What the WashPost Won't Print:Letter to the Editor Sent Last Week

Eilat, Israel -- I'm sitting in a hotel lobby in the Eilat resort, reading Scott Wilson's "For Israel's Arab Citizens, Isolation and Exclusion" on my laptop. At the next table is an Israeli Arab family of 12 who are here with hundreds of other Muslim families to celebrate the Id al Adha holiday. That's not "isolation." Walk along the Eilat boardwalk, eat in a kosher restaurant, swim in the pool, and you see Jewish and Muslim Israeli families enjoying the respite from the wintery winds in the north. That's not "exclusion."

Yes, Israel's Arabs feel different and are treated differently in some sectors but often because their religious and political leaders identify with the Palestinian radicals over the border who seek to destroy Israel or refuse to recognize the right of a "Jewish state" to exist.

By the way, Israeli Arabs serve in Israel's Knesset, They are not "excluded" from the Israeli army. They decided to exclude themselves. Indeed, Israel's Bedouins serve with distinction in all of the army's units. Some young non-Bedouin Arabs have risked being ostracized in their community and have also volunteered to serve in the "Zionist Army."

[January 2 -- A Druze soldier died in a training mission yesterday. It was revealed that he was serving in Israel's most elite Special Forces unit, Sayeret Matkal. Where's the "exclusion?"]

No, it's not easy being a minority anywhere, but Israel's civil rights standards certainly surpasses anything known in the Middle East, and I dare say, Israel -- even in a state of war -- can compete with many of the West's democracies.

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Correction on Har Homa Population: 15-17,000 Hat-tip to Solly Sacks

Solly Sacks sent this important correction to the Jerusalem Post's talkback:

Most of the articles are mistating the population of Har Homa which today stands between 15 and 17 thousand souls, and there are many hundreds of apartments currently under construction. The 307 that everybosy is reffering to is additional to these hundreds. There will also be a new shopping complex and commercial center built. Har Homa is part of the Jerusalem Municipality and we all pay rates and taxes directy to them. Jerusalem is the Eternal capital of Israel and the Jewish people and is me.

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Is Har Homa a "Settlement?" The Strategic Significance of Har Homa

Seven years ago the terrorist snipers attacked southern Jerusalem. The stage is now being set for a repeat performance.

Last month the Israeli Ministry of Housing issued a tender for the construction of some 300 apartment units in the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem. Immediately, Palestinian spokesmen screamed bloody murder: Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat described the housing starts as "raised fists" against the peace process. “We loudly ask the U.S. administration to act as the judge and compel Israel to implement its commitments which the Road Map plan specified," Erekat told the Voice of Palestine. "If Israel went on, this will destroy all the efforts that aim at launching a meaningful peace process leading to ending the Israeli occupation which started in the 1967," he continued.

No one was surprised when Erekat’s complaint was quickly echoed by the UN Secretary General. "The United Nations' position on the illegality of settlements is well known," Secretary General Ban said. "The Americans must pressure the Israeli government to stop settlement activities."

The real surprise came when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined the chorus and expressed her opposition. She told a news conference and Israel’s Foreign Minister Livni, "We're in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence between the parties and this doesn't help to build confidence. There should not be anything which might prejudge final-status negotiations," Rice said. "It's even more important now that we are on the eve of the beginning of the negotiations.“ One British newspaper described her comments as, “delivering what for the Bush administration is rare criticism of Israel over its settlements policy.”

The de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s new (post-1967) neighborhoods and the diplomatic attack on their expansion appear to have begun anew. The last time we saw such an assault was in 2000, and it was accompanied by deadly gunfire, as well.

During the first two years of the Intifada, more than 400 shooting attacks were unleashed on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and its 40,000 residents from the nearby Arab town of Beit Jala. Although the town was predominantly Christian, Beit Jala was infiltrated by Fatah’s Tanzim gunmen who shot at Gilo, hoping for Israeli retaliation against the local residents. Gilo residents began to evacuate. Belatedly the Israeli government provided cement barriers and bullet-proof glass to protect the Jerusalem neighborhood’s residents.

Ignoring the fact that the neighborhood consisted of major apartment complexes, schools and shopping centers, much of the world press condoned the attacks on the “Israeli settlement,” as if it were some temporary military camp. The British press was quick to claim that Gilo was “illegal under international law.” [See The Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg .] Reuters’ correspondent Christine Hauser tried to show that it was the Arab town of Beit Jala under Israeli attack by describing the piles of brass bullet shells collected by the Palestinian locals, not realizing that spent casings are found at the source of the shooting, not the target. The media distortion was so great that in 2001 CNN issued a memorandum to its staff stating that "We refer to Gilo as a 'Jewish neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem'... We don't refer to it as a settlement."

Har Homa, established in 1997, is another Jewish neighborhood on Jerusalem’s southern flanks. With an estimated 6,000 residents, the suburb is a strategic impediment to Palestinian attempts to link up northern Bethlehem with Jerusalem. Google Earth’s maps of the area show Har Homa less than a mile from the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Bethlehem. Just north of Har Homa are several Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, and the Old City of Jerusalem lies just 3.5 miles beyond. No wonder Palestinians are launching an attack on the building of a measly 300 apartments.

See these pictures, one showing Har Homa from Bethlehem:

and one showing Bethlehem from Har Homa to understand their proximity:

The city of Jerusalem is ringed by neighborhoods built after 1967. They house about one-third of Jerusalem’s burgeoning population, and they also serve to protect the city. The neighborhood of Ramot serves as a buffer to the north; Mount Scopus, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and Sanhedria protect Jerusalem’s east; and Gilo and Har Homa serve as a buffer to the south.

Somewhere in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigade, Hamas, or the Palestine Islamic Jihad’s military commanders are planning their attack on Har Homa, probably from neighboring Bethlehem. Snipers, mortars and Qassam rockets will be the order of battle. And if a “fire-when-ready” order from the UN, Europeans or Americans was ever necessary, it was just delivered.

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