On The Other Hand
Editor — exploring modern JewryJerusalem’s Housing Boom
In the geopolitical world of realpolitik, there are actions a government can take – and has every right to take – that it should not take. This week’s announcement that the State of Israel will build 900 new homes in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, which sits over the pre-1967 Israeli-Jordanian armistice line, fits into that category.
First, let me be clear: Israel is the sole governor of Jerusalem – even though I believe that one day the city’s boundaries will be redrawn (which is how an Israeli government will be able to legitimately say that it never divided the city).
Also, Jerusalem has a housing shortage. Still, there were alternatives to this move. For example, the government recently scrapped the Safdie plan, which would have seen the construction of 20,000 new housing units to the West of the city. It was canceled primarily over environmental concerns. One, however, wonders why it was not reworked to fit the needs of the area’s ecosystems.
And one can sense the personal ideological and political reasons behind Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s approval of the new housing. However, we American Jews are obligated to inform him that he is making one of our core tasks – advocating for the State of Israel –more difficult and that he is potentially damaging the State of Israel’s overall well being.
That’s because this occurs after Mr. Netanyahu’s successful White House visit, U.S. praise of Israel’s “unprecedented restraint” on settlement building, a rallying of the American Jewish troops at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, and reports of real Palestinian economic progress on the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Israel needs help in the world of public opinion, which plays an important role in keeping Israel’s economic opportunities strong. In particular, Israel needs aid in thwarting mounting pressure from the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Goldstone report, which called Israel action during the 2008-2009 war with Hamas “war crimes.” In addition, this week’s headlines put Mr. Netanyahu’s call for immediate negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria’s overtures for such talks into a deep freeze.
Pride and bravado aside, the State of Israel – which receives about $4 billion a year in military aid from Washington—cannot stick its thumb in the eye of the U.S. government and seek business as usual.
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