Optimism abounded at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week when U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for talks.
But when the two leaders spoke to the cameras, one sentence slipped under the media's radar: "Israel will pay for that [the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel]," Trump said. Even though he spoke in the future tense, it was clear we are already paying something. And who knows, perhaps the price was agreed by both sides in advance.
The fact is that the Trump administration has adopted the previous president's policy of forcing Israel to slow and effectively freeze construction in Jerusalem and its environs. Despite Vice President Mike Pence being Israel's greatest friend at the White House, it is clear that even under Trump, the U.S. has not changed its views on the core issue of Jerusalem.
"We're not taking a position on any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem or the resolution of contested borders," Pence said in his Knesset address this month.
The American position is unfortunate, but what is even more troubling is Israel's resigned approach. After all, it was the Jewish presence that determined the borders in Jerusalem in the past, and Jewish homes will ultimately shape its boundaries more than any other variable.
Settlement moratoriums have undermined the notion of Jerusalem as a united capital. But what is most humiliating is the placing in limbo of plans to build at Givat Hamatos, a largely empty area in the city's south, because of this freeze. The area is next to Jerusalem's industrial center and major neighborhoods, almost on the Green Line that once divided Jerusalem.
Israel has capitulated – there is no other way to describe it – to international pressure. The fact that the German government and Chancellor Angela Merkel have been the driving force behind this freeze only makes this even more infuriating.
This area has strategic importance in the fight over Jerusalem's future as a united capital. The Palestinians fantasize about a contiguous area under their sovereignty from Bethlehem through the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa, essentially creating a wedge between the Jewish neighborhoods in the capital's south. Israel wants to fill this gap and create its own area of contiguous control between the neighborhoods of Gilo and Har Homa.
This does not mean Israel should prevent the Arab residents of the capital from building homes. They deserve to have a place to live.
But the name of the game is territorial contiguity, and the winner will ultimately shape the city's boundaries. The more Israel builds there, the smaller the chance that Jerusalem will be redivided.
The northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev now has 40,000 residents. It was built to ensure that the Palestinians would not be able to build between the neighborhoods of French Hill and Neve Yaakov. The neighborhood of Homat Shmuel (Har Homa) was built to create a contiguous urban presence between Gilo and East Talpiot and to make sure Palestinian construction in Bethlehem and nearby villages does not creep into the city.
Israel also wants to create a similar contiguity northwest of the city, by connecting the Ramot neighborhood to Givat Zeev.
The Palestinians have competing plans to connect Arab towns in the area.
Since 1991, Givat Hamatos has been used to house new immigrants and the homeless in mobile homes. Only a handful of people, on both sides of the political divide, would oppose permanent construction there. Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Labor Chairman Avi Gabbay surely support such a move. Netanyahu also wants to move forward with plans to build there, but has not done so. In 1998, bowing to pressure from a right-wing Knesset group, he built Har Homa. Such pressure is needed today too, because the situation in Givat Hamatos is urgent. Every day that goes by with a continued freeze there is just embarrassing.
If it had been the Left that was in power and agreed to a freeze in Givat Hamatos, the Right and Netanyahu would have made the lives of Lapid or Gabbay miserable. They would have been ruthless in their assaults on the left-wing leaders.
But having the Right stay silent when Netanyahu is pressured by Merkel and Trump on such a central spot in Jerusalem is just beyond the pale.
Israel has not created any new neighborhoods in east Jerusalem since Har Homa and Ramat Shlomo were built two decades ago. It is time to change the paradigm and improve Israel's position in the fight over the city's boundaries. The reality on the ground is what will ultimately shape the city's political future.
