the Middle East. They could care less about what the United States and/or the United Nations have to say. East Jerusalem will need to be taken from them by force as they have already plainly stated that they will continue construction in the area – period.
Frankly, I don’t understand why the United States allows this little country with less than 10 million inhabitants to push its weight around. There is no doubt in my mind that one day in the not-to-distant future one of the Muslim countries in the region will attack Israel, then the United States will need to intervene, and we will have another Iraq on our hands; except this time we may need to deal with nuclear weapons.
Way to go Israel, you’re making a mighty fine mess of things. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister pledged to keep Jerusalem undivided despite Palestinian claims to its eastern half, as Israelis celebrated the 43rd anniversary Wednesday of the city’s reunification in the 1967 Mideast War.
The Jewish section of Jerusalem took on a festive mood Wednesday with parades and speeches by political leaders, touching only lightly on the political explosiveness of the hotly contested city.
Hundreds of youths, many carrying Israeli flags, marched in the annual Jerusalem Day parade from a main square in Jewish west Jerusalem toward the Old City. Earlier, an extremist Israeli group called the Temple Mount Faithful toted flags and banners through the Old City, demanding that Israel take full control of the hotly disputed holy site where the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven at the site.
Walking in the parade through downtown toward east Jerusalem, Merav Adler, 18, said she was marching in support of Israel’s keeping the whole city. “It is very important for us to show that we can march from west to east,” said Adler, who lives in the nearby West Bank settlement of Efrat.
Palestinian neighborhoods were mostly calm Wednesday, with residents ignoring the Israeli celebrations nearby.
Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel annexed that sector shortly after the 1967 war, although no other country has recognized the Israeli claim.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Wednesday the city’s boundaries are “nonnegotiable,” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “we will never go back to a divided Jerusalem that is cold and torn.” Between 1949 and 1967, Jerusalem was split by concrete and barbed wire barriers between Israel and Jordan.
The city is a key issue in U.S.-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts that resumed last week after a 17-month standstill. Palestinians demand that Israel stop all construction in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem. Israel has agreed to slow construction, but has rejected a total halt.
In his Jerusalem Day speeches, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carefully avoided any provocative statements about continuing construction in all of Jerusalem, declarations he has made in the past. As part of the deal to restart peace talks, Netanyahu pledged to hold off on building in one of the neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and the U.S. has made it clear it would not accept announcements of additional projects there.
Netanyahu’s only references to construction were general, saying late Tuesday that Israelis “are building it (Jerusalem) and will continue to build and develop it.”
At the main Jerusalem Day ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the site of a bloody 1967 battle, Netanyahu said that “recognition of the right of Jews to live in their country and to build their capital is not an obstacle to peace — it is the key to peace.”
Some past peace proposals envisioned Israelis and Palestinians administering their sections without a physical barrier dividing Jerusalem, but agreement was never reached.
According to official Israeli statistics, 774,000 people live in Jerusalem. Two-thirds, or 511,000, are Jews. Of those, 192,800 live in east Jerusalem’s Jewish neighborhoods. Arab residents of Jerusalem number 263,000, according to the Israeli government.
