The Jerusalem Feint

Cross-posted on JoeSettler
The views of this post do not necessarily represent those of the Muqata

If you’ve driven from Malcha to Gilo, you know how ridiculous and impossible the idea of dividing Jerusalem really is. You drive through the main road that divides the town of Beit Safafa in two.

I am sure I can’t even count on one hand the number of residents of Beit Safafa that want to be cut off from Jerusalem, from the Israeli government subsidies, from their jobs, and from their lives - to join the PA.

And what are they going to do? Build walls, and tunnels, and then somehow link it to Abu Tor, which will via some magical underground tunnel link to Ramallah? (Hell, they can’t even get the light rail moving).

The physical impossibility of carving this city up which has become so integrated (whether some people want to admit it or not) is far more difficult than untying a mere Gordian knot.

The Arab residents of Jerusalem have made it clear they don’t want to be residents of the PA. They don’t want to give up their freedom, their lives, their safety, and their jobs.

Sure, they continue to physically reside in their own ethnic enclaves, but that doesn’t meant their lives haven’t been integrated into one united and undivided Jerusalem.

And Olmert knows his government would collapse the second he gave away sovereignty over the Temple Mount, much less allowed PA policemen into the residential sections of the Old City.

And everybody knows this.

I believe the whole Jerusalem discussion is a feint, a ploy, a trick.

Olmert will give something major away at Annapolis, but it won’t be Jerusalem.

Instead he’ll come back, declaring himself the hero for saving Jerusalem from American pressure, while having seriously damaged us somewhere else.

And with a nod and a wink, his coalition of the power-hungry of Shas, Lieberman and the rest of his cronies will remain intact, they after all did their job protecting Jerusalem (sic).

Olmert has already frozen construction in Judea and Samaria. Personal security for the average Israeli has once again dropped.

What Sacrifice for Peace Power has Olmert in store for us?

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael