When It Comes To Building In The Holy Land, Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

Joshuapundit

You've all heard the typical narrative by now - that the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are the real obstacle to Middle East peace, and if those stubborn, evil Israelis would just stop building in 'disputed territories' there would be peace in nothing flat.

President Obama says it and the Leftist press says it, so it must be true,no?.The Israelis stupidly fed this notion by allowing themselves to be pressured into a 10 month building freeze as a unilateral concession with the idea of getting the Palestinians to the table to talk peace. After 9 1/2 months, Palestinian capo d'Rammallah Mahmoud Abbas finally allowed himself to be pressured into direct talks,but let it be known that he was not going to make a single concession to Israel.

Not only that, but he and the Palestinians have let it be known that unless the freeze continues indefinitely - including in Jerusalem- they 're going to walk when the temporary freeze expires.

When the Israelis let it be known that they've already made a major concession for their small, crowded country in order to get Abbas to the table and have no intention of making a further one to keep him there just because it took the 'Palestinians' 9 1/2 months to agree to direct talks, the Israelis are accused of being obstructionist and not caring about 'peace.' And if Abbas and the Palestinians walk away the usual subjects are more than ready to lay the blame on Israel.

But by comparison, let's look at how the Palestinians are treated when they build in 'disputed territories'.

As I write this, the Palestinians are constructing a city from scratch near Ramallah called Rawabi, largely funded by the Arab country of Qatar and USAid. Rawabi already encroaches on the Israel town of Ateret. And no one is accusing the Arabs of wrecking a potential peace agreement by 'building in disputed territory.'

Not only are they building, but they had the nerve to demand extra land from Israel - in the absence of any peace agreement or even any concessions - for a new roads to Rawabi.

And the Palestinians actually got upset when the Israeli defense Ministry turned the Palestinian's attempted land grab down.

That's exactly how this version of Newspeak works. If Israel needs to build a security barrier or maintain checkpoints to protect itself from Palestinian attacks on its civilians, that's a 'land grab'. But if the Arabs attempt to encroach on an Israeli town's boundaries and appropriate land for roads only they will be able to use, that's perfectly OK.

If you live in Gush Etzion and the local kids need a new school or you simply want to add a room on to your home, you're an Enemy of Peace. But if you're an Arab building an illegal construction without any permits in East Jerusalem, or even an entire city, you're simply exercising your rights.

Orwell would be proud.