ISRAELI GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM

* * * * FLASH TRAFFIC: WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * *

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM

By Joel C. Rosenberg

(Washington, D.C., October 9, 2007) -- As the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace summit approaches next month, a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is actually suggesting his government is now open to the previously unthinkable prospect of dividing their capital city of Jerusalem.

"Wouldn't it be the right deal today for the Palestinians, the Western world and the international community to recognize (Israel's) annexation of...(Jewish) neighborhoods as part of Jerusalem, and for us to quit the Arab neighborhoods?" Vice Premier Haim Ramon told Israel Radio.

Reuters reported that Ramon "made the comments as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators opened talks at a secret location in Israel over a joint document they hoped to present at a U.S.-sponsored conference on Palestinian statehood." A spokesman for Olmert later called speculation that the government would divide Jerusalem "baseless and untrue," but Ramon's comments were public and on-the-record which is what is fueling the enormous concern and speculation.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu quickly and strongly denounced the government's talk of giving up control of Judea and Samaria (commonly known as "the West Bank") as well as East Jerusalem as dangerous and destabilizing, especially in light of the rising Hamas and Iranian threats to the Jewish State...."The unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon created an Iranian outpost -= from which Israel is being attacked -- in the North, and the unilateral pullout from Gaza created a second Iranian base in Gaza, 'Hamastan,'" Netanyahu said on the floor of the Knesset. "And now the government is planning a third withdrawal -- from Judea and Samaria -- that will lead to a third Iranian outpost....Giving Hamas half of Jerusalem will make the rest of Jerusalem unlivable. Giving up Judea and Samaria will transfer the areas controlling the coastal plain into the hands of Hamas, leading to Kassams…on Tel Aviv....according to the government's plans, Israel will pull back to the 67' borders. Obviously, this is the plan and any attempts to disguise it are futile. We are facing an exact replica of the government's plan at the Camp David summit in 2000....This is no way to make peace."

Netanyahu is right. This would be a stunning and misguided move, and one that would further divide the Israeli public at a time unity is desperately needed.

A recent poll found 63% of Israelis are opposed to dividing the Holy City. Even Olmert's cabinet is sharply divided on the issue.

"The issue of the division of Jerusalem is an inalienable asset of the state of Israel. Palestinian refugees will not be returned to Israel and Jerusalem will not be divided," said Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former chief of staff and a member of the Prime Minister's own Kadima party.

Now is the time to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), not carve it up and serve it to the radical Islamic jihadists now in charge of the Palestinian Authority.