***The Truth About Israel***

According to Palestinian reports, four demonstrators were also arrested in the violence just meters from the cave, where dozens of youths threw rocks at Border Police and IDF soldiers.

The security forces fired tear gas cannisters to disperse the protesters, who had gathered to protest the Israeli decision.

The government’s move, announced Sunday, has drawn wide criticism, including from the United Nations. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the administration viewed the move as provocative and unhelpful to the goal of getting the two sides back to the table.

Toner said US displeasure with the designations of the Cave of the Patriarchs in the flash point town of Hebron and the traditional tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem had been conveyed to senior Israeli officials by American diplomats.

Also Thursday, amid the heightened tensions, Palestinians were planning a march in Hebron, to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Baruch Goldstein massacre.

On February 25, 1994, the Israeli-American physician killed 29 Muslims who were praying at the mosque that is part of the Cave of the Patriarchs complex. He wounded another 150 before being beaten to death.

To highlight the importance of the cave, Hebron’s Jewish community plans to hold a special prayer service there on Thursday, to mark the Fast of Esther.

Both events are being held after three days of violence in Hebron, in which Palestinians have thrown rocks and bottles at soldiers and burned tires.

On Wednesday, “an illegal disturbance broke out near the Beit Hamirkahat checkpoint. Rioters burned tires and threw rocks at IDF soldiers,” according to the army.

The soldiers responded with “crowd dispersal means,” the statement said, adding that there had been no injuries during the incident, which had ended by midday.

Tovah Lazaroff and Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report

According to Ateret Cohanim, the home – a five-room structure near the Temple Mount – was built between 1860 and 1875 by the Schechter and Kantor families in what was then known as the “Hebron Quarter” of the Old City. The two families, the group added, had ties to the Maharal of Prague (1520-1609) and the Vilna Gaon.

“The family lived in the house until the Arab riots of 1921, when it evacuated the property for the first time out of fear of the rioters,” a statement from the group read.

The family returned a year later, but fled again during the War of Independence, after which, Ateret Cohanim said, their Arab neighbors had begun living in the house.

Several years ago, an American investor in Monsey, New York, began assisting Ateret Cohanim with the process of “reclaiming” the home, which included taking on legal fees and various payments to both the Arab residents of the property and the Schechter family estate.

After years of legal battles between the Jewish claimants and the Arab residents, the Jerusalem District Court ruled in favor of the claimants, and a number of yeshiva students who study in the area began residing in the home with their families in recent weeks – although certain rooms that are still subject to ongoing legal proceedings have not been utilized.

“There are many other houses in the immediate vicinity where today there are yeshivas, many rabbis and students, and about 20 Jewish families,” the Ateret Cohanim statement continued.“They are part of a community of close to 900 Jewish residents, primarily yeshiva and kollel students, rabbis and their families, together with over 120 young children, who are living in the Old Jewish Quarter of the Old City, thanks to the efforts of Ateret Cohanim.”

The statement noted that “in the period predating the Arab riots of 1921 and 1929, the Old City had a Jewish majority.”

“The Jewish population numbered about 20,000 people, who were living in all parts of the Old City,” it said. “In fact, the Muslim Quarter of today was the hub of Jewish activity, with 21 synagogues and six yeshivas. These people were forced to leave their homes with the outbreak of the bloody events surrounding the Arab riots.”

Nonetheless, the move drew criticism from Ir Amim, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit organization that works toward stabilizing relationships between Israelis and Palestinians in the capital.

“As far as we are concerned, any such initiative, especially when it’s ideologically inspired, makes a future conclusion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more complicated,” Orly Noy, an Ir Amim spokeswoman, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

“Additionally, such moves are usually supported by the Israeli authorities, which is very problematic in that the government is encouraging right-wing settlement in Palestinian areas of east Jerusalem, including the Old City, even though the official government stance is still dedicated to the peace process,” she continued.

But Ateret Cohanim spokesman Daniel Luria responded to those sentiments, saying, “To have Torah learning and yeshiva students on the outskirts of the Temple Mount shows that the centuries-old Zionist dream is ongoing, as is the process of redemption.”

Some 4,000 Jews currently live in the Old City, making up 12 percent of the area’s total population. While most of them live inside the Jewish Quarter, some 70 families and hundreds of yeshiva students live in other parts of the Old City.

On February 25, 1994, the Israeli American physician killed 29 Muslims who were praying at the mosque that is part of the Cave of the Patriarchs complex. He wounded another 150 before being beaten to death.

The march comes after the cabinet on Sunday added the Cave of the Patriarchs to the list of Jewish heritage sites marked for renovation and preservation.

To highlight the importance of the cave, Hebron’s Jewish community plans to hold a special prayer service there on Thursday, to mark the Fast of Esther.

Both events are being held after three days of violence in Hebron, in which Palestinians have thrown rocks and bottles at soldiers and burned tires.

The army said that on Wednesday, “an illegal disturbance broke out near the Beit Hamirkahat checkpoint. Rioters burned tires and threw rocks at IDF soldiers.”

The soldiers responded with “crowd dispersal means,” the statement said, adding that there had been no injuries during the incident, which had ended by midday.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at Glilot said an upsurge in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank had been recorded over the past week. Rock-throwers targeted army checkpoints and Israeli vehicles in recent days, the center said.

On Tuesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned that placing the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem on the heritage list could spark a religious war.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed disappointment with the cabinet decision when he met in New York with Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Ban said he regretted certain recent developments in the area, such as “the inclusion of holy sites in the occupied West Bank on an Israeli heritage list.”

Earlier this week, Robert H. Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said, “I urge Israel not to take any steps on the ground which undermine trust or could prejudice negotiations.”

The cave where, according to tradition, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah are buried, is the second-holiest site for Jews, after the Temple Mount.

On Wednesday, President Shimon Peres met with Serry for a working session at Beit Hanassi and said that holy sites should not be a cause for conflict.

There are extremist groups with vested interests – first and foremost, Hamas – which are creating new, artificial conflicts on the ground, Peres told his guest.

Explaining the cabinet recent decision with regard to the holy sites, Peres said that resources would be invested in infrastructure and in making the sites more accessible to more worshipers, and that Israel would continue with its policy of freedom of worship for all faiths.

The idea was to preserve holy sites to prevent them from falling into further disrepair, without in any way offending the sensibilities of Christians and Muslims or denying them access, said Peres, who asked Serry to make this clear to Ban.

Serry, who came to Jerusalem after a series of meetings with leading figures in the PA, discussed what he perceived as a growing crisis of confidence between the Palestinians and the Israelis and emphasized the importance of flexibility in order to significantly advance the diplomatic process.

Nonetheless, he was optimistic that hurdles could be overcome and that talks between the sides could resume in the near future.

Serry underscored UN efforts to support the resumption of meaningful negotiations. He also appealed for additional Israeli steps to enable the PA to control more of the West Bank.

Peres said there was no alternative to direct talks, and that any delay by the Palestinians could only be to their detriment, since failure to reach an accord means further postponement of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

He assured Serry that there is consensus in Israel for the principle of two states for two peoples existing side-by-side.

Peres added that he had no doubt that the conclusion of negotiations would differ considerably from opening gambits. There was no way to determine at the outset how negotiations would end, he said, but the sooner they start, the better the outcome will be.

Kadima MK Meir Sheetrit’s bill to permit civil marriage in cases in which couples could not be married by the Chief Rabbinate fell by a landslide 58-22 in its preliminary reading, with a third of Kadima MKs absent from the roll-call vote.

Sheetrit’s bill is the second civil union bill to fail in the Knesset during the long winter session, with a broader Kadima-sponsored bill being defeated in October. Unlike that bill, which would have established civil union for anyone who wished an alternative to the Chief Rabbinate, Sheetrit’s more conservative legislation would have provided the option only for couples in which one or both of the members is not recognized as Jewish.

The measure was designed to humiliate Israel Beiteinu, which had promised in their election platform to submit a bill permitting civil union within one year of taking office. The clock on the promise expires on March 31.

MK David Rotem (Israel Beiteinu) has promised that his draft will be ready in the near future, but critics of Israel Beiteinu’s plan complained that it is too narrow, only allowing civil marriage when neither member of the couple is recognized as a Jew.

Activists in the Russian-speaking community, where the problem of couples unable to marry in Israel is particularly acute, said that Rotem’s bill would provide a solution for approximately 10 percent of those seeking civil marriages. Sheetrit’s bill would have encompassed an estimated 30%.

Rotem himself was absent from the floor during the vote on Sheetrit’s bill, although he was present moments before the roll-call vote, and minutes later. Israel Beiteinu chairman Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is in Brussels, and thus was also absent, as were party MKs Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon – who was present in the Knesset less than two hours later – and Anastasia Michaeli. Michaeli and Lieberman were also both absent during the vote on the earlier civil union bill as well.

The rest of Israel Beiteinu’s 15-person Knesset faction voted against the bill, waiting instead for their own more limited legislation that is expected to enjoy coalition support. If no bill is passed by Israel Beiteinu, Kadima already said that it is planning to re-submit similar legislation as soon as possible. Kadima must wait six months before submitting identical legislation, but there is no mandatory waiting period before it can submit similar, but different legislation as it did this time.

Israel Beiteinu was not the only faction placed in a difficult position by the legislation. Kadima itself proved to be underrepresented during the vote, with at least three MKs who were present in the Knesset building – Ya’acov Edri, Yulia Shamolov Berkovich and Majallie Whbee – absent during the critical vote.

Sheetrit spoke at great length introducing his bill, to allow faction aides to enlist as many MKs as they could find to vote. Kadima MK Eli Aflalo, who has complained about a “secularizing” trend in the party, stayed clear of the Knesset.

Over half of the nine absent Kadima MKs were among those seen as supporters of MK Shaul Mofaz, who also was included among those absent from the vote. Shamolov Berkovich spoke with opposition whip Dalia Itzik prior to the vote, explaining that she had “personal conflicts” with the legislation.

“Unlike Kadima, which is only concerned with public relations – and which, as the governing party [from 2006 to 2009], did absolutely nothing to advance a civil union law, but rather defeated it, Israel Beiteinu anchored the law as part of its coalition agreement,” said Israel Beiteinu spokesman Tal Nachum. “It is important that the Israeli public understand what Kadima MKs are doing, who are apparently divided on this issue as well.”

Nachum added that even if all of his party’s faction had supported Sheetrit’s bill, it still would have been resoundingly defeated.

Labor, also a member of the government, was torn on the bill as well, with a number of MKs – who in October’s vote on civil union voted against the coalition – on Wednesday avoiding the plenum floor in anticipation of the vote.

MK Einat Wilf (Labor), who is herself wed through an overseas civil marriage, said she voted against Sheetrit’s bill due to her loyalty to coalition discipline.

“As far as I’m concerned, I personally support civil marriage,” she said, “but the Labor Party is committed to its obligations as part of the coalition.”

Wilf did say, however, that she hopes to work within the framework of her party to seek alternatives to opposing civil union bills in the future.

“If there are no talks… we take the risk, the international community, of a third intifada,” Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Abbas. “If we do nothing it will be a catastrophe.”

However, Sarkozy backed off of the notion of declaring a Palestinian state before borders with Israel are defined, as suggested over the weekend by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Kouchner himself also seemed to backtrack, co-writing an op-ed Monday in Le Monde with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos in which they said that Europe would “collectively recognize a Palestinian state” at the end of the diplomatic process.

Despite US Mideast envoy George Mitchell’s efforts, the two foreign ministers wrote in the piece, which called for greater European involvement in the process, that the political process has not succeeded.

“Europe needs to step in today and give guarantees of political and financial security for Israelis and Palestinians to help overcome the ‘risks of peace,’” they wrote. Kouchner and Moratinos wrote that the indirect “proximity talks” now being discussed needed to be augmented by a timeline, and a “mechanism” that would accompany the talks and “learn from the lessons of the past.”

The two foreign ministers said that Europe could also advance bold “confidence-building measures” on the ground, and hold a peace conference that could stabilize and strengthen a positive dynamic.

Israeli diplomatic officials said it was telling that the two foreign ministers decided to come out with their program in an op-ed, and not to include it in a statement at the end of the EU foreign ministers meeting held Monday in Brussels. They opted for this path, one official said, because it would be too difficult and cumbersome for them to reach a consensus on the matter inside the EU.

Sarkozy, meanwhile, said at his press conference with Abbas, in which the two men made a strong display of solidarity, that they agreed on the ingredients needed to create a Palestinian state while guaranteeing Israeli security and border security.

“Everybody knows the terms of a definitive peace accord,” Sarkozy said. These include the two-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of each, a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, land exchanges and talks on the status of Palestinian refugees.

Abbas also seemed to dismiss the idea of recognition of statehood before the negotiations were concluded.

“Negotiations first, proclamation of a state later,” he said, before adding that he has not excluded reaching out to the UN Security Council if talks keep stalling.

Sarkozy said he would discuss Middle East peace negotiations with President Barack Obama during a state visit to Washington at the end of March. No firm date has been set.

“In spite of some of the differences that sometimes divide you and in spite of the differences you may have with our decisions, respect them, for they have been made by the majority of Israelis, through one of the world’s most resilient democracies,” he said Sunday night, addressing the Jewish Council for Public Affairs annual plenum in Dallas, Texas.

In blunt words, he urged American Jews to support Israel while it is at a “crucial crossroads” in the peace process.

“Support us, too, if we decide the peace being offered us is not a real peace and does not warrant those sacrifices and risks,” he said. “Join us in fighting for Israel’s right to defend itself, in fighting for Israel’s right to exist.”

The comments, which seemed directed at the US administration’s frustration with the peace process, also come after Oren softened his view of J Street, the self-described “pro-peace, pro-Israel” lobby. The Netanyahu government has had an uneasy relationship with J Street, and this past fall Oren pointedly declined an invitation to attend the group’s kick-off policy conference in Washington.

But in a February 10 interview with the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, Oren said J Street had moved “much more into the mainstream.”

“The major concern with J Street was their position on security issues, not the peace process. J Street has now come and supported Congressman Berman’s Iran sanction bill; it has condemned the Goldstone Report; it has denounced the British court’s decision to try Tzipi Livni for war crimes, which puts J Street much more into the mainstream,” Oren said.

The ambassador opened his talk on Sunday by discussing another speech, given on February 8 at the University of California, Irvine, where 11 students heckled him off the stage. He returned and finished his speech, and the students were later arrested.

“Their goal was to undermine the freedom of expression and at the same time to delegitimize the Jewish state,” he said.

“Civility, the ability to hear others’ opinions and be heard, is an essential weapon in Israel’s defense. We have a case to be made,” he said.

During his talk Sunday, Oren referenced “long-simmering issues” between American and Israeli Jews.

“While Israelis turned toward the center and right,” he said, “American Jews gravitated in the other direction, casting 80 percent of their ballots for Barack Obama.”

Mentioning issues of conversion, he also focused on the “Women of the Wall” incident at the Kotel earlier this month, when 200 women wearing tallit were heckled and called Nazis by haredi men.

“There are good solutions for the issues at the Kotel,” he said during a question-and-answer session. “It will require compromise on everyone’s behalf.”

If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century BCE.

“It’s the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel,” Mazar said on Monday. “And it means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction.”

The section of the city wall revealed, which is 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

An inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city was uncovered in the city wall complex, along with a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron Valley.

The excavations in the Ophel area were carried out over a three-month period under the auspices of Hebrew University and with funding provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, a New York couple interested in biblical archeology.

The excavations were carried out in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Company for the Development of East Jerusalem. Archeology students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as volunteer students from the Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma and hired workers all participated in the excavation work.

“The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence,” Mazar said. “Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering, and the city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slope of the Kidron Valley.

“A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate, with a great degree of assurance, that the wall that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century BCE,” she continued.

“This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon’s building in Jerusalem,” she added.

“The Bible tells us that Solomon built - with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders - the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David.”

Mazar specifically cited the third chapter of Kings I, which includes the words “until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.”

The six-meter-high gatehouse of the uncovered city wall complex is built in a style typical of those from the period of the First Temple, like Megiddo, Beersheba and Ashdod. It has a symmetrical plan of four identical small rooms, two on each side of the main passageway.

A large, adjacent tower also stood at the site, covering an area of 24 by 18 meters, where it served as a watchtower to protect entry to the city. Today the tower is located under the nearby road and still needs to be excavated.

Pottery shards discovered within the fill of the lowest floor of the royal building near the gatehouse also testify to the 10th-century-BCE dating of the complex. On the floor, excavators found remnants of large storage jars that survived destruction by fire and that were found in rooms that apparently served as storage areas on the ground floor of the building. One of the jars shows a partial inscription in ancient Hebrew indicating it belonged to a high-level government official.

“The jars that were found are the largest ever found in Jerusalem,” said Mazar, adding that “the inscription found on one of them shows that it belonged to a government official, apparently the person responsible for overseeing the provision of baked goods to the royal court.”

In addition to the pottery shards, cult figurines were also found in the area, as were seal impressions on jar handles with the word “to the king,” testifying to their usage within the monarchy. Also found were seal impressions (bullae) with Hebrew names, indicating the royal nature of the structure.

Nonetheless, other archeologists posit that the biblical narrative reflecting the existence of a powerful monarchy in Jerusalem is largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.

Aren Maeir, an archeology professor at Bar Ilan University, said he has yet to see evidence that the fortifications are as old as Mazar claims. There are remains from the 10th century in Jerusalem, he said, but proof of a strong, centralized kingdom at that time remains “tenuous.”

While some see the biblical account of the kingdoms of David and Solomon as accurate and others reject it entirely, Maeir said the truth was likely somewhere in the middle.

“There’s a kernel of historicity in the story of the kingdom of David,” he said.

AP contributed to this report