The Obama administration shows its hand by demanding that Israel stop building in eastern Jerusalem. No word yet if anyone ever objected to Jordan’s near destruction of the city’s ancient Jewish Quarter (including synagogues and Torahs) which was—wait for it—in eastern Jerusalem.
There is going to be some kind of showdown, methinks.
Israeli officials said the country’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that a project being developed by an American millionaire in the disputed section of the holy city should not go ahead.
[…] According to Army Radio, the U.S. has demanded that planning approval for the project be revoked.
Amazingly, the AP understands that some territories recaptured in the Six Day War are “disputed” territories—but apparently only when the dispute is whether Jews may live there.
The current narrative utterly ignores the Jewish history of the city, including the fact that there were 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem in 1948, many of whom lived in the Jewish Quarter in the eastern half of the city:
East Jerusalem is an especially volatile issue because it is the site of key Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites. The Palestinians want the traditionally Arab sector of the city to be the capital of their future state.
“The traditionally Arab sector” is a lie. The Jewish quarter was in eastern Jerusalem, which makes it, let’s think—a traditionally Jewish sector as well—but the news services can never seem to mention this.
And here, buried in the very bottom of the story, is something that is absolutely pertinent to why the Obama administration has no right to tell Israel to stop this project:
The east Jerusalem project is being developed by Irving Moskowitz, an influential supporter of Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem who purchased the Shepherd Hotel in 1985 and plans to tear it down and build apartments in its place.
The Jerusalem municipality issued a statement saying the purchase was legal and it had acted with “full transparency” in granting building permits.
The Obama administration is telling Israel to ignore its own laws. Why? Because the Obama administration is going with the narrative that there can be no Jews in “traditionally Arab” Jerusalem.
And how did the Prime Minister of Israel react to this demand?
On Sunday, Netanyahu told his Cabinet there would be no limits on Jewish construction anywhere in “unified Jerusalem.”
“We cannot accept the fact that Jews wouldn’t be entitled to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu declared, calling Israeli sovereignty over the entire city “indisputable.”
The Israeli public is solidly behind Netanyahu on this. Just as Obama is trying to ignore American public opinion on any legislation he wants to push through (cf: ObamaCare’s sinking poll numbers).
Once again, we have an example of the Obama administration dictating only to Israel, and giving the Palestinians a pass.
This man is no friend of Israel. The 78% of Jews who voted for him were fooling themselves.
Some of what it considered the “Muslim Quarter” was really the Jewish Quarter prior to 1948.
There are aerial photographs of what the Old City looked like before the Jordanians captured the Old City and after. I wish that the Israeli government would publish them on the web.
Where are Uriel and his Tsayadim? Some pretty nasty evil doers around these days that need to see the light.
Why would these actions by Obama surprize anyone. Read his books… He has said he would always stand with the Muslims. He has started to expose his true agenda very early. What can be done?
soccerdad:
Publishing the pictures would not help. Obama pretends that he listened to Wright for 20 years and neve heard anything improper. He would switch the before and after labels on the pictures and pretend that he sees mosques that the Jooos destroyed.
Sabba Hillel,
I don’t mean to publish the pictures for President Obama, specifically. The quick destruction of the Synagogues in the Old City of Jerusalem is an essential bit of history for those who think that Israel over-reacts or that Israel is an occupier. I agree that I don’t think this will change President Obama’s mind, but there are other hearts and minds to be won.