By Aaron Elias
The recent tensions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu have caused many people to cast a worrying eye on the longstanding US-Israel relationship. The tensions are the result of Netenyahu’s cabinet meeting March 26, when the right-wing government decided not to change their policy of building homes in Jerusalem and East Jerusalem. Palestinians hope to make the latter the capital of a future state.
In response to the concerns this tension has raised, three-quarters of the House of Representatives constructed a bipartisan letter within three days and addressed it to the Obama administration to remind it of the importance of the US-Israel alliance. Spearheaded by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), the letter emphasizes the House members’ support for the longtime relationship between US and the only democracy in the Middle East.
The matter of Jerusalem’s division has always been a heated one in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. East Jerusalem contains the Old City, home to some of the holiest sites for the world’s three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As it is now, people of all religions are allowed to travel in and out of the Old City as they please. Should the Israeli government choose to hand over East Jerusalem as part of a peace deal, it would carry great repercussions for Christians, Jews, and Muslims the world over.
Reaching a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians is a feat that will doubtlessly engrave the successful US President’s name in everlasting historical stone. Still, the ends do not always justify the means. As of now, the entire international community is allowed to enter and leave the Old City as they please. Christians freely visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre while Muslims attend daily prayer at the Dome of the Rock. Keeping the Old City under Israeli jurisdiction, perhaps even if it were converted into an international city, guarantees tourists’ and locals’ freedom to visit the holy sites within. What, then, would happen if the city were to come under a Palestinian jurisdiction?
The Palestinian Authority’s stance on the Israeli “settlements” in the West Bank may lend us some insight. The PA has long taken the hardline stance that no Israelis, Jews, or Jewish establishments be allowed to exist within the land it desires for a future Palestinian state. This falls back to why the PA abhors the Israeli government’s building homes for Jews in Jerusalem and East Jerusalem. From an objective standpoint, this is understandable on some level; many Israelis and Palestinians have come to view the other as an enemy. Regardless, the PA’s reluctance to allow Jews to live within its future borders is a textbook example of bigotry. It’s also a rather large spit-in-the-face to the Israeli government’s allowing Palestinians (a.k.a. Israeli-Arabs) to live and marry within Israel’s borders. And if the Palestinian government has so fervently adhered itself to such a racist doctrine, how then can Jews expect to be allowed into an Old City- perhaps even an East Jerusalem- controlled by the Palestinian government?
The issue at hand should not be why Netenyahu refuses to cease construction for Jewish homes in East Jerusalem, but rather why it’s an issue at all. It would seem the PA- and President Obama- have become possessed by the idea that more division is the solution to the conflict. Under Jordanian rule, Jews were prohibited from entering East Jerusalem. When the Israelis fended off the Jordanians in the 1967 war, they regained control of East Jerusalem in the process. For the first time in years, the whole of Jerusalem reunited and open to people of all religions. The reunification of the holiest city in the world carried profound symbolical implications for the world’s religious population, and many saw it as a sign of hope. Now, though, it seems the PA wishes to undo that reunification, most evident in its refusal to accommodate Jews in the future Palestinian state. Re-dividing the world’s holiest city with a government that views the citizens of Israel- its only partner in the Peace Process- as people to be excluded will bring no good. The PA is not a government that deserves half of the world’s holiest city. It needs to either redefine its bigoted attitude towards Jews, or the Palestinians need to elect a different and more tolerable government into office. How can we blame Netenyahu for being reluctant to cease construction in East Jerusalem when his only partner in the Peace Process is telling him it doesn’t want Jews in its future capital?
Beyond the implications of a bigoted government controlling half of the world’s holiest city, the PA’s expectation of Israel to rid East Jerusalem of all Jews (and Israelis) transcends the illogical. Never mind that Jerusalem is a city that holds thousands of years of history and culture for the Jews, or that its mentioned over eight-hundred times in the torah. East Jerusalem surrounds the Old City; the Old City is home to the holiest of Jewish (and Christian) sites; it logically follows that many Jews (and Christians) will want to live nearby the Old City- within East Jerusalem.
We can all rest assured that a Jerusalem in the hands of the PA will immediately be slapped with a “No Jews” sign. We only need to look as far as the PA’s stance on Jews in the West Bank (and East Jerusalem) to confirm this. Should the PA be given East Jerusalem, the Palestinians may get their desired capital, but the Peace Process will suffer as a whole due directly to the intolerant type of government the PA is. Much like the Iranians, the Palestinians do not deserve a government that represents them as a bigoted and intolerant people because it’s simply not the case. Unfortunately, as long as the Palestinians have to rely on the PA’s bigoted policies to land them their own state, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much progress in the Peace Process
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