Keeping control of Jerusalem

摘要

What began as bad news has quickly turned into good. A fortnight ago Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper revealed that, last summer, the government had quietly decided to start using an old law to confiscate hundreds of hectares of Palestinian-owned land in East Jerusalem. The scandal, and perhaps some pressure from America's new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, provoked a climbdown. Israel's attorney-general, Menachem Ma-zuz, said he had not been told; the prime minister's office said he had; and this week he recommended scrapping the decision.