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Netanyahu Can Say "No"

(BESA Center-Bar-Ilan University) Efraim Inbar - President Obama seeks to renegotiate the agreement reached for starting proximity talks with the Palestinians and to extract additional concessions from Israel. Most striking is the administration's effort to force Israel to accept the division of Jerusalem even before the talks start. Yet the administration may be overplaying its hand on the issue of Jerusalem. The division of the city is opposed by the current democratically-elected Israeli government and (according to polls that I have directed) by over 70% of the Jews in Israel. Few issues in Israel command such a large and clear majority. The timing of the crisis also serves Israel well - just before Passover - when Jews repeat a 2,000-year-old text pledging, "Next year in Jerusalem." Rejection of the division of Jerusalem expresses the deepest wishes of an overwhelming number of Jews living both in Israel and the diaspora. Jerusalem has never been a capital of any political entity, except that of a Jewish state, and Jews have been the majority in Jerusalem for the past 150 years. Moreover, the Arab residents of Jerusalem, if given a choice, would in all probability prefer to live under Israeli sovereignty than become part of a failed Palestinian state. Israel's prime minister is acutely aware of the need for American support and friendship, but the Israeli interest in keeping Jerusalem united is more intense than the Obama desire for a foreign policy success. The American commitment to democracy incorporates respect for choices made by other democracies. Israel can convince Americans that its democratically-elected government has every right to determine its future. The writer is director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, and professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University.
2010-03-26 09:34:27
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