"Even Mahmoud Abbas would have been hard put to dream up a greater victory for Palestinian diplomacy than the one handed to him Tuesday on a silver platter by the Israeli Interior Ministry. The condemnations have been pouring in since the plan to build 1,600 homes in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood was announced. Not only from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, but from the United Nations, the European Union and world leaders, all of them slamming the decision.
While government officials were busy yesterday blaming each other for the bad timing, it seems they were missing the bigger picture: Washington and the international community will no longer accept, even by looking the other way, Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. The capital is now the focus of the cold (but slowly warming) war between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority is exploiting this with weekly demonstrations, while Israel throws fuel on the fire by taking further unilateral steps. The situation is only likely to escalate this morning with the expected disclosure of full details of the city's building plans."
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