War and peace of Jerusalem

Jerusalem could become the world capital of peace, hosted by both Israel and Palestine, if the United Nations moved some of its agencies to the city, as suggested by a Palestinian policymaker.
A masked Palestinian protester uses a sling shot to throw stones at Israeli troops during clashes, following an anti-Israel demonstration over the entry restrictions to the al-Aqsa mosque, on a rainy day at Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah October 31, 2014. Muslim men over 50 prayed at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday amid intense security, a day after Israel closed all access to the sacred compound for the first time in more than a decade following violence on the st
A masked Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to throw stones at Israeli troops during clashes, following an anti-Israel demonstration over the entry restrictions to Al-Aqsa Mosque, on a rainy day at Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Oct. 31, 2014. - REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini
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Uri Savir
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Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000 was the trigger for the second intifada. Will the recent intrusion of Israeli settlers into the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan ignite a third intifada? Possibly.

Clearly, all that is needed is a spark. In the Israeli-Palestinian equation, there is either a peace process or a process of violence. The vacuum created by the collapse of US Secretary of State John Kerry's diplomatic efforts was quickly filled with the Gaza war this summer and now with unrest in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. This violence is a result of a choice made by the Israeli government to prefer settlement construction over a historic two-state compromise.

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