The Israel-Washington Diplomatic Flap-Enough is Enough

Now that Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton (and Joe Klein) have all had their say about the recent diplomatic tiff, it is time to "move on" as they used to to say in Washington when Bill Clinton was "doing his thing" in the Oval Office. The timing of the announcement of the decision to build 1600 new residences for Jews in East Jerusalem was inopportune (It was made by the head of one of Israel's parties.) Bibi Netanyahu has repeatedly apologized for the fact that the news was broken during Joe Biden's visit. Still Washington insists on continuing its temper tantrum.

It might also be pointed out that there are already 20,000 Jewish residents in the intended neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo and that the areas designated would not represent any break with the contiguity of the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.

By the way, here's a trivia question for you history buffs: Who established Jerusalem as their capital some three thousand years ago? The Jews, that's who. Islam, in contrast, was founded in the 7th century AD. The Koran never mentions Jerusalem. Yet, Muslims claim it as their third-holiest site largely based on the belief that the Prophet Mohammed ascended to Heaven from Jerusalem (after dying in present-day Saudi Arabia).

So as we speak, Palestinians, no doubt inspired by the words of the Obama administration, are throwing rocks again in E. Jerusalem. As Washington demands more concessions from Israel, the Palestinian side remains intransigent. At the same time, that phony leftist, "pro-Israel" organization, J-Street, is applauding the toughness of the Obama administration toward Israel-and, of course, Time's silly writer and commentator, Joe Klein, is questioning the patriotism of pro-Israeli Jews-like AIPAC(American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

Speaking of AIPAC, that pro-Israel organization is holding its national conference next week in Washington. Not only Netanyahu is scheduled to attend, but guess who is scheduled to speak.....



Won't that be interesting?

It seems to me, the administration needs to recognize who the real threat is-Iran, terrorists, and radical Islamists-not Israel-and start acting accordingly. Netanyahu has apologized. Stop kicking him already!