Reply #22: The situation is far more complex than that. [View All]

[Shaktimaan]

ESPECIALLY in regards to east jerusalem. Out of all of the facets of this conflict, Jerusalem is perhaps the least one-sided. All aspects of the situation in EJ are convoluted and highly subject to personal interpretation: historical, legal, ethical, etc. It remains the largest, and most intractable, stumbling block on the path to a permanent peace.

For example, the illegality of Israeli settlement in EJ is anything but cut and dry. From a legal perspective EJ shouldn't belong to either party right now. It isn't really any more Palestinian than it is Israeli. And ethically, it is difficult to argue that Jews should have no right whatsoever to live on land that they themselves were evicted from just a few decades ago. I'm not talking about evicting Palestinians to make room for Jews here, btw, I'm speaking in general terms. To say that it is illegal for Jews to live in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem because they had been driven out 20 years previously is problematic in my view.

But for the most part it is the old city that presents the biggest problems in terms of settlement. The problem is that it is a zero-sum game... what one side gets the other side loses. No feasible compromise exists that either side can live with (so far.)