Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Democracy or Demography

Ehud Olmert is championing a division of Jerusalem due to the demographic reality of too many Arabs.

Here's from yesterday's speech:-

I am firmly determined in my desire to create a momentum and provide a chance for the success of a substantive political process, in partnership with the President of the Palestinian Authority Abu-Mazen. Any other options means a demographic battle, drowned in blood and tears, which does not serve the State of Israel in any way.


Well, democracy gives the people the voice and they say:-

Most Israelis oppose sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a final peace deal, an opinion poll said on Tuesday after an Israeli minister sparked uproar by suggesting the idea.

Asked whether Israel should agree to "any sort of compromise on Jerusalem" as part of a final deal to end the decades-old Middle East conflict, 63 percent said no, according to the survey in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot.

Sixty-eight percent oppose transferring Arab neighbourhoods in occupied east Jerusalem to Palestinian control and 61 percent said Israel alone should have sovereignty over the holy places in the Old City, revered by the world's three leading monotheistic religions.

The poll was released a day after Haim Ramon, a deputy premier and a close ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, sparked controversy by saying Israel should make concessions over the status of what it regards as its "eternal indivisible" capital.


But Olmert is dangerous. He gives up on dreams. Worse, he calls the fundamental Jewish nationalist identity a dream, not an ideal, not an eternal truth, not a destiny:-

The peace process is a...determination to accept brave unavoidable decisions, which involve relinquishing the full realization of the dreams that fed our national ethos for many years. Nothing is easier than to cling on to these dreams, and the price of awakening from them can be heavy for all of us.

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