Obama administration 'assures Jewish evacuation'

West Bank

JERUSALEM – Members of the Obama administration recently assured the Palestinian Authority that most Jewish communities in the strategic West Bank will be evacuated, a top PA official told WND yesterday.

The official also said Obama will soon offer the Palestinians a public pledge that a Palestinian state will encompass most of the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem with the exception of what is known as the three main settlement blocs – Ariel, Gush Etzion and Maale Adumim. The pledge will likely be oral and not in the form of a letter, said the PA official.

Further, both the PA official and a source in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told WND the Obama administration refused to counter a European Union draft document that supports the division of Jerusalem, with the Temple Mount going to the Palestinians.

The White House yesterday issued a statement that the status of Jerusalem should be determined by Israel and the Palestinians, but the statement stopped short of countering the EU proposal.

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Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency, last week presented to Israel and the PA the draft document, which recognizes all of eastern Jerusalem – including the Temple Mount – as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

"The EU will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem," said the EU ministerial draft, referring to all of eastern Jerusalem.

"If there is to be a genuine peace, a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states," EU foreign ministers agreed in a statement released last Tuesday.

Israel's Foreign Ministry, for its part, warned the proposal would damage the EU's ability to be a Mideast mediator.