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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| 'A Palestine without all of east J'lem as capital won't work' | |
| 2007-10-09 | |
| A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict necessarily requires the establishment of a Palestinian State with its capital in all of east Jerusalem and any accord short of that will not work, the Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs said Monday. The comments by Adnan Husseini, who previously served as director of the Islamic Wakf which administers the Temple Mount, only served to highlight the immense gaps that exist between the two parties regarding Jerusalem, and cast doubt on whether Prime Minster Ehud Olmert's longstanding proposal to cede Arab neighborhoods on the periphery of the city as part of a final peace agreement could serve as basis for such an accord. "The outline for Jerusalem is very clear," Husseini told The Jerusalem Post. "East Jerusalem is for the Palestinians and west Jerusalem is for the Israelis," he added.
The newly appointed Palestinian Minster for Jerusalem Affairs said that he had "no information" about a reported agreement between Olmert and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas which would reportedly give Jordan control over parts of the Old City - inlcluding the Temple Mount - as part of a peace agreement. The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi Arabic daily reported that Abbas and Olmert have agreed to make Jordan a guardian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, while such an arrangement would be supervised by Jordan, Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations. Husseini said that there was "not a problem" between Palestinians and the Jordanians over who would run the Muslim holy sites, noting that such a situation actually exists today and stressing that the problem was over the future of the city. Wakf officials declined comment Monday on the report. Olmert has said that he is willing to cede at least six outlying Arab neighborhoods in the city to the Palestinians as part of a final peace treaty. Husseini however scoffed at such an offer calling it "a street here and a street there." But the issue of who will be in charge of Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem actually pales in comparison to the difficulty in finding a solution for the Old City, and particularly its holy sites, which will be acceptable for both sides. The Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest and Islam's third holiest site, is currently under Israeli sovereignty, although a very delicate status exists at the bitterly contested Jerusalem holy site whereby Israeli police are in charge of security at the compound, and the Islamic Trust or Wakf administers the site. The issue of who will control the Temple Mount, which is known as the tinderbox of the Middle East, is considered to be one of the single hardest issues in any future negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel has long preferred Jordanian involvement in the goings-on on the Temple Mount, considering the Jordanians to be more moderate than the Palestinians. A team of Jordanian engineers recently repaired a bulge on the southern wall of the Temple Mount after two years of wrangling between Israeli and Palestinian officials over which side would fix the ancient wall. Last year, a study by a liberal Israeli think tank concluded that Israel and the Palestinians should allow the international community to oversee the administration of Jerusalem's holy sites, including the Temple Mount. The study, by the European Union funded Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies offered five different solutions to the bitterly contested question of sovereignty of Jerusalem's holy sites: full Israeli control over the sites; full Palestinian sovereignty over the area; Territorial division of the basin between the two sides, with international supervision to help monitor and settle disputes; a distribution of powers in the basin between the two sides, with international backing; entrusting the authority of the historical sites to an international body, which can delegate powers to both sides in certain aspects. The study states that full Israeli sovereignty is likely to be rejected by the Palestinian and the international community, while Palestinian sovereignty would likewise be rejected by Israel. The researchers concluded that entrusting the authority of the holy sites to an international body is the preferable and the most realistic option provided that both sides can put their faith in an international body and in its ability to run the holy sites fairly. In contrast, former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk has said that the thorny issue of sovereignty over Jerusalem's holy sites as part of any future peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is best left untouched since there is no solution that will be agreeable to both sides. "In the Middle East and in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular some problems do not have solutions," Indyk, who served as Ambassador during the failed Camp David talks, said in a Jerusalem address last year. "You should leave well enough alone." | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #18 Good on you, trailing wife. NEVER EVER let the Swiss off the hook for collaborating with the Nazis and the banks' subsequent attempts at covering their tracks regarding theft of Holocaust assets. It is difficult to imagine a more ghoulish bunch of bloodless greed-driven shits than the Swiss. NEVER FORGET! Actually, what the Vatican has is the Swiss Guard. It's a 501 year old unit, originally mercenary. However, one of the requirements is that the applicant be Swiss. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-10-09 21:47 |
| #17 remeber, I'm here for you, and I've chucked my last pack of Ricola's and a half jar of Ovaltine into the rubbish bin. There, I HOPE you are satisfied! Dude, I'm just glad you're back in one piece. Hope you're getting all settled in. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-09 19:43 |
| #16 Being back is making you dangerously whimsical, Besoeker. Perhaps a slice of melk taart will help... ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-10-09 19:35 |
| #15 Zenster... remeber, I'm here for you, and I've chucked my last pack of Ricola's and a half jar of Ovaltine into the rubbish bin. There, I HOPE you are satisfied! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-10-09 19:24 |
| #14 Thank you, too, for that ray of hope and sanity as well. My pleasure, Zenster dear. We all need such rays just now to keep our sense of proportion, as things appear to be getting intense again. I was particularly happy to run across that article after reading mhw's post #8 above. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-10-09 19:16 |
| #13 A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict necessarily requires the establishment of a Palestinian State with its capital in all of east Jerusalem and any accord short of that will not work... Good! I guess that does away with any (foolish) notion of a Palestinian State! |
| Posted by: Crusader 2007-10-09 15:58 |
| #12 As for the Swiss being neutral where Jews are concerned, remember that the Red Cross refuses to recognize Israel's red Star of David -- in use since 1948, I believe -- alongside the cross and the crescent, although they recently voted under U.S. pressure to allow some sort of neutral symbol for those branches neither Christian nor Muslim. Not to mention the long-standing fight of Swiss banks to keep the contents of Nazi-era accounts from Jewish heirs... to the point of mass destruction of records. Good on you, trailing wife. NEVER EVER let the Swiss off the hook for collaborating with the Nazis and the banks' subsequent attempts at covering their tracks regarding theft of Holocaust assets. It is difficult to imagine a more ghoulish bunch of bloodless greed-driven shits than the Swiss. NEVER FORGET! Separately, Drudge links to an article that most Israelis will not accept the division of Jerusalem, nor turning over supervision of holy sites. Thank you, too, for that ray of hope and sanity as well. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-09 14:23 |
| #11 why not have The Vatican oversee the sites with the Swiss army as their muscle? The paleos get along fairly well with The Vatican, and nobody doubts that the Swiss are neutral. The Palestinians have as happily desecrated and destroyed Christian holy sites and archaeological sites as well as Jewish ones, Secret Master. Anyway, Fatah has no control over the behaviour of the majority of Palestinians, so whatever respect they might have for the Vatican is moot. As for the Swiss being neutral where Jews are concerned, remember that the Red Cross refuses to recognize Israel's red Star of David -- in use since 1948, I believe -- alongside the cross and the crescent, although they recently voted under U.S. pressure to allow some sort of neutral symbol for those branches neither Christian nor Muslim. Not to mention the long-standing fight of Swiss banks to keep the contents of Nazi-era accounts from Jewish heirs... to the point of mass destruction of records. Separately, Drudge links to an article that most Israelis will not accept the division of Jerusalem, nor turning over supervision of holy sites. link |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-10-09 13:57 |
| #10 A lot of Israelis would love to divest themselves of E. Jerusalem (as long as the Temple Mount stays under Israeli sovereignty). I don't think the Paleos have control of the Temple Mount. It was my impression Jordan has control of it. They probably use Hamas to run the thing though... |
| Posted by: Charles 2007-10-09 13:40 |
| #9 Just take it over, bulldoze the crap buildings and start fresh and tell the paleos to sod off. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-10-09 11:15 |
| #8 A lot of Israelis would love to divest themselves of E. Jerusalem (as long as the Temple Mount stays under Israeli sovereignty). |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-10-09 10:33 |
| #7 Why don't the Israelis do what the Palestinians always accuse them of? Expel the Palestinians from Jerusalem and resettle it with Jews. Of course, since the Israelis are civilized, they would compensate the paleos for their land instead of trying to kill them on the way out like Arabs do to Jews and Christians. |
| Posted by: RWV 2007-10-09 09:21 |
| #6 Israel makes the same terrible mistake, over and over, of allowing *any* territorial claims over *any* place in Israel by any foreign power or religion. As with every other nation, they should claim absolute sovereignty. From that point on, they can be very liberal as to who they allow to *use* such sites; but they are forevermore owned by Israel. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-10-09 08:28 |
| #5 For the Paleos this is just another opportunity to miss an opportunity. *yawn* |
| Posted by: Spot 2007-10-09 07:57 |
| #4 'A Palestine Fixed |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-10-09 01:16 |
| #3 I'm probably just talking through a hole in my foot here, but why not have The Vatican oversee the sites with the Swiss army as their muscle? The paleos get along fairly well with The Vatican, and nobody doubts that the Swiss are neutral. Or, hell, how about having a nation oversee the sites that could a damn about Islam, Judiasm, or Christianity? Like Japan or Mongolia. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2007-10-09 01:02 |
| #2 I wonder if the paleo's in Jerusalem really want to be in that "Palestinian State"? That would be just short of |
| Posted by: Throger Thains8048 2007-10-09 00:53 |
| #1 Kewl, end all Palestinian claims upon Jerusalem so they cannot be more disappointed |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-09 00:18 |