White House ‘cannot envision situation’ where Western Wall is not part of Israel
A senior administration official told reporters on Friday that the White House “envisions” the Western Wall will remain part of Israel under any accord with the Palestinians.Furious Palestinians reject White House talk of Western Wall as Israel’s forever
The comments follow US President Donald Trump’s December 6 declaration that recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. They are certain to delight Israeli leaders — the Western Wall is the holiest place where Jews are allowed to pray — and infuriate the Palestinians, who claim East Jerusalem, including the Old City, as the capital of their intended independent state.
“We cannot envision any situation under which the Western Wall would not be part of Israel,” the official said, speaking ahead of US Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Israel next week.
“But as the president said [in his speech last week on Jerusalem], the specific boundaries of sovereignty of Israel are going to be part of the final status agreement,” the official said.
Furthermore, the official added, “We note that we cannot imagine Israel would sign a peace agreement that didn’t include the Western Wall.”
The Palestinian Authority bitterly rejected comments by a senior official in the Trump Administration on Friday that the White House “envisions” the Western Wall will remain part of Israel under any accord with the Palestinians.Mahmoud Abbas’s Karine-A Moment?
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, declared Saturday that the PA would not accept any changes to what he called the borders of East Jerusalem. Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City with the Temple Mount and Western Wall, from Jordan in the 1967 war.
“We will not accept any changes on the borders of East Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967,” Abu Rudeineh said. “This statement proves once again that this American administration is outside the peace process,” he added.
“The continuation of this American policy, whether the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, or moving the American embassy, or such statements, by which the United States decides unilaterally on the issues of the final status negotiations, are a violation of international law and strengthen the Israeli occupation,” he said.
“For us, this is unacceptable. We totally reject it. And we totally denounce it.”
Nearly 16 years ago, in early January 2002, the Israeli navy intercepted the Karine-A, a weapons laden ship, in the Red Sea on its way to the Palestinian Authority from Iran. The capture of the ship and the intelligence gleaned from it by Israel forced the United States to go “from viewing Arafat as an eccentric but necessary peace proponent, to viewing him as the heart of the terror problem.”
At the time, the so-called “Aqsa intifada” – a deadly campaign that claimed hundreds of lives that was planned by the Palestinian leadership after Arafat turned down a peace offer from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in July 2000 – had been going on for about 15 months. There was an international clamor to reduce the violence as Israel attempted to destroy the terror infrastructure that Arafat had overseen in the West Bank.
Yet, when Israel presented the U.S. evidence of Arafat’s involvement in terror, President George W. Bush responded by demanding the Palestinians find a new leader “not compromised by terror.”
After Arafat died in 2004, he was succeeded by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who still serves in that position even though he was elected in 2005 for a four-year term.
Abbas, who objected to the violence of the “Aqsa intifada,” has proven no more ready to make peace with Israel than Arafat, in addition to being corrupt. He rejected a 2008 peace proposal from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and derailed two efforts by the Obama administration to achieve peace with Israel.
This week, in a shocking display of denial, Abbas accused Jews of “faking and counterfeiting history and religion” with their claims to Israel.
Mordehai kedar petite remise en question chez al jazeera (h/t Yenta Press)