[Philadelphia Bulletin] Daniel Pipes - The U.S. decision to get tough with Israel translates into escalating Palestinian demands on Israel. PA chief Mahmoud Abbas complained to the Americans about the construction of 20 apartments and an underground garage in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik. The State Department promptly instructed Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, to halt the building project. Zionist Jews founded the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood in 1891 by purchasing the land from Arabs, then, due to Arab riots and Jordanian conquest, abandoned the area. Amin al-Husseini, Jerusalem's pro-Nazi mufti, put up a building in the 1930s that later served as the Shepherd Hotel. After 1967, the Israelis designated the land "absentee property." The administration picked a fight on an issue where an Israeli consensus exists - not over a remote "outpost" but a Jerusalem quarter boasting a Zionist pedigree back to 1891. The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
2009-07-22 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive