Word: homa
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...seems unlikely. "Arafat has to weigh whether a crackdown is worth the political price he will pay with the right," notes McGeary. "He needs to receive something in return. And at the moment, he's not getting anything." Arafat wants Ross to convince Netanyahu to stop the controversial Har Homa housing project in Jerusalem. Netanyahu, though, must weigh that calculation against the pressures on him from the right wing of his supporters to maintain a hard line toward Palestinians. For his part, Arafat gave Ross assurances he would do his best to quell further violence, postponing a joint rally...
Levitin maintains that land in Jabal Abu Ghaneim (Har Homa's local, Arab name) has been allocated according to the Arab/Jewish population ratio in Jerusalem. He scoffs at notions of an attempt to "Judaize" (Levitin's term) the city. This is to ignore the fact that the current population ratio in Jerusalem is itself the result of a campaign of ethnically selective development, of which Jabal Abu Ghaneim is merely one of the latest fronts...
This is just the attempt to "Judaize" Jerusalem that Levitin derides. Elsewhere he is eminently clear on the fact, explaining that Har Homa is the final stage of an attempt to surround the city "with a ring of primarily Jewish neighborhoods." This cutting off of Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian areas is precisely the kind of attempt to pre-empt the status of the city that the Oslo accords were framed to avoid. The status of the city is to be decided. Israel has already made its decision...
...inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." Despite Israel's obfuscatory claims that this does not mean all the territories, the absolute nature of the resolution is clear. International law denounces the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem. Levitin's claim that it sanctions the building in Har Homa is simply bizarre...
Levitin claims that Hanan Ashrawi (not, incidentally, a "close confidante" of Arafat but a public denouncer of his despotism) is "bullying" Israel, inciting violence when she says that the Har Homa project undermines "not just peace with the Palestinians but peace in the entire region." This is not a threat. It is a statement of fact--one that Israel would do well to heed...