MANY JERUSALEMS, DIVISIBLE AND DEADLY

Israel has captured the Hamas cell responsible for the Hebrew University massacre and a number of other grisly terror attacks. The truly frightening news is that the cell was located within Jerusalem itself. As much as their capture is a stunning success for Israeli intelligence, it demonstrates the utter failure of its Jerusalem policy - in which the Israeli government has deluded itself into believing that there exists one Jerusalem, indivisible. In fact there are many Jerusalems - but most significantly there is the Ancient Jerusalem of the Old City, a Jewish Jerusalem (neo-schtetl and modern) and a completely unassimilated Arab Jerusalem. It is painfully obvious that putting a wall around Jerusalem's borders with the West Bank will accomplish little with Hamas lurking just down the hill from the university, or across the road from City Hall. Israel needs to choose between two unpalatable alternatives - to seperate Arab Jerusalem from the rest of the city - or to seperate Arabs from Jerusalem. It can no longer afford to craft its policy around a fantasy of a Jerusalem that dovetails more with messianic dreams than actual reality.