Imagine yourself in this situation, if you will.  Let’s imagine for conversation’s sake that you’re a leader of a country that wants to build housing on land that is obviously yours.  Next, imagine that a supposed close ally of yours makes the unreasonable demand that you not build this particular housing.  Does this sound familiar to you?  It should.

The United States, as of late, has been pressing Israel to cease building housing in Jerusalem.  This past Sunday, Israel struck back as their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blew off an American demand to suspend a housing project that is planned for East Jerusalem.  Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. was summoned to Washington this weekend and told that this project should not go ahead.

And as you and any reasonable person would do, you would object to another country dictating terms to you.  Netanyahu was no different in this respect; on Sunday, he told his Cabinet that there would be no limits on Jewish construction anywhere in “unified Jerusalem”.  Can you blame him?

His take on the Obama administration’s demands?  Try this on for size:

“We cannot accept the fact that Jews wouldn’t be entitled to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem.”

There’s more:

“I can only imagine what would happen if someone suggested Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods in New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry.”

See, here’s the thing.  This was approved by the Jerusalem municipality earlier this month and was declared a legal transaction.  Also consider that this proposed housing is on land that is rightfully Israel’s as east Jerusalem was annexed back in 1967 after capturing it in June of that year.  You might want to also factor in that nearly 300,000 Israelis live on the West Bank while 180,000 Jews live in neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

Of course, the Palestinians are whining about this.  Their argument is simple.  Their complaint is that the Israeli presence is making it very difficult to establish an independent state of their own in these areas; as a result, they refuse to re-start peace talks until Israel ends all settlement expansion – which the Israelis refuse to do.  And I do not blame them one bit.

And the Netanyahu argument has some teeth as the head of Israel’s internal security service (Shin Bet), Yuval Diskin, told ministers on Sunday that both the Western-backed administration of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the terrorist organization Hamas were carrying out covert activities in east Jerusalem to stop Jews from acquiring property there.

Part of the problem here folks is that the Obama administration is no true friend of the Jewish state.  They’re more in tune with the Palestinians, actually.  So it is no surprise or wonder as to why the U.S. is making things increasingly difficult for Israel.  In addition, the Palestinians’ idea of having a state of their own is basically tantamount to having a terrorist organization right next door to Israel.  Not that they’re not next door to them already.

Think of all the rockets, missiles and other items that have launched into Israeli territory – presumably by Hamas and/or their operatives – and that in and of itself is reason enough not to allow Palestine to have an independent state of their own.  The Obama administration should be ashamed of themselves for even dictating to Israel terms that are dangerous to them.  But then again, what do you expect from an administration that is obviously pro-Palestine?