Well it’s happened. Netanyahu started selling ethnic cleansing of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem as equal opportunity for Jews, and lo, the lobby is parroting him. He has been joined by the Boston Globe, of all places, which prints a repulsive op-ed saying stopping Jews from taking over Palestinians’ houses is racist and, more predictably, by Morton Klein of the Zionist Org of America who says that it’s "racist" to keep Jews from buying houses there. Here’s Jeff Jacoby in the Globe:
It is impossible to imagine the opposite scenario: The administration would never demand that Israel prevent Arabs from moving into a Jewish neighborhood. And the Obama Justice Department would unleash seven kinds of hell on anyone who tried to impose racial, ethnic, or religious redlining in an American city. In the 21st century, segregation is unthinkable – except, it seems, when it comes to housing Jews in Jerusalem.
One of the reasons Israel is under pressure is that it’s impossible to imagine the United States bombing a black ghetto, killing 300 children. And what about the two-state solution? And what about the fact that as Haaretz points out, joining Lara Friedman of Peace Now, Palestinians can’t buy in West Jerusalem. Not to mention the apartheid policies in the West Bank.
