Israel Is Not A Threat To Peace, Hamas Is



I shouldn't have to write the statement above. It should be obvious. Israel is a democratic nation with a long history of attempts to make peace with its neighbors. Hamas is a terrorist organization with a long history of blowing people up in nightclubs and buses.

But recent events have even got Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama blaming the Israelis for derailing the peace process. And I wonder just what Barack and Hillary are basing that on. That Israelis are building some new houses in a part of Jersusalem that would most likely be part of Israel anyway if a peace plan came to pass?

Let's get the facts straight. The Jerusalem suburb of Ramat Shlomo is NOT an Arab suburb. It's not a Palestinian suburb. Ramat Shlomo didn't exist before 1995. It was built and settled by Haredi Jews. It is NOT in the disputed East Jerusalem territory, which Palestinians want for their capital. It might be close by, but it is not in any territory that was once settled heavily by Arabs.

Furthermore, Hamas, as justification for their "Day of Rage" (which involved rock throwing at soldiers and general rioting), claimed that the Jews built a synagogue next to the Al-Asqa Mosque, as part of a fiendish plan to eventually annex the mosque territory and destroy it. Nevermind the fact that the Al-Asqa mosque is more than four football fields away, on top of the Temple Mount (which Israel has placed in the hands of the Muslims ever since its independence), that the synagogue was built in the JEWISH quarter of Jerusalem, and that the synagogue replaces the one built in the 1800s that was desecrated and destroyed by Jordan in 1948. When Israel rebuilt the synagogue, they maintained, rather than destroyed, the Muslim minaret that the Arabs had built on the site.

So what has Israel done wrong? They've built more houses for Jews in a place where Palestinians NEVER lived, in a place where more than 18,000 Jews already live. They've built a synagogue in the JEWISH quarter of Jerusalem, where a synagogue already stood. My God! What ANIMALS!!!!!

Hillary and Obama have to get their facts straight. They reacted to a pro-Hamas press release, and by declaring Israel to be out-of-line, gave Palestinian extremists ammunition to rally their cause. It would be a non-issue if Obama had said, "We're looking at the new building activity and examining whether it runs afoul of the peace process." Instead, he regurgitated the first thing he was told by some anti-Semite.

I just returned from Israel. In Jerusalem, I saw a city where anyone who wants to worship can worship in the way they please, without the threat of violence. I walked through the Muslim quarter, where a mob of little arab children, fresh from school, ran through the streets chanting "Allah Akbar," "God Is Great," with not one Israeli soldier batting an eye (even when a few of the kids spat on and pushed members of our tour group). I witnessed an Israeli government that strives to create a place where all religions can operate freely and pray in peace. Even when some of those people throw rocks at them.

Can we say the Palestinians would do the same? If, when, they receive East Jerusalem, will it be a place where any tourist from a non-Muslim nation can ever go? Will it be a place where any Christian or Jewish ruins or holy sites will be safe from desecration and destruction?

We've seen how they respond to a slight that wasn't even a slight. How will they respond once the Israeli soldiers pull out, and there's no one stopping these riots from exploding?

Personally, I fear for the day. And any reasonable person should too.

You tell me: Is Ramat Shlomo (A) in EAST Jerusalem?