Israel Matzav: Peres proposes a compromise

Peres proposes a compromise

With the Obama administration waiting for the answer it wants on Israeli construction for Jews in 'east' Jerusalem, and with Prime Minister Netanyahu's government having given the only answer it apparently intends to give, Israel's President, Shimon Peres, has stepped into the breach and attempted to formulate a compromise.

While Israeli officials were not talking about their discussions with Obama administration officials, the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, who has served as a bridge between Mr. Netanyahu and the Obama administration in the past, floated a possible compromise formula of his own.

While addressing schoolchildren in the central Israeli city of Holon, Mr. Peres suggested making a distinction between Israeli building in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem that were erected after 1967, and in the Arab neighborhoods where the majority of the city’s Palestinian population lives.

“Previous governments built in Jewish neighborhoods according to the new map and avoided construction in Arab neighborhoods,” Mr. Peres said. “The Palestinians and we decided to continue as such in the past until we reach an agreed upon map.”

The Times reports that the Obama administration is unlikely to accept the compromise.

Given the severity of the current crisis, however, it is doubtful that an Israeli commitment to refrain from building in the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, as Mr. Peres has proposed, will be enough to satisfy the Americans’ demands.

It's been nearly 43 years since Jerusalem was reunited. It is beyond absurd to continue with a charade in which Jewish (but not Arab) building is held in limbo in the hope that maybe, someday, the 'Palestinians' and their Arab patrons will accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Levant, enabling the conflict to be ended.

Moreover, Peres' formula leaves much unresolved. For example, the article mentions the houses in Shimon HaTzadik/Sheikh Jarrah. Those are Jewish-owned houses from which the Arab residents were evicted for non-payment of rent(!). On what basis should that be stopped? What 'construction' is there to suspend there?

In Silwan, which is also mentioned, the City of Jerusalem was ordered by Netanyahu to stop enforcing its zoning laws. How long can that situation persist? What zoning laws should we choose not to enforce.

What about projects under construction on the Mount of Olives (Ras al-Amud) that are being constructed on land that is privately owned by Jews?

Finally, there always was Jewish land ownership in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of the City. Ariel Sharon owns a home in the 'Muslim quarter' of Jerusalem's Old City and has for more than 30 years. There is a yeshiva (probably more than one, but I spent a Sabbath in one thirty years ago) and several synagogues in the Muslim quarter. Would Peres propose to expel them? To prohibit them from making improvements to buildings they have owned for more than thirty years?

This is not the time to cut back on Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem to satisfy the pique of an anti-Israel administration in the White House. Netanyahu is going to have to say no.

Israel Matzav: Peres proposes a compromise