Benjamin Netanyahu har kastet Jerusalem på bordet for å torpedere Obamas ønske om stans i utvidelsen av bosetninger. Hvem kan nekte jøder å bosette seg hvor de vil i Jerusalem, spør Netanyahu.
Det er et ladet spørsmål som gir resonans hos mange israelere og jøder utenfor Israel, men koster Netanyahu goodwill i Washington. De leser hensikten uten problemer.
New friction with Washington over the project to build 20 apartments in a part of Jerusalem captured by Israel in a 1967 war could deepen the most serious rift in relations between the two allies in a decade.
Israeli officials said the State Department had summoned Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, and told him plans for the construction approved this month by Israel’s Jerusalem municipality should be suspended.
“We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy (homes) anywhere in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said, calling the city Israel’s united capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.
“I can only imagine what would happen if someone would suggest Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods of New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a great international outcry,” he told reporters at the weekly cabinet meeting. “We cannot accept this edict in Jerusalem.”
The White House declined to comment.
Netanyahu bruker et sverd med dobbel egg: han appellerer både til det følelsesmessige forholdet til Jerusalem, og til historiske erfaringer: skulle en israelsk regjering nekte jøder å slå seg ned i bestemte områder i deres egen hovedstad?
I den rådende situasjon, der USA ønsker et forpliktende løfte om full stans i bosettingene, er dette et retorisk utspill. Det har tenner, men slår også tilbake.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56I12020090719
