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| Posted: October 16, 2007 |
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Abraham Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of "The Deadliest Lies" and John Mearsheimer, a professor at the University of Chicago and co-author of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" answered your questions on the influence of the Israeli lobby in the United States. |
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| Brian Ko of Phoenix, Ariz., asks: |
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| Jersualem is a point of major contention. What would the Israel lobby think or do if the Palestinian Authority renounced its claim to Jerusalem and the United States offered the security guarentee that Jerusalem would be free of all state control? |
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| John Mearsheimer responds: |
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 It does not make good sense to try to force Israel to give up control of Jerusalem, simply because it would never accept that outcome. Instead, the United States should put pressure on Israel to divide Jerusalem and make the eastern part of that city the capitol of a viable Palestinian state. That outcome would be good for Israel, good for the Palestinians, and good for the United States. |
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| Abraham Foxman responds: |
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 The issue of Jerusalem, along with that of the refugees, is the most difficult problem facing the state of Israel. It is important to remember that under the U.N. partition of 1947, Jerusalem was designated an international city open to all. When the Arab states attacked Israel and the war was fought, it resulted in the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Holy sites, being under Jordanian control. During the next nineteen years, Israelis could not go into east Jerusalem and most importantly could not visit Judaism's holiest site, the Western wall. As a result of this experience and because Jerusalem is not only the capital of Israel but also the central place for all of Judaism, there is no way that Israel will cede control to an international body. It will at the very least maintain sovereignty over all of Jewish Jerusalem and the Western wall. As to the Arab-populated parts of Jerusalem as well the Temple Mount, which is holy both to Muslims and Jews, that is what negotiations, whenever they happen, will be all about. |
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