Ma’ale Adumim, located immediately east of Jerusalem, and the E-1 corridor that connects it to the city, have always been (as Jonathan noted) part of the “Everyone Knows Two-State Solution”–“everyone knows” it will remain in Israel while the Palestinians get close to 95 percent of the disputed territory. In an editorial yesterday entitled “The Logic of E-1,” the Jerusalem Post shows that the Netanyahu government’s decision to authorize planning for E-1 “follows in the footsteps of a long chain of governments – both left wing and right wing,” going all the way back to Yitzhak Rabin; its retention was endorsed by Shimon Peres when he was prime minister; was allocated to Israel in the 2000 “Clinton Parameters;” and was retained in the 2008 Olmert offer.
Ma’ale Adumim is not going to be dismantled in any conceivable peace agreement – not only because there are nearly 40,000 Israelis living there, but because it is located on the hills that overlook Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. It is one of the most strategic areas in the Land. Whoever holds it commands the high ground, which is why no Israeli prime minister will ever yield it. Its retention (along with other major settlement blocs) would not preclude a contiguous Palestinian state on land equal to about 95 percent of the West Bank, as David Makovsky proved last year in his extensive report for the Washington Institute; and it is obviously part of defensible borders for Israel.
Back in 2008, in the midst of the year-long Annapolis Process–which eventually produced the third Israeli offer within eight years of a Palestinian state on substantially all the West Bank and Gaza–Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Ahmed Qurei, who was then the Palestinian prime minister leading the Palestinian negotiating team. According to Al Jazeera, in a report on the “Palestine Papers” leaked in 2011, the following conversation took place:
Rice: I don’t think that any Israeli leader is going to cede Ma’ale Adumim.
Qurei: Or any Palestinian leader.
Rice: Then you won’t have a state!
No Israeli prime minister is ever going to trade Ma’ale Adumim and E-1 for the magic beans of a Palestinian peace agreement, particularly now that the Palestinians have broken the one they already signed, which prohibited them (as Alana Goodman showed) from taking “any step” to change the legal status of the disputed territories outside of final status negotiations.
In going to the UN for a symbolic state (they don’t qualify for a real one), the Palestinians not only violated their central commitment under the governing document of the “peace process,” but enshrined in their resolution a demand for land Israel will obviously retain if there is ever a peace agreement that can be enforced, as opposed to merely signed. Assuming a (second) state is their goal, the Palestinians set it back, and now are predictably complaining about the consequences of their own action.
Ahem, it's news that the Palestinians did not intend to live up to Oslo? So when the Palestine Authority not only failed to stop or punish the murder of Jewish children, but even incited, planned, funded, and carried out such murders, and glorified the murderers, that was NOT a violation of Oslo? Excuse me while I go vomit.
Has there ever before in history been an independence movement that rejected independence because of a dispute over boundaries? nIsrael tried to create an independent Palestinian state in Gaza with its unilateral withdrawal in 2005. Ariel Sharon said at that time that if things worked out, Israel would withdraw from most of the West Bank. Gaza made sure that things wouldn't work out. nThe Hamas Charter in effect rejects an independent Palestine since it rejects Israel's existence. The leaders of Hamas certainly must know that if they succeed in destroying Israel, the Arab states will divide the territory and persecute the Palestinians, as they always have. But what's more important, independence or "virtue"?
There isn't one now, either. The Palestinian movement has never been about achieving a state; it is about putting an end to the only Jewish state.
"UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians accused Israel in a letter to the United Nations of planning to commit further "war crimes" by expanding Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto UN recognition of statehood, and warned that Jerusalem must be held accountable." The time has long come past due to shut down the PA and put its leadership in detention or deport it. Termagants with a history of Nazi collaboration, Holocaust denial, and teaching their citizens that the map of Palestine ultimately erases the map of Israel of course believe that Jews building apartments is a heinous war crime. The question is why the State of Israel gives them running room. n nYes, the answer is Israel believes this is cost-effective. n nThe question to that is why?
The Europeans are already talking of recalling their ambassadors from Israel because of some new apartments to be built, so imagine if Israel shut down the PA.r nWhat would the Europeans then do to continue grinding down the Jews?