OPINION – Americans expect news journalists to be objective, or at least to strive for objectivity. That is why Octavia Nasr lost her job as CNN’s Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs after publicly expressing her views about Lebanese cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a man who has argued in favor of suicide bombings against Israelis and denied the Holocaust. Nasr’s posting on Twitter, which stated that she had great respect for the “Hezbollah giant” and was saddened by his death, led readers to lose confidence in her ability to be objective about the Middle East conflict.

We might never know exactly whether or how Nasr’s views contributed to skewing CNN’s Mideast coverage, since her work was mostly behind the scenes. Not so with CNN’s Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman. As with Nasr, a post on the Cairo-based correspondent’s Twitter page raises serious questions about his objectivity. But in this case, the journalist’s contributions to CNN seem to answer those questions in a way that should deeply trouble the network, as they suggest that his biases excessively influence his reporting.

In a June 29, 2010 tweet, Wedeman directed his followers to an “excellent” article, as he put it, by the harshly anti-Israel professor/blogger Juan Cole. Judging by that warm praise, Wedeman embraces, and thinks his readers should likewise subscribe to, the radical and facile narrative put forth by Cole in the recommended piece. Cole’s article claimed:

[Israel's] isolation derives from Israeli policies, of illegal blockades… and systematic land theft and displacement of occupied civilians under its control, along with aggressive wars on neighbors, which target infrastructure and civilians and are clearly intended to keep neighbors poor and backward.

In other words, Cole and Wedeman promote the argument that Israelis send their sons and daughters to war not for the country’s security and preservation, but out of sheer malice. The Six-Day War, according to this view, did not stem from Egyptian acts of war and threats of annihilation. The war that followed wasn’t forced on Israel when Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attacked against the Jewish state on Yom Kippur in 1973. Hezbollah’s missile salvo on northern Israel and cross-border kidnaPping raid wasn’t the reason for war in 2006, nor were the thousands of rockets and mortars fired from Hamas’ Gaza Strip, which made life in southern Israel intolerable, the cause for Israel’s Gaza operation in 2009. Those crazy Israelis simply want their neighbors to be “poor and backward.” (Moreover, according to this line of thinking, Israeli official Mark Regev was lying when he described Israel’s belief that “a healthy, successful, prosperous Palestine is in the interest of the state of Israel. Living next to a failed state, a failed economy, would only be a recipe for further violence.”)

That Wedeman presumably shares Cole’s extraordinary biases should in and of itself raise red flags at CNN headquarters. But even if he does inwardly share Cole’s sharply biased views, is Wedeman able to be objective in his reportage?

It seems not. In a conspicuously one-sided piece he wrote in early 2008, for example, Wedeman insists that Israel’s security barrier had all but destroyed Bethlehem’s economy by “reducing… to a trickle” the number of tourists visiting the town. But it was clear at the time that the number of tourists visiting Bethlehem during Christmas, the town’s primary tourist season, had in fact skyrocketed since Israel completed the barrier between Bethlehem and Jerusalem in 2005. That is, his biased narrative influenced the accuracy of his story.

The problem continues. Wedeman’s most recent commentary, a July 19 analysis piece entitled “‘Groundhog Day’ for Mideast Peace Process,” promotes the view that Israel is the party primarily responsible for holding back the peace process, that it refuses to engage in “confidence-building measures,” and that east Jerusalem, which includes the Old City’s Jewish Quarter and the holiest site in Judaism, in fact belongs to the Palestinians.

Referring to a Cairo meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Hosni Mubarak, Wedeman claims in his article that “the main focus of the talks in Cairo was to convince the Palestinians and Israelis to move from, until now, largely fruitless ‘proximity’ or indirect talks to direct negotiations.”

He repeated this theme elsewhere in the piece, stating that US diplomat George Mitchell “has been trying to coax the two sides back to the table.”

In reality, though, the Israelis needed no convincing. Again and again, Israeli officials have urged the Palestinians to join them in direct negotiations, and again and again Palestinians have rejected Israel’s requests. On June 22, for example, a Reuters story noted that “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Palestinians on Tuesday for the absence of direct peace talks and insisted negotiations should resume right away ‘without delay and without preconditions.’”

Or as AP explained on June 28, “Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been holding indirect talks with the Israeli government over the past two months but said Monday that Israel has not offered enough to make it worthwhile to move to direct talks.”

In response, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said direct talks are the only way to solve the conflict.

A July 1 AP story likewise reported that “speaking late Thursday at an Independence Day party at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu appeared to respond to Abbas’ move by repeating his call for direct peace talks. Mitchell has been shuttling between the Israelis and Palestinians for two months with the aim of relaunching direct negotiations in the fall. But Abbas said earlier this week that he has not received enough encouraging signs from Israel to warrant that.”

And just two days before Wedeman published his piece, Agence France Presse explained that “Netanyahu has repeatedly called for direct talks….”

Wedeman not only obscured Israel’s repeated calls for direct talks, but also directed blame for toward Israel for the fact that those talks are not occurring:

“Direct talks were suspended in December 2008 when Israel launched its offensive against Gaza. The 2009 election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, never a peace process enthusiast, made reviving direct talks all the more complicated.”

The correspondent’s use of the passive voice — talks “were suspended” — meant readers weren’t told that it was the Palestinians who cut off talks in December 2008. And Wedeman’s glib suggestion that Netanyahu is an opponent of the peace process whose election complicated the move to direct talks further obscures Israel’s requests for face to face negotiations.

If Wedeman wanted to let readers know that the peace process is complicated, why did he not mention Palestinian infighting or Hamas’ stubborn refusal to renounce violence, accept Israel’s right to exist and honor previous agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians? (The word “Hamas” does not appear even once in the analysis.) And what about the complications stemming from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ continued glorification of terrorists?

It gets worse. After falsely casting Israel as a party that needs to be “convinced” to relaunch direct negotiations, Wedeman went on to claim Israel refuses to make confidence-building gestures to help Palestinians until those talks start: “The Israelis say that direct talks must go ahead, and only then will Israel initiate confidence-building measures.”

In fact, as noted by New York Times reporters Isabel Kershner and Fares Akram on the same day that Wedeman’s piece was published, “Israel is considering confidence-building measures to propel the Palestinians toward direct talks.” And these would be on top of additional measures already taken by Israel, such as a settlement moratorium, the removal of roadblocks, and other steps.

Wedeman’s bias is perhaps most glaring when he refers to “Palestinian occupied territory, including East Jerusalem,” thus accepting as self-evident the Palestinian position on the area in dispute. East Jerusalem is in fact a mixed Jewish/Arab area under Israeli sovereignty, but which the Palestinians argue should be part of their state. Complicating the tense conflict over east Jerusalem is the fact that the area houses Judaism’s holiest sites and the cradle of Jewish history alongside holy Muslim shrines. Writers of “analysis pieces” are expected to educate readers about the nuances behind the news, not obscure those nuances while unquestioningly accepting and promoting one side’s claims over the other’s. And Wedeman should be thoroughly familiar with Jerusalem issues, since he served as a correspondent in CNN’s Jerusalem bureau before transferring to Cairo last summer.

If CNN hopes to be “the most trusted name in news,” their Senior International Correspondent must be reminded of the difference between “analysis” and pro-Palestinian advocacy.

West Jerusalem would be the capital of Israel while east Jerusalem would be the capital of a Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently told reporters in Jordan.

According to a report two weeks ago in Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, “Abbas said that during his talks with Olmert, ‘it was agreed that east Jerusalem would be the capital of the Palestinian state, and that it would have its own municipality, and that west Jerusalem would be the capital of the Israeli side, and it would have its own municipality, and that there would be coordination between the municipalities. Thus there would be no need to return to a divided [city], and it would be open to all religions. But we will not relinquish it [Jerusalem].’”

In an interview three weeks earlier with another PA daily, Al-Ayyam, Abbas claimed that during the 2007 Annapolis conference he had reached a three-way agreement with the Olmert administration and then-US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The east Jerusalem skyline.

“With regard to borders, we agreed that the borders to be discussed were [those of] the occupied territories. This was a tripartite agreement between ourselves, the Israelis, and [Rice]. We agreed – and it is all written down and documented in the protocols – that the occupied lands are the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, and the Holy Basin [i.e. the Old City of Jerusalem and its environs]. Based on this precise definition of the occupied lands, Olmert and I began to discuss, and we exchanged corrective percentages and maps, and we were perhaps very close, such that each side knew exactly what the other side was getting.”

Abbas also told Al-Ayyam that progress on the border issues is a precondition for advancing from the current Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks to direct negotiations.

Assuming such progress is made during the coming four months, in direct negotiations “we will not forget the other final-stage issues: Jerusalem, the settlements, the refugees, and water, and to this we have added a section about the prisoners, that is, their release from Israeli prisons,” Abbas added.

During a three-hour meeting with US envoy George Mitchell in Ramallah on Saturday, Abbas rejected an American request to restart direct peace talks with Israel and introduced a new precondition that would make resuming direct negotiations nearly impossible.

The PA leader insisted that he will not sit down with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu until the latter agrees to permanently halt all Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria – including east Jerusalem.

The 10-month building freeze is scheduled to expire in September.

In the burning Jerusalem early summer sun, friends, guests and representatives of KKL-JNF and JNF USA assembled in late June at the foot of the 9/11 memorial in Arazim Valley for a ceremony honoring the donor, Ed Blank, whose contribution made the site possible.

With its breathtaking views, Arazim Valley (Cedar Valley) features a large number of protected natural treasures and wildlife, remains of terraces and other archaeological sites, Lifta Village, springs and woods.

It provides recreational space for many Jerusalem residents – hiking, jogging, picnics and a wide range of other activities. Located at the city’s western reaches, overlooking Nahal Sorek, it is a unique natural gem and an important landscape asset for Ramot and other neighborhoods on that side of the capital.

“I find it hard to believe that it’s finally a reality,” said Mr. Blank, obviously moved. “I hope that the residents of Jerusalem, along with visitors and tourists from all over the world, will come here. Not only to remember the past, but also to sit quietly and to think about the message of tolerance the memorial seeks to impart.”

Mr. Avi Dickstein, director of KKL-JNF’s Resources and Development Department, presented Mr. Blank with a unique Bible embossed with a relief of Jerusalem and a dedication by KKL-JNF World Chairman Efi Stenzler and the heads of JNF USA, Mr. Stanley Chesley, Mr. Ronald Lauder and Mr. Russell Robinson.

Bob Levine, vice president for education of JNF USA, who attended the ceremony with his wife Helen, congratulated Ed Blank for his determination and dedication to the project and its implementation. As if to prove his point, chance visitors to the site who saw the ceremony taking place approached Mr. Blank and thanked him. They added that the Jerusalem Mountains seemed like the perfect place to build such a memorial.

After the dedication ceremony, Ed Blank and Bob Levine laid wreaths of flowers at the foot of the memorial, and Bob Levine recited the El Malei Rahamim prayer. Together with Avi Dickstein and Yehiel Cohen, deputy director of KKL-JNF’s Central Region, who was in charge of the actual building of the project, Ed Blank unveiled the appreciation plaque and then planted a young oak tree at the site, watering it tenderly.

“The sculpture looks as I had imagined it when I saw the plans,” Mr. Blank said following the ceremony, “but it is so much more dramatic to see it in its setting, surrounded by the mountains of Jerusalem. It is impossible to visualize just how powerful a sight this is without being here. It is simply awe-inspiring. The sculpture itself is magnificent. When you walk around it, each side gives you a new perspective.”

The 30-foot-high bronze sculpture by Israeli artist Eliezer Weishoff depicts a waving American flag transforming into a flame. It is the first memorial outside New York that lists the names of the 2,974 people killed that day.

“The credit for this project should really go to KKL-JNF, JNF USA, the sculptor and the architect, who all did such a tremendous job. I was honored to plant a tree after the ceremony, which I felt was a very appropriate thing to do, because that’s what KKL-JNF has been doing since its inception.”

Jerusalem city hall dimmed the lights that illuminate the walls surrounding the Old City last night as a gesture of solidarity with Jonathan Pollard, who has been imprisoned  at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina for almost a quarter century.

During the event a special message calling on US President Barack Obama to release Pollard was projected onto the darkened walls.

Dozens of Pollard supporters demonstrated earlier Tuesday beneath the new Light Rail Bridge, calling for his release. The protest was part of a three-day rally to mark Pollard’s “9,000 days” in jail.

“If [US President Barack] Obama wants to prove he is really a friend of Israel, he must release him immediately,” said organizer Avi Ginzburg.

Pollard is serving a life sentence for providing thousands of secret documents about US spy activities in the Arab world to Israel between May 1984 and his arrest in November 1985. He pleaded guilty and was  sentenced to life in prison.

According to CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer, Pollard and his supporters claim that the information he provided Israel had been authorized for release as part of a secret annex to the 1983 US-Israeli agreement enhancing the two countries’ strategic cooperation.

Pollard’s second wife, Esther Pollard, criticized the Israeli government for not working to get her husband released.

In an editorial published in the Jerusalem Post, she argued that securing her husband’s release should be given high priority. “If the public is capable of ignoring Pollard, an Israeli agent in captivity for 25 years, but devoted heart and soul to returning Schalit home, its concern for Schalit is as corrupt as its lack of concern for Pollard,” she wrote. “It reflects the same moral schizophrenia that the government has implemented as policy – a policy that damns Schalit, every bit as much as it damns Pollard.”

“Netanyahu is burying Jonathan alive,” she told Hebrew radio station Arutz Sheva.

“Since Yonatan was arrested in 1985 Israel has not managed to return a single live soldier from captivity – only bodies,” she said.

Esther Pollard also pointed to the recent release of 10 suspected Russian spies in the US to demonstrate that Israel could secure her husband’s release. “The Americans have proven that they can easily release [prisoners] when they want to maintain good ties with an ally,” she said.

But according to an editorial published in Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv this week, Russia is better positioned to bring its spies home. Israel “has nothing to offer the US,” read the editorial, “and it can neither threaten American interests, nor cause damage to Americans, nor arrest Americans in Tel Aviv, so that there will be someone to exchange for Pollard. It has no ability to exact from the Americans a price for the release of one spy or ten, even if they are all beautiful redheads. Indeed, Israel has nothing left to do but beg for Pollard…”

Israel will work to increase the number of young Diaspora Jews who visit Israel through the Taglit-Birthright program to 50,000 by 2013, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced at this week’s cabinet meeting.

The goal is for one of every two young Jews to visit the country.

According to data presented to the Government, Birthright Israel’s 10-day program reduces the intermarriage rate among in the Diaspora and fosters pro-Israel activism on campuses and in social forums.

The Cabinet also reviewed a proposal to cultivate Zionist leadership and action. According to the plan, a committee chaired by Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Eyal Gabai would award prizes to encourage young people who initiate activities that express the Zionist idea and would aid Government ministries in encouraging Zionist leadership projects.

“It’s important for young Jews around the world to get to know Israel and our wonderful people and heritage, with their feet,” said Netanyahu, who took place in framing the Birthright Israel program. “Such an experience would strengthen the bonds between Diaspora Jews and Israel.”

Jerusalem Dispatch is hosted by HostMonster and can warmly recommend their service, including outstanding technical support, to other website operators.

BREAKING NEWS – Despite IDF warnings to Libyan ship al-Amal to sail to the Egyptian port of al-Arish rather than attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, the crew and passengers are refusing to change course, said Jamal al-Khodari, head of the Popular Committee against the Siege.

On Tuesday afternoon the IDF Spokesman confirmed reports that the Israel Navy has made radio contact with the ship carrying aid from Libya for the Gaza Strip and is preparing to halt the vessel if it enters territorial waters.

Saturday night Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the flotilla – which set out from Greece Saturday afternoon with with some 15 pro-Palestinian activists, 12 crew members and 2,000 tons of food and medicine – an “unnecessary provocation.”

“We can transfer humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip from the Ashdod port after security checks, but we will not allow weaponry, weapons, or war materials to find their way into Gaza”, he said. “We recommend the flotilla’s organizers follow the Israeli Navy ships to Ashdod Port or travel directly to El-Arish Port in Egypt.” Earlier, the Defense Minister spoke with the Egyptian Intelligence Minister to discuss the possibility of the flotilla docking at the Egyptian port.

Al-Khodari said his organization was coordinating dozens more flotillas with activists from various countries.

The Al-Amal sails toward Gaza (Credit: Marine Traffic)

The al-Amal is funded by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, a Libyan organization  headed by Gaddafi’s son, Saif as-Islam. The activists on board include 13 Libyans, a Moroccan and a Nigerian, along with crew members from Cuba, Haiti, India and Syria. The ship sailed from the port of Lavrio in Greece and docked in Crete on Sunday.

On June 20, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the restrictions on items going into Gaza would be eased and that all civilian goods would be allowed in. Items with potential dual-usage for military purposes will still be restricted, and include construction materials that have been used in the past to construct military bunkers and chemicals that can be used in the production of explosives, including fertilizers, but even dual-use items will be delivered for approved PA-authorized projects under international supervision.

Aid has been continually delivered to Gaza since the end of Israel’s defensive Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, including meat, chicken, fish, grain, legumes, fresh vegetables, dairy, oil, flour, salt and sugar, hygiene products, clothing, medicine and medical supplies. Generators have also been regularly delivered, including 46 in April. During the first half of 2010, 346,568 tons of humanitarian aid was transferred from Israel into Gaza.

The Defense Ministry says the naval blockade is a natural response to the threat of arm smuggling. Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist groups have, on a number of occasions, attempted to smuggle significant quantities of weapons into Gaza by sea.

In November 2009, the Israeli Navy intercepted the Francop 100 miles off the coast of Israel. An inspection revealed that the vessel was carrying 36 containers with 500 tons of weapons, including rockets and missiles. The weapons came from Iran and were destined for Hezbollah, via the Syrian port of Latakia.

In 2003, an Israeli Navy force intercepted a fishing boat sailing from Lebanon to Egypt. On board was a Hezbollah explosives expert, instructional CDs on how to assemble suicide bombs, a radio-activation system for remote-control bombs and 25 detonators for Kassam rockets.

In January 2002, the Karine-A ship was intercepted in the Red Sea carrying 80 submergible containers with 50 tons of weapons.

More flotilla articles:
Why Israel can’t seem to solve its PR problem (opinion)
ADL to US State Department: Flotilla backers are terror organizations
‘What’s left now?’ wonders Israel (opinion)
Netanyahu on flotilla clash: ‘We have a right to inspect cargo heading into Gaza’
Navy commando: ‘There were terrorists who wanted to kill us’
Flotilla passengers backed by global jihad group
Gaza backgrounder: Humanitarian aid, imports and conditions
Flotilla commando: ‘I saw the tip of a rifle’
Hamas terrorists were at Gaza flotilla launch

Jerusalem has been voted the best city in Africa and the Middle East by the readers of Travel + Leisure, widely considered America’s leading travel magazine.

Cape Town took second place, with Tel Aviv in third. The last time Jerusalem won was in 2000. This year was the first time Tel Aviv appeared in the top three.

Arie Sommer of the Israel Tourism Commission said the top ranking “underscores the growing realization by sophisticated travelers that our two main cities are unique and extraordinary places to visit.”

Tourism to Israel in 2008 and 2009 broke all records, and early statistics show that 2010 will be the best year ever for tourism to Israel.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat says he’s not satisfied with the number of tourists who visit the capital each year, and wants to increase the number from 2 million to 10 million annually. “As a high-tech entrepreneur I know how to do it,” he said.

Reaching that goal would “create over 100,000 jobs to help Jerusalem’s economy and send millions of ‘Ambassadors of Peace’ from Jerusalem to the far corners of the earth,” noted Barkat.

Following his election in November 2008, Barkat began to turn the Holy City into a bustling tourist hub. The former businessman raised funds, revamped Sultan’s Pool, brought festivals to the capital, helped local hotels and initiated street parties.

He also promoted an international marathon, which will be held in the city next year for the first time, and launched the “Take Two Days for Jerusalem” campaign, aimed at encouraging Israelis to travel to the capital and stay overnight.

“Jerusalem has a tremendous advantage in the fields of culture and tourism, but this advantage has yet to be exploited,” he told Ynet in a recent interview. “My job is to cause the local market to think big, because the name Jerusalem is a 3,000-year-old brand. When you mention Jerusalem anywhere in the world, people’s eyes light up.”

The clay fragment was uncovered recently during sifting of fill excavated from beneath a 10^th-century BCE tower dating from the period of King Solomon in the Ophel area, located between the southern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem and the City of David to its south. Details of the discovery appear in the current issue of Israel Exploration Journal.

The fragment that has been found is 2×2.8 centimeters in size and one centimeter thick. Dated to the 14^th century B.C.E., it appears to have been part of a tablet and contains cuneiform symbols in ancient Akkadian (the lingua franca of that era).

The words the symbols form are not significant in themselves, but what is significant is that the script is of a very high level, testifying to the fact that it was written by a highly skilled scribe that in all likelihood prepared tablets for the royal household of the time, said Prof. Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. Horowitz deciphered the script along with his former graduate student Dr. Takayoshi Oshima, now of the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Tablets with diplomatic messages were routinely exchanged between kings in the ancient Near East, Horowitz said, and there is a great likelihood, because of its fine script and the fact it was discovered adjacent to in the acropolis area of the ancient city, that the fragment was part of such a “royal missive.” Horowitz has interpreted the symbols on the fragment to include the words “you,” “you were,” “later,” “to do” and “them.”

The most ancient known written record previously found in Jerusalem was the tablet found in the Shiloah water tunnel in the City of David area during the 8^th century B.C.E. reign of King Hezekiah. That tablet, celebrating the completion of the tunnel, is in a museum in Istanbul. This latest find predates the Hezekiah tablet by about 600 years.

Clay fragment found outside Old City walls. (Credit: Sasson Tiram)

The fragment found at the Ophel site is believed to be contemporary with the some 380 tablets discovered in the 19^th century at Amarna in Egypt in the archives of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), who lived in the 14^th century BCE The archives include tablets sent to Akhenaten by the kings who were subservient to him in Canaan and Syria and include details about the complex relationships between them, covering many facets of governance and society. Among these tablets are six that are addressed from Abdi-Heba, the Canaanite ruler of Jerusalem.

The tablet fragment in Jerusalem is most likely part of a message that would have been sent from the king of Jerusalem, possibly Abdi-Heba, back to Egypt, said Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology.

Examination of the material of the fragment by Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University shows that it is from the soil of the Jerusalem area and not similar to materials from other areas, further testifying to the likelihood that it was part of a tablet from a royal archive in Jerusalem containing copies of tablets sent by the king of Jerusalem to Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt.

Mazar says this new discovery, providing solid evidence of the importance of Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age (the second half of the second century B.C.E.), acts as a counterpoint to some who have used the lack of substantial archeological findings from that period until now to argue that Jerusalem was not a major center during that period. It also lends weight to the importance that accrued to the city in later times, leading up to its conquest by King David in the 10^th century B.C.E., she said.

Jerusalem Dispatch is hosted by HostMonster and can warmly recommend their service, including outstanding technical support, to other website operators.

Hezbollah’s commander in southern Lebanon, Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, warned Sunday that the organization has already identified a list of military targets inside Israel they could attack in the event of a war.

His remarks came in response to Israel’s release last week of previously classified maps and aerial photographs of a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers in South Lebanon. According to Col. Ronen Marli, chief of the northern border’s Western Brigade, 20,000 armed Hezbollah men have been scattered in 160 southern Lebanon towns and villages, in addition to the substantial forces Hezbollah maintains in central Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley to the east.

Kaouk claimed Israeli leaders were trying to restore confidence by presenting a list of targets in southern Lebanon after the Israeli public lost faith in the army, noting that the announcement was made on the fourth anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, in which Hezbollah battled Israel to a stalemate.

Hezbollah has increased its rocket and missile arsenal to at least 40,000 rockets, including the Iranian Zelzal with a range of up to 186 miles (300 km), the Syrian M-600, which has a range of 155 miles (250 km) and the Iranian Fateh 110, which has a range of 105 miles (170 km).

In May, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu confirmed that Syria provided Hezbollah with medium-range Scud ballistic missiles, which are maintained by Hezbollah from a base within Syria. The head of IDF intelligence, Brig.- Gen. Yossi Baidatz, said that Iran and Syria are conducting organized arms transfers to Hezbollah that can no longer be classified as mere arms smuggling.

The massive arms buildup has been taking place despite Resolution 1701, approved by the UN Security Council to end the 2006 war. The resolution increased the number of forces on the Israel-Lebanon border to 15,000 and strengthened the previous UNIFIL mandate. The peacekeeping force has wider responsibilities and is authority to assist the Lebanese government in protecting its borders, prevent the entry of illegal arms, support the Lebanese armed forces in their deployment throughout the south and along the Blue Line (the Israel-Lebanon border) and establish, together with the Lebanese armed forces, an area between the Litani River and the Blue Line free of armed personnel or weapons other than for those of the Lebanon government or UNIFIL troops deployed in the area.

Iran-Syria Alliance

The Iran-Syria alliance strengthened in 2010, with both countries pledging during a February meeting in Damascus to establish a Middle East “without Zionists.”

“The Americans want to dominate the region but they feel Iran and Syria are preventing that,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a press conference with Syrian President Bashar al Assad during his visit. “We tell them that instead of interfering in the region’s affairs to pack their things and leave. If the Zionist entity wants to repeats its past errors, its death will be inevitable.”

The US, meanwhile, is seeking to mend relations with Damascus, reinstating its US ambassador there after a five-year absence in an effort to encourage Syria “to begin to move away from the relationship with Iran, which is so deeply troubling to the region as well as to the United States,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In June, Syrian Vice President Farouq ash-Shara’ met with Ahmadinejad in Tehran, during which the Iranian president said, “Iran and Syria are growing stronger by the day, while our common enemies are in a position of weakness. This is because of the brotherhood which exists between our nations.”

OPINION – Last month, a Home Front Command exercise was carried out in Israel. The emergency systems were tested for their response to various scenarios in case war breaks out. That same week, someone jokingly disseminated a message on the Internet regarding an emergency exercise that would be carried out to test responses for when peace breaks out.

In this imaginary exercise, calming sirens would be sounded and the general public would be required to respond to the cheerful scenarios that may unfold in this new and unfamiliar situation. In Jerusalem, the idea of preparing for peace should not be a topic of jokes. We are so preoccupied with the struggle over what the city would look like following a permanent status agreement that we are ignoring the fact that present-day Jerusalem is declining before our eyes, becoming a city in which life would be difficult even when peace finally arrives.

In east Jerusalem, Palestinian children suffer from a severely underfunded public education system. As a result most will not find employment that can afford any kind of social mobility. Health issues – such as development checkups – are often neglected and health problems that should be addressed in childhood will become a future economic and social burden, even in times of peace.

Hagai Snir

Chaos in the material aspects of life is sorely evident in east Jerusalem, where things like dense construction around roads which preempt any future expansion and collapsing sewage systems are creating an irreversible reality on the ground. The poverty and neglect in east Jerusalem will not only cause hardship for the Palestinians living there but will also affect the Jews in west Jerusalem whether the city remains united or divided, because if the city remains united, the need to rectify these problems would affect the funding for the western neighborhoods; if it is divided, poverty and neglect in the east would quickly become fertile ground for crime and terror against the Jews in the west of the city.

In west Jerusalem, the non-haredi Jewish population is dwindling. The city does not attract an economically strong population, as there are few job opportunities. It remains very attractive to the haredi for religious reasons, but they are economically weak. The deterioration of west Jerusalem is bad news for everyone.

Despite all these threats to the future of the city, too often Jerusalem’s municipal decision- making process is shaped by considerations that contradict local interests and cater to global politics.

One example is Jewish construction beyond the Green Line. The construction in Ramat Shlomo in north Jerusalem and in Gilo in the south made headlines around the world. Yet, anyone who has taken part in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on Jerusalem knows that in any reasonable scenario, these neighborhoods will remain on the Israeli side.

Whether Jerusalem is united or divided, economic and employment cooperation between the two parts of the city keeps them intertwined and interdependent. However, as Israel refuses to differentiate between legitimizing the building in Gilo and legitimizing the neighborhoods in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhoods, the Palestinians and the rest of the world do not make this distinction either.

The world hears about Jews who enter homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood after its Palestinian inhabitants are evicted. The result: worldwide political pressure to stop the construction in Gilo and Ramat Shlomo, the same construction that can contribute to the prosperity of the city. Israel, in response, toughens its stance on Palestinian construction in Silwan. This brings only harm to all the residents of Jerusalem.

Almost 800,000 people live in Jerusalem, from a variety of religions, nationalities, religious outlooks and ethnic groups. When peace comes this diversity can turn into a wonderful resource for anyone who is interested in visiting or living in Jerusalem – if only we could save the city from its current decline. For this to happen the decision-making process on the municipal level must shift to a professionalism dedicated to improving services for all the residents of the city, one that sets aside global considerations.

A greater focus on these issues at the municipal level will make Jerusalem friendlier to its inhabitants. And paradoxically, focusing on its own population’s needs can help turn Jerusalem, even in the eyes of the world, from a political burden into a universal resource.

Hagai Agmon Snir is the director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center and can be reached at hagai@jicc.org.il. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Jerusalem Dispatch.