by David M. Weinberg
The fourth Netanyahu government, taking office this weekend, must rebuff deleterious foreign pressures, stop dithering and act to re-establish forward motion, Zionist momentum, in Jerusalem.
It's been almost 50
years since Israel unified Jerusalem and turned it from a dusty and
depressed backwater into a truly radiant international capital city
sparkling with energy and creativity.
There is more to come.
The dynamic vision for Jerusalem 2020 in the transportation, cultural,
recreational and business fields unveiled this week by Mayor Nir Barkat
is exciting and uplifting.
Yet as we approach
Jerusalem Day this Sunday, hefty question marks hang over the city's
future. These uncertainties stem from government hesitations in the face
of international and Arab pressure for re-division of the city (Heaven
forbid).
Instead of acting
decisively to buttress Israel's sovereignty, security, economy and
social vibrancy in Jerusalem, we have a stalemate in government
decision-making.
In fact, the threats to
Jerusalem as a living, breathing, growing, safe and open city -- and to
Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and the epicenter of the
global Jewish community -- come mainly from neglect on Israel's part.
The fourth Netanyahu
government, taking office this weekend, must rebuff deleterious foreign
pressures, stop dithering and act to re-establish forward motion,
Zionist momentum, in Jerusalem. Here's how:
• Housing: Except for
luxury skyscrapers and fancy villas in central Jerusalem that are
purchased by very rich (and mostly foreign) buyers, there is no
significant new building underway in the city or its immediate environs
for young families.
For fear of
international censure, the government has shrunk from critically needed
expansions of peripheral, middle-class neighborhoods like Ramot, Ramat
Shlomo, Pisgat Ze'ev, Gilo and Givat Hamatos (all of which are over the
stale "Green Line"). No new neighborhoods have been established in the
city since Netanyahu's first term in the late 1990s (Har Homa). For the
same reason, successive governments going back to Yitzhak Rabin have
failed to follow through on plans to build housing in the large E1
quadrant on the eastern slopes of the city (along the road toward Maaleh
Adumim).
Netanyahu threatened to
build in E1 if the Palestinian Authority sued Israel for war crimes in
the International Criminal Court, then failed to follow through on his
threat even when the PA launched an ICC assault. But this only
highlights the fact that the expansion of Jerusalem eastward, so
critical to the viability and livability of the city for the long term,
is being held hostage to global politics.
Jerusalem also has been
boxed into an affordable housing stalemate by environmental lobby
groups who want to protect the green mountains to the west of the city,
and who have stymied all plans for significant housing projects in this
area (adjacent to Tzur Hadassah, Mevasseret Zion and more).
Netanyahu's new government must move to break these "settlement" logjams.
• Security: Just this
week, security services broke up a big terrorist cell operating out of
Silwan. But cars and buses traveling to or parking near the Western Wall
are regularly stoned, and almost every Jerusalem light rail streetcar
has been hit with stones in the north of the city.
Travel to the hallowed
ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives is extraordinarily risky;
Jewish mourners are sure to be assaulted. As a result, almost nobody
ventures there. The few, brave bereaved families who do so travel in
organized convoys with bullet- and stone-proof windows. There is also
frequent Arab vandalism of the graves.
This is, of course, a
shameful abdication of Israeli sovereignty and Jewish national dignity.
Were such violence against Jews or vandalism against a Jewish cemetery
to occur regularly abroad, it would be an international scandal.
Even though he was from
a "nationalist" political party, the previous public security minister
took a light policing approach to the lawlessness in Jerusalem. He and
his police brass wanted to avoid incidents that could become major
conflagrations and international trouble for Israel. While
understandable, this low-profile strategy is no longer sufficient.
Netanyahu's new
government must devote much more attention to the re-securing (dare I
say, re-liberation) of Jerusalem, by boosting the manpower, resources
and authority of the Jerusalem police force, and by renewed enforcement
of civil law in the Arab neighborhoods of the city, including building
and tax codes, noise pollution bylaws and traffic rules.
Some will say that
another part of the answer is the devotion of more municipal services
and funds to the eastern parts of the city. That's true, but let's face
it: The developmental gap is not why the violence is growing. Barkat is
indeed advancing Arab neighborhoods of the city, through more money for
education and infrastructure.
• The Temple Mount:
Netanyahu's new government must also redress the gross violations of
Israeli sovereignty and Jewish rights implicit in the prevailing
situation on the Temple Mount.
Jewish visitors to the
mount -- the very few who are occasionally let in -- are systematically
accosted by paid professional Islamic provocateurs, while the police
stand aside. It goes without saying that the almost five-decade-long ban
on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount outrageously remains in place,
lest the Arabs become too angry.
And of course, illegal
Waqf excavations continue on the Temple Mount without Israeli
archaeological supervision. We know that over the past decade the
burrowing out by the Waqf of the underground Solomon's Stables has
wantonly destroyed thousands of years of Jewish relics and history.
Jewish prayer should be
facilitated in some symbolic way on the vast Temple Mount plaza. This
can be effected either through a time-sharing arrangement similar to
that in place at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, or through a
small synagogue tucked away on the fringes of the plaza that will not
overshadow the two large Muslim structures on the Mount. Waqf violence
should be dealt with compellingly.
The bottom line is that
to hold on to a united Jerusalem, Israel needs to act. It must build
homes extensively to keep the city alive and young. It must wield a big
baton against Arab insurgents and radicals. It must restore its full and
active jurisdiction and reassert Jewish national rights in all parts of
the city.
These initiatives will engender
Palestinian (and American) resistance, but with both resoluteness and
sensitivity Israel can succeed and overcome the opposition. Jerusalem is
still a consensus issue in Israeli society and politics. The new
Netanyahu government would enjoy widespread public backing for action to
shore up Israel's stake in the holy city.
David M. Weinberg
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=12587
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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