Projects around Jerusalem are shutting out Palestinians

[Herschel]

Israel is close to finishing a decades-long effort to surround Jerusalem with Jewish settlements, walls, fences and roads that will severely restrict Palestinian access to the city and could reduce the chance of its becoming the capital of a Palestinian state, according to documents, maps and interviews with Israelis, Palestinians and foreign diplomats.

The status of Jerusalem — a city sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians — is one of the most divisive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both sides claim Jerusalem as their religious and political capital, but most countries do not officially recognize it as such, and the United States and others keep their embassies in Tel Aviv. Under past Israeli-Palestinian accords, neither side is supposed to take any action to change the city's status, which is to be resolved through negotiation.

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001858343_jerusalem15.html

Well done. Jerusalem is not negotiable. The longer Palestinians fail to control terror, the more limited their prospects will be in an eventual agreement.

[La_Serpiente]

1. Ummm

wouldn't you think that as long as the Palestinians are denied their land, the suicide bombings will continue? I mean, Palestinians wouldn't go on blowing themselves up just because they are Palestinians.

[Ottmar]

2. Well done?

For the Palestinans this confirms Arafat's politics and all those zionist conspiracy theories. Suicide bombings will continue, that's inescapable.

Sharon made it to lead a democracy subjected to terrorism into isolation. What's next?

[tinnypriv]

3. "decades long effort"

This has hardly anything to do with Sharon.

The projects described were largely enacted and expanded by the likes of Peres, Clinton, Rabin etc (Har Homa and the like).

[Ottmar]

4. I was unclear

I didn't want to blame Sharon for all what happened in the past decades. But today, Sharon is the Prime Minister and he was a man with influence before. If he wanted, he could change Israel's politics. And the fence is -- concerning the settlements -- the logical consequence of the politics in the decades before. Facts are made without negotiations. So in the eyes of the Palestinians, Arafat is right, even if actually he is wrong as we can see from outside.