Tears for a Divided Jerusalem?

For weeks, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators - with help from the U.S. - have been preparing for the upcoming peace summit scheduled for late November. One of the main issues they've discussed is dividing Jerusalem - perhaps the most difficult issue of all. Same Old Formula CBN News has learned Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are using the same formula President Bill Clinton used seven years ago to divide Jerusalem. In those Camp David talks held in July 2000, Clinton proposed giving what's Jewish to Israel and giving what's Arab to the Palestinians. The city of Jerusalem is a congested one, with one neighborhood running into the next. Walk through the city's streets and neighborhoods, and it becomes clear that Clinton's formula of dividing Jerusalem between Jewish Jerusalem and Arab Jerusalem is anything but simple. CBN News spoke with author Judy Lash Balint about what it would mean to divide Jerusalem. For more than ten years, Balint has studied, lived in, and written about Jerusalem. 'If you look out in Jerusalem, look at a map of Jerusalem, it's very easy to see that there is no easy, clear division between eastern Jerusalem and western Jerusalem. We are all jumbled in together," she said. Balint notes the proposed plan would put major Christian sites like the Garden Of Gethsemane and The Church of the Holy Sepulcher under the control of an international body. She also points out that Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem are woven together like a tapestry. "You have to come and see it. There's no way to describe it accurately. Even to look at photos I think. You really have to come here and feel Jerusalem. In the streets, in the alleys in the neighborhoods - it's really impossible for people to imagine how closely we live with each other," she said. Divide Jerusalem and Suffer the Consequences One place where Jews and Arabs live close to each other - literally side by side - is at a complex called Maale Ha Zeitim. It is located in the heart of the Arab neighborhood, Ras Alamud. Arieh King lives in Maale Ha Zeitim and serves as its spokesman. He likens the complexity of Jerusalem to an onion, with successive layers of Jews and Arabs living around its heart, the Temple Mount. "Behind this first layer, we have a second layer. … We have another location where Jews are living around the first layer. But then again we have Arabs living. And behind the second layer of the Arabs we have a third layer of Jews again living," he explained. King warns those trying to cut an onion or a city will suffer the consequences. "What is happening when you are cutting the onion? You start crying. You have tears," he said. "I believe this is what will happen to anybody that will try and cut this onion," he said. A Matter of Security With layers of neighborhoods so close, security remains one of the most serious issues. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed this issue during a recent press conference from the Mount of Olives. "We've seen what happens when we leave. It's not an Arab majority. It's Hamas. Let's be very clear. It's an Iranian base," he said. "If we leave here, Hamas comes here. They start rocketing. They don't have to rocket. They can use small arms fire right into every one of these neighborhoods. Look how intertwined it is." Finally he said, "It's hard for me to see how people cannot see that instead of being the end of conflict, it would be the beginning of a conflict we cannot even imagine." Despite any public warnings, the private negotiations continue for the November summit. In the midst of these plans, some see an irony of history. This year, Israel celebrated the 40th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem. The battle 40 years ago during the 1967 Six Day War reunited a divided city between Jordan and Israel. And for the first time in more than 2,000 years, Israel controlled the city of Jerusalem. Some fear that what Israel won on the battlefield could be lost at the negotiating table.