Monday, July 16, 2007

Who gets Jerusalem?

Washington Times, June 19, 2007, at A18.

The headline "Divorce, Palestinian style" grabbed my attention because I always thought the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a divorce (Commentary, Saturday).

Long ago, the couple in question — Israel and Palestine — were forced into an arranged marriage by the international community. (As with many couples, things were better when they simply were living in sin.) Now that the relations have soured to the point of no return, instead of a divorce decree, the parties are being sent back to endless rounds of mediation. You know mediation isn't going well when each side comes armed.

The only possible solution is for the international community to set up some kind of tribunal for the division of property. The biggest issue, as it is in a traditional divorce, is who gets primary physical custody of the parties' only child: Jerusalem.