During a tour of the Mount of Olives, Likud leader
Binyamin Netanyahu pledged that as prime minister he would keep Jerusalem united.
The Jerusalem Post reports that:
...He came to the controversial site in the capital in order to bring attention to reports that his main competition, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, had agreed to give up portions of the city in negotiations over the past 14 months with her Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly told US Middle East mediator George Mitchell last week that Livni had agreed to divide the city.
"We did not return to Jerusalem after praying for it to be rebuilt for 2000 years in order to give it up," Netanyahu told a throng of reporters from around the world at the City of David. "We did not unite the city in order to divide it, and my government will maintain a united Jerusalem. A sane country does not give its capital to its enemies."
Later on, Netanyahu visited a Jewish-owned home on the Mount of Olives that had been purchased from Arabs by organizations working to reclaim property in the city for Jews. He then visited a lookout point over the Mount of Olives cemetery and the Temple Mount, where former Likud prime minister Menahem Begin is buried.
"The people buried here prayed that there would be a day when Jerusalem would be rebuilt," Netanyahu said. "The foreign press is here because they understand that this election is about whether our capital will be given to our enemies. The Likud and I are committed to maintaining a united Jerusalem with defensible borders. But for that, we need as large a Likud as possible, because only the Likud can maintain a united Jerusalem."
While Netanyahu was touring an archeological site in the City of David, Arabs heckled him from the rooftop of a nearby building.
We can only hope that Binyamin Netanyahu, should he become prime minister, stays true to his words spoken today at the Mount of Olives, rather than repeating past mistakes such as giving away 80% of Hevron and not opposing the Disengagement until it was too late.
