As the English edition of Jerusalem: Delusions of Division goes
to print, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has published
remarkable findings of a public-opinion survey conducted in east
Jerusalem in June 2015, under the supervision of David Pollock.1
For the first time, it has been discovered that more than half the Arab
residents of the eastern part of the city – 52 percent – prefer to
obtain Israeli citizenship with equal rights, while only 45 percent
prefer Palestinian citizenship within the framework of a Palestinian
state. Only five years ago, in another survey that Pollock supervised,
only 35 percent of the east Jerusalem respondents said they wanted to
become Israeli citizens.
Anyone not aware of what has been happening in east Jerusalem is
indeed likely to be surprised. However, the findings presented in this
book – on the Israelization trend and the growing incorporation of east
Jerusalem Arabs in the municipal fabrics – easily jibe with the survey’s
findings.
Reality has a seductive power. A huge power. Forty-eight years of living together in one city have fostered a different mindset among the east Jerusalem Arabs, more modern and much more cognizant of reality. It is a very different mindset than that of the Arabs of the West Bank or Gaza. It stems from common patterns of life within the city, and also, to a great extent, from a plethora of economic and other advantages. These advantages are entailed by the resident status that the east Jerusalem residents maintain – a status and attendant benefits that the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza do not maintain at all.
This study, however, also depicts a contrasting, worrisome process: 60 percent of the east Jerusalem Arabs who were polled in the summer of 2015 support an armed struggle against Israel, and Hamas is very popular among this group. On the one hand, the trend of acclimatization and intermingling advances. On the other, the political dispute over the future of the city, along with the rise of radical Islam and the antagonism toward the Palestinian Authority, which the Jerusalem Arabs charge with neglecting them, leads to phenomena of separation and confrontation, lightly armed and more lethal terror, and the popularity of Hamas.
...
And another large “asterisk”: Pollock’s survey also found that 90,000 east Jerusalem Arabs who have remained outside the “security fence” hold much more radical and hostile views than the east Jerusalem Arabs who have remained on the “Israeli side” of the fence. Among a segment of this population, the desire for Israeli citizenship, which was strong in the past, is now significantly weaker than among the east Jerusalem Arabs still “inside the fence.” A decade of neglect and unsuccessful policy toward this population by the municipal and governmental authorities has turned this area into a wasteland with the population as its denizens. These parts of north and east Jerusalem are today a focal point of crime, terror, and profuse traffic in weapons. The residents have become a kind of ticking bomb. They feel neglected both by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and they seethe with bitterness and anger. This book proposes a plan of action for these areas and their population from which all can benefit. Israel’s policymakers would be wise to give it serious consideration.
Former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold appeared on Fox & Friends on Tuesday to defend Israel against President Obama's 'peace plan.' While he was there, they also asked him about what's going on in Syria.
Let's go to the videotape.
In that video, you saw excerpts of a brief video called "Israel's critical security needs for a viable peace." I showed you that video once before here, but since it's been more than a year, I'm going to post it again.
The center of the deligitimization campaign against Israel
A study carried out on behalf of the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs has concluded that the center of the worldwide delegitimization campaign against Israel is in London (Hat Tip: Daily Alert).
In a report for the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs (JCPA) on the "delegitimisation" movement, published this month, Ehud Rosen has concluded that the boycott campaign against Israel and attempts to arrest Israeli politicians for war crimes are evidence that "Britain has become the main leader of an international effort to deny Israel's right to exist in its current form".
Mr Rosen, who now teaches at Bar-Ilan University, found that the alliance has taken advantage of the UK's political freedoms and legal system to make London its base for its attacks on Israel.
His research into the red-green alliance was carried out while studying for a PhD at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
He also identified how the anti-Israel movement has entered the mainstream by allying with campaigns against the security crackdown following the events of 9/11 and British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. This has been aided by alliances with leftist groups such as the Stop the War movement, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Socialist Workers Party and George Galloway's Respect party.
The study details how a senior group of activists from various branches of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East and North Africa allied with a younger generation of Islamists to form a powerful hub of activity centred on the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). This "stronghold of exiled Brotherhood leaders and their sons and daughters" is sometimes known in the Arab media as the London Ikhwan (the Arabic name of the Brotherhood).
...
The findings of the JCPA report echo those of the Reut Institute, an Israeli think tank which concluded in a report earlier this month that London had become a "Mecca of delegitimisation".
I guess no one should be surprised at this given that the Prime Minister of Great Britain refers to Gaza as a prison camp and the British government continues to refuse to change its universal jurisdiction law, which subjects Israeli political and military leaders to random arrests in Britain.
Monday will be the 63rd anniversary of the UN partition resolution that called for dividing the area of the British Mandate that was West of the Jordan River into two states - a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state. Yes, the 'two-state solution' was around back then (and a number of times earlier as well). The Jews accepted the partition resolution, but the Arabs did not, and when the British mandate ended in May 1948, five Arab armies went to war to drive the Jews into the sea. The result was that Israel became a Jewish state, with more land than it was supposed to get under the partition resolution (including, most significantly, the airport, which was to have gone to the Arabs).
Here's a video of the UN vote and the Jews' reaction to it - sorry but everything but the vote is in Hebrew.
Let;s go to the videotape. I will have another surprise for you after the video.
Here's Labor party leadership candidate Yitzchak Herzog on the prospects for a 'peace summit' in Washington. This was part of a briefing given at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Monday.
Let's go to the videotape.
Does anyone know where to get some of what he's smoking?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
