Article

2007-05-15 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Fatah: We've lost the battle for Jerusalem

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Posted by Fred 2007-05-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 For the Arab residents of Jerusalem, the construction of the security fence around the city has been both a blessing and a curse.

Make up your minds you thankless assholes.

The security fence has virtually cut off the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem from the West Bank, making the Arab residents fully dependent on Israel's economy. Dozens of merchants who owned businesses in Ramallah and Bethlehem have moved back to the city in the past few years. "People see the anarchy and instability in the Palestinian Authority areas and prefer to leave to a safer place," explained Ibrahim Barakat, a businessman from Beit Hanina, a large Arab neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. "Also, people are afraid of losing their status as permanent residents of Israel and that's why they are moving back into Jerusalem. After all, life inside Israel is much better than the West Bank."

Perish the thought that any of these stinking Palestinian ingrate bastards could ever bring themselves to admit it.

The construction of the fence, together with strict Israeli security measures, also resulted in a sharp decline in the activities of PA security agents inside the city. Until a few years ago, hundreds of PA security agents were operating almost freely in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, sometimes kidnapping residents to Ramallah or Jericho for ~~ransom~~ "interrogation."

Is there nothing a well-constructed fence cant do?

Thousands of teachers are employed in dozens of schools run by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of Education. These teachers receive higher salaries and better privileges than their colleagues who work for private or PA-controlled schools inside the city.

But, of course, the Palestinian Terrortories remain an idyllic Islamic ~~hellhole~~ utopia.

Three Hamas legislators from east Jerusalem, including the minister for Jerusalem Affairs, Khaled Abu Arafeh, have been in detention since the abduction last June of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit. "Let's be honest, we have lost the battle for Jerusalem," admitted a Fatah legislator from the city. "The Palestinian Authority hasn't done anything to preserve the Arab and Islamic character of Jerusalem. The Arabs in Jerusalem have lost confidence in the Palestinian leadership and that's why most of them prefer to live under Israeli control.

Id say the Palestinain Authority [spit] has done PLENTY "to preserve the Arab and Islamic character of Jerusalem. Lets go ahead and start with how they treated The Church of the Nativity.

It has long been my personal contention that Jerusalem should be overseen by a multinational occupying force like post-World-War Berlin. If not that, then Israel is the only competent and qualified government to do so. All other local entities lack the requisite qualifications to safely administer a used cotton swab.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-05-15 01:09|| 2007-05-15 01:09|| Front Page Top

#2 We've seen what multinational forces do when Israel is on one side of the equation, Zenster. There's the Hizb'allah side of the Lebanese border, which the blue berets have guarded so very effectively since 2000 or so, and of course the blue berets down in the Sinai who left so nicely in 1967 when Nasser asked so politely, the ones so effectively guarding the Egyptian-Gaza border...

There's a good reason why Israel has never turned over Jerusalem to an international force. Can you imagine the neutrality of British or French troops in a Jerusalem that used to belong to the hated Zionists, never mind the famous soldiers of Bangladesh.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-05-15 02:37|| 2007-05-15 02:37|| Front Page Top

#3 This is good news. The next step should be pro-Israeli mufti in the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount).

Posted by Apostate 2007-05-15 06:10|| 2007-05-15 06:10|| Front Page Top

#4 I thought they lost that battle in 1967?

Posted by 3dc 2007-05-15 08:37|| 2007-05-15 08:37|| Front Page Top

#5 "Palestinian Nation" wasn't invented yet in 1967 (No need since it was believed that Arab armies can wipe out Israel).

Posted by gromgoru 2007-05-15 11:25|| 2007-05-15 11:25|| Front Page Top

#6 You are absolutely right, trailing wife. The suggestion of an international body for oversight of Jerusalem is only a very old idea of mine that I trotted out for the sake of posing at least one compromise position. I now withdraw the idea. In reality, Israel has shown a stunning degree of restraint with its handling of Jerusalem and the entire Palestinian conflict in general.

If the security fence has barred access to Jerusalem for a large number of the Palestinian cretins, it can only be a good thing. It is an ultimate poetic justice that the Palestinians elected Hamas to govern them. No other single measure could have possibly highlighted so many different facets of their own endemic corruption, persistent internecine conflict, endless petty larceny, comprehensive dissembling and sheer overall incompetence.

Even the International community's blindest of the blind cannot ignore just how futile their support of the Palestinians has been. Few other examples exist of such willful refusal by a people to improve their own circumstances. The squandering of opportunity, foreign aid and endless chances at resolving this festering political sore now can be laid directly at the Palestinian's feet without any further dispute.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-05-15 15:16|| 2007-05-15 15:16|| Front Page Top

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