From the American Prospect, how to understand what Bibi says, and what the State Department doesn’t say:
A worldly colleague of mine once complained that with the demise of the Soviet-era Pravda, the intellectual joy went out of newspaper reading — the satisfaction of examining photos for who wasn’t on the dais, of studying statements for what wasn’t said, in order to reason out the real news. He was too quick to mourn. Reading the text of the State Department’s daily press briefing provides nearly the same pleasure and even sheds some light on what Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is up to.
At [two recent] sessions, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley emphatically refused to comment on reports that Netanyahu has imposed a de facto freeze on building in annexed East Jerusalem. “I’ll refer to the Israeli government to enunciate its own policy,” Crowley said. Of course, the policy that Netanyahu has publicly enunciated is that Israel will continue to build anywhere it wants in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat denies there’s a freeze. Crowley wouldn’t comment on that either. As the reporter grilling him pointed out, the Obama administration commented clearly and loudly in March when Israeli officials approved new construction of 1,600 new units in Ramat Shlomo, a neighborhood in annexed East Jerusalem.
So the silence now means something — apparently, that the administration has agreed that Netanyahu can say whatever he wants about “eternally undivided” Jerusalem, as long as new building plans get stuck in the bureaucracy. That fits with remarks…by left-wing Jerusalem City Councilor Meir Margalit that the government has quietly put a hold on planning decisions in East Jerusalem. …
Read the rest here, and come back to SoJo to comment.
“…Ramat Shlomo, a neighborhood in annexed East Jerusalem. ” That’s laying on the propaganda just a tad too richly. As you and I both know, Ramat Shlomo is in north Jerusalem, in a pocket of land formerly a no-man’s land between wars, with no Palestinian or Jordanian claim to it whatsoever. It now lies squarely amid the Ramot neighborhoods to the north of the hi-tech industrial park (right across the freeway), and was previously not a part of Jerusalem the PA ever indicated it wanted back, until this balagan erupted. “Arab East Jerusalem” is the area of Jerusalem that was traditionally Arab residential and commercial, across the armistice line. Ramat Shlomo doesn’t come close to that area, and you know it. Polemics is one thing but this outright deceit in geography undermines your credibility.