“It’s impossible to divide Jerusalem, because you can’t divide an idea.” — Chairman of Yesh Atid, Minister of Finance Yair Lapid.
If this thought, expressed by the leader of the second-largest political party in Israel, a party claiming to represent the Israeli mainstream, were an opinion shared by most citizens, then the statesmen and civil servants working night and day to reach a final status agreement to end the Israeli-Arab conflict were wasting their time. Lapid didn’t stop at inventing empty slogans; he took part in the decision of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Minister of the Interior Gideon Sa’ar to advance a series of construction plans in east Jerusalem, in parallel with the release of Palestinian prisoners. Why not? If you can’t divide the idea of Jerusalem, there’s nothing to prevent the building of new Jewish neighborhoods and the expansion of existing ones in all parts of the city.