If you want to understand the McCain position on Jerusalem, you'd best read Dore Gold's book, The Fight for Jerusalem. Gold is aligned with rightwinger Netanyahu. He is from New York but lives in Jerusalem, where he's head of a rightwing thinktank. His book says that if we let the Arabs have any part of the Old City they are likely to blow up sacred religious places like the western wall and bring jihad to the Jewish quarter. Leave Jerusalem, including the Old City and East Jerusalem, in the hands of the Israelis. We have managed this sacred place best, for all three religions. Though yes, Gold says, we've had to keep certain Arabs out of the Old City as a security risk, because of suicide bombing. (I blogged about this: the Palestinian males forced to pray outside the city walls, as documented by a Wisconsin academic (her picture's no longer linked, alas).)
Gold's book is aimed at the Clinton Parameters of 2001, which would divide Jerusalem, allowing the Palestinians to make their capital in East Jerusalem and control the Dome of the Rock and the eastern portion of the Old City. Obama would seem to endorse the Clinton parameters, most Dems do but only in a lipservicey sort of way. Becuase they know that Jews tend to be primordial on the issue. Gold's book came out in 2007 from Regnery. He is trying to affect the American political discourse chiefly. And he is doing so.
It is evident that McCain supports this program, as do Joe Lieberman and Rudy Giuliani. The Clinton parameters are surely the central divide in the two parties' positions re Israel/Palestine, though Obama has been loath to remind us of this, fearing that Jews will turn against him. The rightwing opposition to the Clinton parameters is surely the reason that ultraZionists have been giving out millions of copies of the Islam=jihad movie Obsession in swing states, including DVDs slipped into the New York Times. They want to propagate fear of Islam, and elect the strong leader, McCain, who will bring their exclusivist agenda for Israel/Palestine in under his skirts. Or Sarah's.
The Europeans, from Tony Blair to Sarkozy, are livid about this. They are all for equity in Jerusalem. Gold is angry at European bodies for funding research in Israel/Palestine that counters his view. This is "interference in the internal affairs of Israel," he says with pique.
But it's not interference when the Israel lobby here does the same thing. Gold has been funded by American rightwing Zionists. In his acknowledgements, he thanks Ronald Lauder, the heir and philanthropist and art collector, for his generous support. And McCain supporter Bruce
Kovner, the chairman of Juilliard and a great supporter of the arts, is also chairman of the American Enterprise Institute, which has quietly been pumping money to Gold for years. Previously I reported that Gold has received $96,000 a year from AEI as a "scholar"–$384,000 for the four years through 2004. My info comes from these 990s compiled by Guidestar.org. And lately Guidestar has been posting the 2005 and 2006 AEI reports, which show $96,000 to Gold each year. Gold says nothing of this support in the Acknowledgements of his book–though he assured me in 2005 when I met him at AEI that he would acknowledge this support. And the AEI does not list Gold as a scholar on its website. There is something under-the-table about the whole arrangement. Maybe because the American Enterprise Institute doesn't like to say it's shipping 100 large a year to Jerusalem?
But let's get back to the issue. Gold holds an extreme point of view with religious overtones: the Arabs have no claim on Jerusalem. Neoconservatives hold this view. McCain surely holds this view. And so
do some very rich American rightwingers, including artlovers Kovner and Lauder. Alas this view has wide
adherence inside the American Jewish community: J Street's polls show 58 percent of American Jews are against dividing Jerusalem.
And thus via a special interest, the Israel lobby, this attitude has fueled intolerant policy in the White House.
From which to his great credit, Clinton broke somewhat
in 2001 when he scribbled recommendations on one of his legal pads, and memorialized the Arab claim on the holy city. Refusing to divide Jerusalem is a recipe for unending jihad against Israel and the West. This is one area where the Israel lobby goes against the American interest in the region. It is a western. Will Obama take on the neocons publicly? Will this even come up in the foreign policy debate on Friday night?
