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A Shameful Way to Treat an Ally

(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - The current crisis, ostensibly about construction in Jerusalem, was manufactured by the Obama administration. Every Israeli government since 1967, of left or right, has asserted that Jerusalem is Israel's capital and has allowed Israeli Jews to build there. The current crisis stems from the announcement of plans - not actual construction - in a part of the city five blocks from the 1967 lines and in a neighborhood that very clearly will remain part of Israel after any negotiated settlement. To escalate that announcement into a crisis in bilateral relations and "condemn" it - using a verb we apply to acts of murder and terror, not acts of housing construction - was a decision by the U.S. government, not a natural or inevitable occurrence. The Obama administration is imposing new demands on Israel, and building tensions in the bilateral relationship, in an effort to destabilize the governing coalition in Israel. It is a shameful way to treat an ally. The writer is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2010-03-19 10:28:10
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