Mr. President, would you divide New York?

[Violet_Crumble]

Good for a few chuckles

If Ehud Olmert as we knew him when he was mayor of Jerusalem could speak to U.S. President George W. Bush, he would almost certainly say the following: "Mr. President, Ehud Olmert may be prime minister today, but his mandate is limited. Neither the Jewish people worldwide nor the citizens of Israel have authorized him to negotiate over Jerusalem, the Old City and the Temple Mount. No one authorized him to restrict construction in the city's new neighborhoods. Even during the Camp David negotiations with the Palestinians in 2000, it was agreed that they would continue to exist and develop. We built Har Homa, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I, to prevent the Arabs of Bethlehem from overflowing into Jerusalem. We must complete this process. Don't hinder us from doing so.

"Look at the map, Mr. President. Look at what is happening even now: Construction of the separation fence north of the city caused tens of thousands of Arabs to flock to Jerusalem, and they are beginning to settle in Jewish neighborhoods. Consider how many Palestinians will flock to the Israeli side of the fence when additional Palestinian neighborhoods are severed from Israeli Jerusalem under the agreement that you and Prime Minister Olmert are discussing.

"I circulate through these neighborhoods. Their residents are very worried by the possibility that they will become border neighborhoods, that they will come under fire from the Palestinian side as happened to residents of Gilo seven years ago after Israel transferred Beit Jala to the Palestinian Authority.

"Mr. President, do you know what happened in Jerusalem the last time it was divided, in 1948? About one quarter of its Jews left - more than 25,000 people! They weren't willing to live in border neighborhoods and be exposed to rifle and machine-gun fire. Today as well, the Palestinians have rifles and machine guns. And today, even if an agreement is signed, many Palestinians will be motivated to continue to fight, especially over Jerusalem. Many of them have never given up the dream of returning to their former homes in the western part of the city. Many are unwilling to give up even an inch of the Old City, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall. In their view, terror was and remains a legitimate tactic.

"Division will expose some 200,000 Jews, who live a mere few dozen or few hundred meters from Arab neighborhoods, to this terror, to this fire, just as happened in Gilo. Would you agree to divide New York and hand part of it over to a foreign government that hesitates to fight elements such as Hamas, Hezbollah or Bin Laden because it views them as brothers?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/942111.html