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Stop Pretending Jerusalem Is an Obstacle to Peace
(New York Daily News) Nathan Diament - Jerusalem, the historic capital of Israel, should not be an impediment to Mideast peace. But thanks to the current intransigence of Palestinian leaders, that is precisely what it has become. The Palestinian demand for a total construction freeze in Jerusalem as a precondition for talks is a new demand. Construction in Jerusalem has never been an impediment to peace or peace negotiations. Historic agreements were reached with both Egypt and Jordan despite ongoing construction in the city. More than 15 years of construction in Jerusalem went on while Israel held meaningful peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. Dividing a city never works. No city in all of recorded history has been cleaved into two halves without damaging the whole. Jerusalem must be unified under a single flag that recognizes and guarantees the rights of all its citizens. It is time for the U.S. government to make that point clear - rather than continuing to equate building in Jerusalem with building elsewhere in disputed land. At some point during any successful peace negotiations, the Palestinian leadership will have to choose between an opportunity to build a Palestinian state, or pursuing a weak and unrealistic claim to Israel's capital. The writer is director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.