The OU rakes Barak over the coals — but about what?

Was the Orthodox Union fair in blasting Ehud Barak’s blast against ministers who blast the United States and the Palestinians?

This afternoon, the Orthodox Union denounced Ehud Barak for blasting fellow ministers for making "provocative statements" on Jerusalem:

Today, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America – the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization – denounced a statement issued by Israel’s Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, in which he called for Israeli officials, and others, “to avoid harsh or provocative statements on Jerusalem.”

Mr. Barak’s statement came shortly after Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a public address on Yom Yerushalayim (“Jerusalem Day”), marking the 43rd anniversary of the holy city’s reunification under Israeli rule, and statements by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, both of whom spoke of the deep and historic connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and the longstanding position that the city must remain the undivided capital of Israel and the Jewish people.

Nathan Diament, director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, issued the following statement in response to Mr. Barak:

The prophet Isaiah (62:1) proclaimed: “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet…”

In a time in which Israel’s enemies deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, and international leaders regularly call for the re-division of the holy city – we cannot abide and must denounce the suggestion that leaders of Israel do anything other than clearly assert the deep historic and spiritual connection of the Jews to Jerusalem.

It must have escaped Minister Barak’s notice that in the ears of the enemies of Israel statements of simple facts:

that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked Jerusalem’s hills,
that King David established the city as his capitol,
that the Jewish Holy Temple stood on the Mount in Jerusalem,
that Jews have prayed and yearned for the return to Jerusalem for millennia,
all these and more are, in the ears of Israel’s enemies “harsh and provocative statements.”

We call upon all leaders of Israel to not grant these enemies the “heckler’s veto” that Minister Barak calls for.

We must heed Isaiah’s call and clearly and consistently state the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and our commitment to never relinquishing Zion to her enemies.

Well and eloquently put — but what was Barak referring to? Missing from the reports (including ours) was a key specific. This is from Barak’s statement:

In response to expressions published this morning from ministers according to which Israel will continue to build in Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem despite the request from the United States not to do so at this stage, these do not help Jerusalem and harm attempts to create trust between Israel and the Palestinians.

Does that amount to, as the O.U. claims, rebuking ministers for upholding "the deep and historic connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and the longstanding position that the city must remain the undivided capital of Israel and the Jewish people"?

Nothing in Barak’s whole statement — translated by me below — suggests that Israeli ministers should not continue continue to exalt the ancient Jewish connection to Jerusalem or to abjure pledging its unity. He wants to avoid pictures — for now — of Arab families tossed into the street, as requested by the Americans.

In fairness, the O.U. inferred from Barak the same sweeping advice to keep mum that the Jerusalem Post, YNet and Haaretz did. And in fairness to those newspapers, such conclusions often follow background conversations between the reporters and the spokesmen.

Still, Barak appears to be focusing on the narrow pledge made by a number of ministers to abide by court-ordered demolitions of Arab residences in Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. Here’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, for instance, in a separate interview with Ha’aretz:

Ha’aretz: A representative of your party Yisrael Beiteinu, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, has announced that the police will continue to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem despite the proximity talks. Do you think this is the correct action to take?

Lieberman: It’s hard for me to comment on something I haven’t heard about while I’m in Japan, but there is one law for everyone, and we can’t disobey court decisions. Usually in such a ruling it’s only possible to carry out demolitions after all the appeals are over. I don’t believe there is an enlightened country in the world that will say it doesn’t want to carry out court decisions. Again, we are not being contrary, but no one expects us to interrupt our lifestyle and stop obeying court orders.

In fact, Israeli governments have in the past invoked national security interests in asking courts to stop settlement activity — and the courts have been receptive.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Eli Yishai, the interior minister, also crossed both of the lines set out by Barak: Yishai directly upbraided the Americans and implied building in Arab neighborhoods. I offer Yishai’s remarks with a caveat — again, I’d like to see their entirety — but this is one of the statements that seems to have prompted Barak’s rebuke:

Earlier Thursday, Yishai had asserted that Israel would continue to build in Jerusalem, saying that "we will build everywhere in the capital of the Jewish nation’s everlasting homeland, and I have clarified this to our American counterparts and friends."

Yishai went on to say that Israel did not agree to freeze construction in the capital, adding, "The government will not give in to American pressure."

It’s also interesting that Barak is exercised by the demonization of Palestinian leaders:

The defense minister, Ehud Barak, said today that attacks by senior Israeli government ministers on the attempts by the United States to restart the diplomatic process and blunt attacks on the leaders of the Palestinian Authority harm the diplomatic process that is at this stage is fragile in the extreme.

What’s he referring to? Again, from Lieberman’s interview:

I think we’ve made many gestures and all we’ve gotten in response are slaps in the face. As you remember, we took the unilateral step of deciding on a moratorium, a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria. We recognized two states for two peoples. We removed a dramatic number of roadblocks and allowed Fatah to hold a conference in Bethlehem.

Cooperation with Tony Blair led to [economic] growth of 8 to 9 percent in Judea and Samaria, while the rest of the world was in crisis. I think we made countless gestures, and what did we get in return? The glorification of terror, streets named after Yihyeh Ayash and Dalal Mughrabi. And they try to incite against us and cut us down in every international forum.

Here’s a little more context. A couple of weeks ago Dan Shapiro, the White House deputy national security adviser, made this appeal in a speech to the ADL:

What we will try to instill at all times in Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab negotiators is the need to invest in the other party; to view the negotiations as a shared enterprise toward a common goal; to look for shared successes, not zero-sum approaches; to acknowledge both publicly and privately the helpful and difficult steps taken by the other party; to always consider what steps they can take to help the other party succeed, and what actions they may consider justified, but might nevertheless defer in the interest of minimizing difficulties for the other side.

It’s true that officials of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Fatah Party defended the offensive street-namings; the namings were, however, initiated by Hamas and Fayyad was not among those who defended them.

Fayyad, though, has also sacked hundreds of imams and teachers who have incited against Israel, and Barak is virtually alone in the Cabinet in repeatedly noting P.A. security cooperation in keeping the West Bank quiescent.

Acknowledging these elements might be what the Obama administration is looking for — and Barak’s statement is a reminder of such to his fellow ministers.

Full Barak statement below the jump:

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The defense minister, Ehud Barak, said today that attacks by senior Israeli government ministers on the attempts by the United States to restart the diplomatic process and blunt attacks on the leaders of the Palestinian Authority harm the diplomatic process that at this stage is fragile in the extreme.

In response to expressions published this morning from ministers according to which Israel will continue to build in Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem despite the request from the United States not to do so at this stage, these do not help Jerusalem and harm attempts to create trust between Israel and the Palestinians.

Defense Minister Barak said: "I suggest to everyone, to ourselves and to the Palestinians, to behave responsibly, to avoid inflammatory and provocative expressions. This talk harms Israel’s interests with the United States and with the world. It presents Israel as peace-recalcitrant and in so doing, erodes Israel’s international standing."