Israel Update for July 2009

David Dolan

The argument between the Israeli and American governments over Jewish settlement building in the disputed territories continued unabated during July, with the focus shifting to construction inside the holy city of Jerusalem. Ironically, the particular area in the center of the vortex, located just northeast of the sacred Temple Mount, was once the headquarters of Haj Amin Husseini, the Muslim "Grand Mufti" of Jerusalem who partnered with Adolph Hitler in his partially successful attempt to annihilate all Jews living in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East during World War II.

Comments by US President Barack Obama, apparently designed to ease Jewish anxieties over what many perceive as his administration's growing anti-Israel policy tilt, had the opposite effect in Israeli government circles. Some commentators said officials felt the American leader displayed subtle contempt toward America's longtime ally in his mid-July meeting with several top American Jewish dignitaries.

Meanwhile tensions remained high with strife-torn Iran during the month, and with its main regional puppet force, Lebanon's Hizbullah militia. Arab and international media reports that Israeli warships-one possibly equipped with nuclear weapons-were allowed by Egypt to move through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea in June and early July, and so able to easily head toward the adjacent Persian Gulf, raised alarm bells in Tehran. A senior American official said later in the month that the United States remains committed to Israel's security, and has a plan to thwart bellicose Iran's apparent ambition to intimidate US allies in the turbulent region via its nuclear programme.

In the north, Israel's armed forces remained on high alert to counter any possible Hizbullah or Syrian military activity directed at the Jewish State. Army leaders were said to be concerned that the extremist Iranian regime might order Hizbullah rocket strikes to tie up IDF forces and thus help deflect any Israeli action against their ongoing nuclear programme.

Meanwhile a large Hizbullah rocket stockpile blew up in a warehouse in south Lebanon, where the rogue Shiite militia is not supposed to be operating at all according to the 2006 UN ceasefire accord that ended the Second Lebanon war, let alone restocking its rocket supplies. The Lebanese government later said it thwarted a plan by radical Muslims to kidnap United Nations soldiers stationed in the area.

More international and local reports were issued during the month condemning Israel's conduct of the military operation against Hamas militia forces in the Gaza Strip early this year. Israeli officials countered that the context of the short conflict-in other words, the unprovoked Hamas rocket attacks upon Jewish civilian communities stretching back several years-was not even mentioned in some of the reports.

Israel Endures Fresh American Rebuke

Many Israeli political analysts averred during July that it is becoming clearer every day that their small country is now dealing with the most unsympathetic American government administration since George Bush senior served as president from early 1989 until January 1993. They said this was confirmed when State Department officials summoned Israel's new ambassador to Washington, Dr. Michael Oren, to receive a dressing down the third weekend of the month.

The burning issue American diplomats wished to immediately discuss was a surprising one to senior Israeli officials-small-scale Jewish residential building near Judaism's holiest site on earth, Jerusalem's ancient Temple Mount. Specifically, the topic was a private plan, recently approved by municipal officials, to convert a former Arab hotel less than one mile north of Jerusalem's walled Old City into some 20 apartment units designed to house Orthodox Jewish families.

Palestinian leaders have strongly opposed the building project in what is known as the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood, even though the sprawling historic structure, which once served as Haj Husseini's local headquarters, was originally owned by Jews and was purchased from absentee Arab owners in 1985 by American Jewish millionaire Irwin Moscowitz. The grand structure had sat empty since Israeli military forces captured the area, just south of the modern French Hill neighborhood at the foot of Mount Scopus, during the 1967 Six Day war.

State Department officials later confirmed Israeli media reports that Ambassador Oren was told in no uncertain terms that the world's reigning superpower considers any Jewish building in the eastern half of Israel's capital city to be a serious violation of previous Israeli government commitments. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on July 20 that "our views are not new, that this kind of construction is the type that should be subject to permanent-status negotiations." He added dryly that "We are concerned that unilateral actions taken by the Israelis or the Palestinians cannot prejudge the outcome of these negotiations."

Apparently fearing further breeches in Israel's strategically vital relationship with the United States, Ambassador Oren later tried to downplay the dispute, telling reporters that "There is no crisis in Israel-U.S. relations. Here we are talking about disagreements over certain subjects, very, very specific ones." But Israeli commentators said the State Department action was highly unusual, and should be read as at least a mild rebuke of current Israeli government policy concerning the peace process, if not much more than that. However later in the month, Israeli government officials confirmed media reports that they are now close to agreeing to implement a temporary construction freeze as part of new understandings being negotiated in Washington.

Facts On The Ground

Although the latest chapter in the settlement building dispute is focused in an area considered "occupied Arab territory" by the United States and most other governments and the international media, Israeli commentators pointed out that the prestigious Hebrew University is located further east of the contested site, and its umbilical connection to the world's only Jewish-ruled state is largely universally recognized. Along with that, Israel's national police headquarters is located very close to the site, along with one of the city's premier five star hotels, the former Hyatt Regency. The idea that Israel will somehow evacuate all Jews from the area, which would include thousands of residents being uprooted from the burgeoning French Hill neighborhood, is quite absurd, they opined.