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RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he would protect the unity of Jerusalem if he were elected premier on Feb. 10.“We have demonstrated in the past, and will continue to demonstrate our commitment to a complete, undivided Jerusalem,” said Netanyahu, former prime minister and chairman of rightist Likud Party, during the final day of the 13th World Jewish Congress Conference in Jerusalem.Control over Jerusalem, which Israel captured during the June 1967 War, has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.On Monday, Netanyahu stirred up another hornet’s nest by saying if elected he would expand Orthodox Jewish settlements in the West Bank to accommodate the “natural growth” of these settlers. Yesterday, he defended the expansion of housing in East Jerusalem.“What would have happened had we not built all those neighborhoods?” Netanyahu asked.“Jerusalem would have been choked.” Moreover, he said, “transferring sovereignty over those areas to the Palestinian Authority is not an option. Everyone knows what will happen if we were to leave those areas and divide Jerusalem. Someone will enter-and that someone will be Hamas.” Netanyahu also vowed to fight any move by the Obama administration and leftist Israelis to turn the Old City of Jerusalem into an internationally administered site.For his part, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Tuesday to take a tough stance in talks with Israel and said he would tell newly appointed US Middle East envoy George Mitchell that Israel’s Gaza offensive proved it was not intent on peacemaking.“We will do all we can to prove Israel committed crimes that would make your skin crawl,” Abbas said, referring to the Geneva Conventions. “We want the world to give us justice for once. Israel does not want peace, otherwise it would not have done this. We need to understand this and tell it to those coming from Europe and America.”By Mohammed Mar’i Arab News
As in the days of Noah....
