Obama Skewered over Israel Mistreatment

by Charles Krauthammer; who makes some very good points about the White House not allowing coverage of the meetings between President Obama and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu:

They meet for several hours — no press, no pictures, no joint appearances, as if the prime minister of Israel is toxic, as if somehow he represents a pariah state.

It feeds into the perception around the world, particularly in the Arab world and in some elements in Europe, of Israel as a pariah state.

Over what? This example of the Shepherd Hotel: The eastern part of Jerusalem has Jewish neighborhoods, Arab neighborhoods, and mixed neighborhoods. People are purchasing land, selling it all the time.

There are about 200,000 Jews in the eastern area of Jerusalem. Imagine a city in the United States of that size where you have every day construction, permits issued, as a matter of routine. So, of course, there's going to be an announcement here or there. It's a breathing, living city.

The idea that there should be no construction or no purchase or selling of houses is absurd. It would mean strangling the Jewish areas in Jerusalem and essentially extinguishing them ultimately.

And this idea that it's Arab east Jerusalem: It houses the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter. It's odd, isn't it, that you have the Jewish Quarter in what people are calling Arab east Jerusalem? It has been — continually there has been Jewish habitation for over 2,000 years.
And the only reason it was Arab was [that] for 20 years [1948 — 1967] the Jordanian army expelled all the Jews! In '67 the Jews returned, and that's why it's a mixed area in the eastern side of Jerusalem. It's Jewish and it's Arab.

On the allegation that Jerusalem construction announcements were timed by the Israeli government to wreck negotiations with the Palestinians:

It's absurd. It's a large city with its own municipal government with its own [commissions] and councils. It's got construction transactions all over. Israel is incredibly bureaucratic. Every construction requires 20 approvals.

So on any afternoon you are going to have an announcement of some sort. It would happen in any city of that size anywhere in America.