By J. Zel Lurie
DELRAY BEACH, Florida –The statement in my last column that Israel tripled the size of East Jerusalem when it reunited the city in 1967 was a serious understatement. Actually, the Israeli geographers, who, they thought, were drawing the frontier of a state and not just its capital city, enlarged the area of East Jerusalem by almost twelve times what it had been under Jordan and the British Mandate.
Acording to figures supplied by Ir Amin, a Jewish organization devoted to the interests of Jerusalem, Jordanian East Jerusalem measured six square kilometers (6 kms2) including the walled Old City, which was one sq.km. Almost a score of Arab villages of the Jordanian West Bank totaling 70 sq. kms. were urbanized overnight and added to the holy city,
East Jerusalem became almost double the size of Jewish Jerusalem but it is voiceless in Jerusalem’s city council. West Jerusalem, which elects the Mayor and City Council, measures 38 sq. kms.
Bear this in mind when you read about settler violence in East Jerusalem.
The ongoing violence in the Sheikh Jarrah section of East Jerusalem is particularly galling. The United Nations special organization for Arab refugees built houses in Sheikh Jarrah for refugees from West Jerusalem. The land had been owned by Jews. So recently the court ordered that the land and the house built on them should be returned to Jews.
Arab families, who had been living in these UN-built homes for decades were evicted and their furniture was placed in the street.
The law is the law. But when I covered the United Nations for the Jerusalem Post there was an Armenian in the press corps who took delight in interrupting Israeli press onferences by asking loudly, “When will my mother get her home back?” The home was a mansion in albieh. Under the Law of Abandoned Property, the Armenian lady never got her house back.
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Obama’s 16 words On Mideast Conflict
President Obama delivered another great speech in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. If I didn’t have a vague knowledge of the history of Afghanistan, which has never been conquered by a foreign force, I might have been convinced that our Marines were fighting a just war and that only victory will extract them from the quagmire.
Unfortunately, victory will never happen. Like the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan and the experience of British forces which preceded it, the Afghanistan quagmire will suck American men and material until we get out as we did in Vietnam with our tail between our legs.
Obama is heading for a disaster but as Commander in Chief he seems to feel that he has no other option.
Likewise his vigorous health reform battle is ending with a whimper. Instead of Medicare for all it’s handing a bonanza to the insurance lobby with another 30 million clients paying premiums. That still leaves about 17 million Americans depending on emergency rooms for health care. It is shameful that the insurance lobby was able to prevent Congress from legislating a decent health care law.
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama and the Secretary of State and their numerous Mideast experts are making slow and gradual progress. In the first year of his presidency, he has advanced the Prime Minister of Israel from the acceptance of a two-state solution to a temporary freeze on new settlement construction. That’s about as slow as the peace process can get and still maintain it’s viability.
All that the United States asked at the beginning of the new presidency was that Israel and the Palestinians implement the initial provisions of the 2003 roadmap. Namely that the Palestinians renounce violence and maintain security and Israel freeze settlements and evacuate illegal outposts. The Arabs have fulfilled their part on the West Bank But on the Israeli side, despite repeated promises by Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, most of the illegal outposts are intact and the inhabitants are continuing to harass their Arab neighbors.
But the goal of full peace and security for two states is still possible to achieve during eight-year presidency.
At his Oslo speech, Obama devoted exactly 16 wards to the Mideast conflict. He said, “We see in the Middle East, as the conflict between Arabs and Jews seems to harden.”
Critics have complained that the conflict is between Palestinians and Israelis, not Arabs and Jews. They are wrong. As Obama has discovered, the conflict is with Jews, Israeli Jews and their supporters in American Jewish organizations.
The United States has actively opposed the construction of every settlement from first one in 1968 to today. Mainstream American Jewish organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee and Hadassah, have actively supported every settlement that was legally built by various Israel governments. Fringe right wing Jewish organizations have supported the illegal settlements with large gifts of money.
The U.S. opposition to the settlements was buried in reports to the State Department by the American Embassy in T el Aviv and the American Consul in Jerusalem, while a half million Jews settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
The Israel lobby maintained its influence over actions by Congress. No opposition to settlements ever reached the floor of Congress. Obama and Clinton must work slowly. Senators are elected for six years. Pro-Likud congressmen, who wrongly, call themselves the pro-Israel lobby, are well entrenched.
I am heartened. however, by the success of J-Street in Congress by showing Jewish support for Administration policies. In the 18 months of its existence J-Street has won support by about a fourth of Congress.
For the 2010 Congressional election I am planning to channel all my political contributions through the JSteetPAC, PO Box 33106, Washington DC 20003. Only a change in Congress will allow a two-state peace to prevail.
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Lurie is a freelance writer based in Florida. His articles appear in the Jewish Times of Southern Florida