By Nadav Shragai Haaretz Last update - 08:12 07/01/2008 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/942111.html

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?

“It pains me to say this, Mr. President, but Prime Minister Olmert is pulling the wool over your eyes. Check for yourself what Arab residents of East Jerusalem really want. Ask your experts what has happened to the Christians and their holy sites under Palestinian Authority rule - how many Christians have abandoned the PA and fled to South America? What will happen to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to hundreds of other churches and to Judaism’s holy sites if the PA controls Jerusalem?

“As mayor, I remember then prime minister Ehud Barak and his public security minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, handing the Temple Mount over to Palestinian security forces for a mere few hours, as an experiment. Do you know what a panic occurred in the Old City? Look for yourself at the photographs taken then: Jews fleeing the Western Wall as showers of stones and rocks were hurled down at them from the Temple Mount. What an embarrassment!

“Would any other country in the world give up the right to pray at its holiest site, the Temple Mount, as Israel has done, out of respect for members of another faith who also pray at that site? And in exchange - look at how the Palestinians ‘respect’ our holy sites: Joseph’s Tomb, Rachel’s Tomb …

“Mr. President, I am admittedly only a mayor, but what I said to then prime minister Barak in 2000, I am saying now to you, and to Prime Minister Olmert: ‘It’s dangerous. It’s irresponsible. Life in this city will become hell, for Jews and Arabs alike.’ Please explain this to the prime minister of Israel.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 and is filed under opinion. You can leave a response.