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There is no duty to accept peace on Arab terms

Ted Belman - 12/18/2007

Salon recently published a review by Gregory Levey, of the efforts of the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem under the title, The right wing’s Jerusalem gambit and sub-titled,

A new coalition of religious hard-liners with ties to President Bush seeks to scuttle any plans for dividing Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians.

I was very much involved in the activities of the CCJ and can attest that this review was accurate but Levey made gratuitous remarks that I thought showed a shallow understanding of the process.

That a successful peace deal would necessitate some sharing of Jerusalem is at this point essentially a given in the eyes of most political leaders.

The new coalition of religious groups seeks to use the incendiary Jerusalem question to scuttle any of the progress promised by Annapolis.

The Annapolis conference may have been a start, but it has also unleashed a zealotry on U.S. shores that may once again help demonstrate how nearly impossible achieving Middle East peace could really be.