Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat speaks his mind on construction in Jerusalem, and supposed future division of the city. He says there's no building freeze, neither formal nor de facto, just a recovery of bureaucratic processes somewhat shell-shocked after the contretemps with the U.S. He says dividing the city and making part of it "Palestine" is a nonstarter because it means a Trojan horse within Israel's capital (and, in the linked article, he says other interesting things too). Many people do not realize that "dividing Jerusalem" would mean many of its Jewish residents would live across the street from an armed, hostile, and dangerous Palestinian state. Nir Barkat is an Israeli politician to watch. The PM, even when pushed to the wall on the most fundamental of Israeli and Jewish values like building for Jews in Jerusalem, is still showing equivocation, after he seemed to show more resolve in his AIPAC speech that I praised last month.
