"To be sure, the views of this new American coalition of religious right-wingers don't come anywhere near representing the consensus of American Jewry or of Israel's mainstream supporters in the United States"

Not true - they are representative. The recent American Jewish Committee poll mentioned in Glenn Greenwald's post today (12/12) asked:

"13. In the framework of a permanent peace with the Palestinians, should Israel be willing to compromise on the status of Jerusalem as a united city under Israeli jurisdiction?"

58% said no (36% said yes).

That seems like a very solid majority of American Jews against the notion of sharing Jerusalem. Looks like this coalition, while clearly more conservative on other issues, is pretty representative of American Jewry on the Jerusalem issue, at least.

I say this and prompt laughter but I am convinced that turning Jerusalem into a UN stateless zone would be the best guarantor of peace. There are three major religions with holy stuff there, and if any one religion owns it the other two get pissed. So, like King Solomon, we take the city from all. We put the new UN building there, and use foreign troops to secure the place. Then everyone can worship their religion there, but no one can own it. I think it would be a good way for the UN to resolve the mess it made by moving the Jews there post WWII.

..."The impossible will take a little longer."

Nothing is impossible if people don't try to impede the possibility. We are just hearing from another branch of the Born Against gang, this time the Zionist faction, without which there would be no fundie Christian faction. What a wonderful world that would...ah, never mind.

We have to deal with the here and the now. The ideal would be to make Jerusalem unique under world law the way it is unique in the eyes of adherents of the three great Abrahimic religions - an official, universal Holy City. I guess until the people of this planet grow a collective brain and create a world federation for real, we'll have to continue to look at ways to divide Jerusalem, and dividing anything requires, ahem, Solomonic wisdom, not to mention, harumph, Disraeli-like diplomacy. Hmmm...it's starting to sound like a Jewish project more and more.

But seriously folks, this is ridiculous! There is no reason to entertain these Zionist demands any longer. The fact that Jerusalem is mentioned 700 times in the Torah is very interesting. Since the United States isn't mentioned even once, I guess that carries some sort of disestablishment omen for our "City on A Hill" here? Or does that make us a Christian zone? Jesus, how can a guy keep up with this crap?

And of course it is all somehow tied to Dubya, who can't find his way out of a cul de sac.

We could start by dismissing the "hard-liners" (read that "extremists") everywhere they show up, and I do mean all extremists associated with all causes. That might make everything look a little more like "the possible", which, the Seabees used to say, "we can do today."

Beat me to it! Well said! Damn right, too. Thank you!

The Palestinians have their own land. They've made a sorry mess of governing it. They're still attacking Israel even after getting that land. What makes anyone think that they'll settle down and leave in peace after getting half of Jerusalem - especially considering that their own Arabic-language sources say that they want all of it and that they don't want Israel to exist at all?

And in general, have the Palestinians really made any concessions, compromises, or gave way in any way at all, in order to attain peace? Why should Israel make all the compromises while the Palestinians keep blowing up civilians?

American fundamentalist Christians know something about Jews and about Israel because they have read the Bible. So they know a good bit of the early history. And they have seen maps in their editions of the Bible.

But, very few, diminishingly few of them every have met any actual American Jew, much less a real contemporary living Israeli. Most of these fundamentalist Christians live in places such as rural Georgia and Michigan's Upper Peninsula and mid-Kansas, where Jews and Israel and such are theoretical entities.

Right now, early 21st Century CE, these people have a fashion for liking Jews and Israel. But they all come from a tradition of hating Jews, anti-semitism in their fundamentalist denominations, especially in the southern USA. (For perspective: They do not even like Roman Catholics.)

They are more primitive than you Israelis realize. They like you because they believe you are about to accept Jesus, because they imagine that the end of the world is at hand. In a few years, if the end of the world does not come, if you do not accept their Jesus, they will flip back to hating Jews again, just like their grandparents.

So, my friends, do not count on continuing help from the USA. These people are not reliable. They are not even rational. Make a reasonable peace with your Palestinians. Just do it, please. You will be glad to be free of the fundamentalist USA christianist slime.

I think this quote says it all:

The national president of ZOA, Mort Klein, told Salon in an interview that "Israel should not be willing to give away any part of Jerusalem to another entity, just as the U.S. wouldn't give away any part of Washington."

Would we give part of Washington over to terrorists if they claimed it was one of their holy sites and had been plauging our cities with suicide bombers for years?

The thing to remember is that the terrorists want ALL of Israel. They won't stop until it is all theirs. Look at the tiny land mass of Israel. Look at the Islamic/Muslim land surrounding it. Israel is the only democracy in the area. It's a no-brainer what should be done. Israel should take matters into her own hands and defend herself like she used to. God will have the last word anyway so we don't need to get too worried over it all. CLUE: Israel is your future home, if you have believed in the covenant God established through Abraham and Isaac and Jesus Christ!