The E.U’s Bankruptcy Isn’t Just Financial
The neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev is one of the largest in Jerusalem, with about 50,000 housing units. It is located due north of the Hebrew University campus, technically on the “other” side of the 1948 armistice line called the “green line.” According to the rest of the world, it is a “settlement.” If you drove to it from downtown Jerusalem, you’d have no idea.
The neighborhood of Ramot is well west of Pisgat Zeev and is just on the other side of the “green line.” It, too, is a well-established neighborhood of Israel’s capital city.
While we’re on the topic, the Old City of Jerusalem – which includes the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism – is, technically, on the “other” side of the “green line.”
Yesterday, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she “deeply regrets” Israeli plans to build about 1300 new housing units in these neighborhoods – plans which, according to Ashton, amount to settlement building. Her statement said, “Settlements are illegal under international law and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.”
Right. Israeli housing in pre-existing Jewish neighborhoods in northern and western Jerusalem are the major sticking point in a two-state solution. Nobody, including Lady Ashton, actually believes that.
In other news from the European Union, the E.U. refused yesterday to add Hezbollah to its list of recognized terrorist organizations.
So, to review: Israel is “illegally” building “settlements” in “East Jerusalem” which is making a two-state solution “impossible.” But Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization.
Another banner day for the European Union. For all our sake, let’s hope their financial bankruptcy never gets as bad as their moral bankruptcy.
Author: Rabbi Jonathan Greenberg | November 9, 2012
PISGAT ZEEV
