Israel Rebuffs White House Over Sovereignty of Jerusalem

By Bill Wilson

The White House has tried to prevent Israel from building a small apartment complex in East Jerusalem, doing the Palestinian Authority's bidding in turning up diplomatic heat on Israel. In essence, the move was another milestone on the continuum of this current Administration's siding with traditional terrorist entities against the best interests of Israel. But this time, the man who occupies the Oval Office received a little more than he was perhaps expecting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly discussed the bullying in Sunday's cabinet meeting by taking the US to task for making an issue over a project to build 20 apartments.

As the Jerusalem Post reports, Netanyahu fired several political broadsides at the White House. He said that there would be an international outcry if Jews were prohibited from buying property in New York, Paris, or Rome, so too, Jews should not be prohibited from buying property in Jerusalem. He also said that

"hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by, or rented to, Arab residents and we did not interfere. This says that there is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the western part of the city and there is no ban on Jews buying or building apartments in the eastern part of the city."

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was not as kind, saying,

"Thousands of Arab families build houses in Jerusalem, in the neighborhoods of Neve Yaakov and French Hill, and I've never heard any comment on the matter from the United States or Europe. I'm trying to put this delicately: It would be very strange if Jews were discriminated against in Jerusalem of all places..."

Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said,

"A demand to cease construction in a neighborhood situated only several meters from the Hebrew University proves how dangerous it is to be dragged into a debate on settlement freeze, which will lead us to a total demand to freeze our normal lives throughout the entire State of Israel."

Netanyahu seemed to figuratively thump OOO on the political chest, playing the sovereignty card,

"I would like to reemphasize that united Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel. Our sovereignty over it cannot be challenged; this means that residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city."

Let's recap: We have an American leader of Arab dissent saying Jews can't build apartments in Jerusalem, but Arabs are allowed to build in Jerusalem. Genesis 12:3 says of Israel,