AN ISRAELI TAKE. Since we’ve been talking a bit about Jerusalem of late, here’s the latest pronouncement from an Israeli government figure on the question of the city’s future:
Israel should turn over Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal with the moderate government of President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s deputy prime minister said Friday. The comment was one of the frankest remarks to date about what Israel might be willing to relinquish in talks….
Ramon, a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said keeping all of Jerusalem would endanger the city’s future as Israel’s capital and suggested that many Arab sections be turned over to Palestinian sovereignty in return for international recognition of the Jewish neighborhoods Israel has built in east Jerusalem since 1967.
The Palestinians, however, don’t see this as a particularly good deal;
–Garance Franke-Ruta
