ISRAEL: iPhone's two-city solution disturbs the Mideast peace

Right-leaning Israeli politicians like to refer to Jerusalem as their "undivided capital." But iPhone users here and around the world found recently that the storied, disputed city had been split in two.

In the smart phone's weather application, the listing for "Jerusalem" disappeared earlier this month and was replaced by "West Jerusalem" and "East Jerusalem."

Both Israelis, who dominate the west part of the city, and Palestinians, the majority in the east, claim Jerusalem as their capital. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East War, though Palestinians (and most of the international community) never accepted it.

The debate over how, or whether, to divide Jerusalem is still one of the thorniest issues in Mideast peace talks.

Perhaps frustrated with the lack of progress in the peace process, iPhone engineers apparently decided to impose their own mini-version of a two-state solution by partitioning the city and, in essence, forcing users to pick sides.

A similar change took place on Yahoo's weather site, which gave users the option of checking the temperature in "Jerusalem, West Bank, Palestine" or "Jerusalem, Israel."

Reaction was mixed. A few Israelis and Palestinians got a kick out of the option, even though temperature information and other data were identical for East and West Jerusalem.

But many Israelis, here and in the U.S., took deep offense and accused Apple, the company that makes the iPhone, of "political propaganda."

One Jewish advocacy group, American Israeli Action Coalition, called the changes "extremely hurtful to the American Israeli community" and said they "smack of anti-Semitism." Israel's U.S. ambassador reportedly sent a letter of protest to Apple chief Steve Jobs and Yahoo chief Carol Bartz.

By Sunday, Apple and Yahoo appeared to have quickly signed a peace deal of their own. Jerusalem was magically reunified -- at least on the iPhone.

-- Edmund Sanders on the border of West and East Jerusalem

Comments

[Jonathan]

To all the Moslims and Israel haters that still want to distort the truth about the true owners of the Land of Israel then they need to speak to respected Moslem Professor Khaleel Mohammed, Assistant Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. Professor Khaleel Mohammed is the latest Moslem expert to say that the Quran - the holiest Moslem work - is actually Zionist.

In an interview with Jamie Glazov of FrontPageMagazine.com three days ago (June 3, 2004), Mohammed quoted the Qur'an (5:20-21) as saying:
"Moses said to his people: O my people! Remember the bounty of God upon you when He bestowed prophets upon you, and made you kings and gave you that which had not been given to anyone before you amongst the nations. O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has written for you, and do not turn tail, otherwise you will be losers."

Prof. Mohammed emphasized that the above phrase "God has written for you" is very significant: "In both Jewish and Islamic understandings of the term 'written,' there is the meaning of finality, decisiveness and immutability... So the simple fact is then, from a faith-based point of view: If God has 'written' Israel for the people of Moses, who can change this?" He also quoted two of Islam's most famous exegetes - Ibn Kathir and Muhammad al-Shawkani - as supporting this explanation.

Imam Abdul Hadi Palazzi, secretary-general of the Italian Muslim Association, has long promoted that it is possible to be a Muslim scholar and leader and still support America, Israel and democracy. Citing pro-Jewish verses in the Quran, Sheikh Palazzi told a Jewish audience in Cleveland recently, "There are many good Muslims who value life on earth and the sanctity of their families. Israel should make every effort to support the growth of a pro-Israel movement among these Muslims... [but sadly, Muslims in Israel were emotionally and morally defeated by the Oslo Accords.] They felt that Israel was selling them out to Arafat. They need to be supported and encouraged to speak out in defense of Israel without fear of being assassinated by the PLO or Hamas... Oslo signaled to many of us that Israel was ready to accept peace at any price, and make incredible concessions to ruthless criminals."

Arab-American Nonie Darwish has recently opened a website . The site states, inter alia, "We are Arabs and Moslems who believe we can support the State of Israel and the Jewish religion and still treasure our Arab and Islamic culture."

Prof. Mohammed, in his interview with FrontPageMagazine, apportions at least partial blame for today's wars to the Muslims of the 7th century:
"[W]hen the Muslims entered that land [the Holy Land] in the seventh century, they were well aware of its rightful owners [the Jews], and when they failed to act according to divine mandate (at least as perceived by followers of all Abrahamic faiths), they aided and abetted in a crime. And the present situation shows the fruits of that action - wherein innocent Palestinians and Israelis are being killed on a daily basis."

"When the Muslims conquered Jerusalem," Prof. Mohammed continued, "it should have been left open for the rightful owners to return. It is possible that Jewish beliefs of the time only allowed such return under a Messiah - but that should not have influenced Muslim action... [The] Muslim occupation and building a mosque on the site of the Temple was something that was not sanctioned by The Quran. How honest is contemporary Islam with this? Given the situation in the Middle East, politicking, etc. stands in the way of honesty."

Prof. Mohammed says that Muslim groups have frequently denounced him because "I am out of line with the geo-political movement towards fundamentalism. What your readers must understand is that fundamentalism is rapidly becoming mainstream. Moderation is not. A perfect example is in Akbar Ahmed's "Islam Under Siege," where he points out that the Taliban are no longer a fringe group in Pakistan; many Pakistanis are finding themselves drawn to their teachings. Right here in the US, I present a problem to those at mosques who use social pressure to coerce others into accepting their extremism.. Many Muslims stand against me for no other reason than I say that Israel has a right to exist... I in no way deny that Palestinians have rights. But this is generally not considered by those that criticize my position..."

[atrayu]

Arabs/muslims did not leave Arabian peninsula until thousands of years after the death of King David..Arabs/muslims have 22 countries and Mecca as their capital..they have no legal claim to Israel

[Maddy]

'Anti-semitism'? Laughable! Israel's government is delegitimising all Jewish suffering by raping this word of all meaning.

This is just a furtherance of Israel's aggressive, expansionist policies. Long live Palestine!

[roger]

Everyone with the slightest understanding of international law knows that East Jerusalem is illegally occupied by Israel.

Israel is violating international law by trying to annex all of Jerusalem.

The iPhone is just reflecting this commonsense and widely known reality.

Don't listen to Israeli propaganda to the contrary.

[Rik Riklar]

Hello,

It could important if Apple would remember that in the world there are people, hundreds of millions who write from right to left (R2L).
iWork, the office suit of Apple doesn't support writing from r2l.
Is it a question of elementary school instruction? I wonder.

[Masada]

To those who keep refering to "occupied" E Jerusalem. The reality is that the only time in the last 3000 years that Jerusalem was "occupied" was the peiod of 1948-1967 when Jordan was occupying the eastern half of the city. In 1967 the city was re-unified.

The truth is the truth but revisionist history......

[Dave]

The world does not recognize east jerusalem as part of Israel.
Initialy the UN divided Palestine into Israel and Palestine with Jerusalem as an international city, that plan never took place.
Since then the world has recognized West Jerusalem as part of Israel and east Jerusalem as part of the occupied terretories, as far as I know no country in the wrold recognized east Jerusalem as part of Israel, except Israel.
The US government has refused to move its embassy to Jerusalem so as not to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel exactly for that reason as to not give it ligitmacy over East Jerusalem. Its too bad the Israel's are pissed off, thats their problem of assuming someone else's land is theirs in reference to their religion.
If we all were to follow our religion we would go back to the dark ages and start butchering each other.

[Elie Cananeh, Palestine]

To steven, your info is not correct and those surahs has nothing to do with giving Palestine to the children of israel today. It was about a fixed time, a test of the past. Moreover, todays jews are not children of israel, they are russians, ethiopians, kurds, polish, germans etc . And jerusalem is very holy to the Muslims, it was the first Qiblah for them and the place from which Prophet Muhammad went up to heaven. And Jerusalem is mentioned in the Quran (something that zionists try to conceal when they try to "proove" that jerusalem is not holy to Muslims). So please stop spreading lies. Oh and in case you didnt know, Christians are being spat on in jerusalem by religious jews (as reported by haaretz), not by Muslims, we can not visit our churches as we want, many of our churches have been demolished all of this is done by israel, in 1948 and 1967, thousands of christians were kicked out from Palestine by european jews. not by the muslims, you werent here when the israeli army entered our house, locked us in a room and used our house to shoot at fellow Palestinians, and they "relieved themselves" aka "pooped" on our floor! Are you going to convince me that this was done as a sign of love for christians? Please give me a break with your nonsence.

The Palestinians via our ancestors the caananites were in Palestine long before the israelites (whom most of todays jews have no blood connection to) entered it, the descandands of the first christians are Palestinian today, some of whom converted to Islam and some who still are christians. You need to check your facts from reality and not from zionist websites.

[Danny Hershtal]

The idea of splitting Jerusalem on iPhone apps and the like is ridiculous because Jerusalem is not a divided city. Out of its storied 3000 year history, the city has been divided for 19 years, as a result of the Transjordanian Attack in Israel's War of Independence.
Both Jews and Arabs claim the entire city as their own, and, therefore, the idea of splitting it in media and communication outlets presupposes a diplomatic compromise neither party has been willing to make.
Also, since the city is too small to have different weather, there is absolutely no need for more than one Jerusalem, but sovereignty over it, is a matter of political debate.

[Bloodyscot]

While Israel is a strong ally and US Jewish Group have a lot of political power, the US is trying to be neutral in order to broker a ME peace deal, with Roadmap and US current goal is a two state solution with E. Jerusalem as Palestine capital.
These US Jewish group should back US goals over Israel's goals but for Israel's U.S. ambassador it understandable.

[Steven]

I am really disapointed with the propaganda spread throughout the world by the media. Muslims have nothing t0 do with the Holy Land. The Jewish and Christian bibles endlessly state that the Holy Land belongs to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ( the Jewish people). The Koran also states that the Holy Land belongs to the Children of Israel (the Jewish people).

Surah 5 Verse 20 states " Remember Moses said to his people: "O my people! Call in remembrance the favour of Allah unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples".

Surah 17 Verse 104 states "O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin".

Surah 5 Verse 20 "And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land (of promise)": but when the second of the warnings came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd".

[Joe]

No nation in the world recognizes east Jerusalem as part of Israel, not even USA, so what's with whining!

[James]

Absolutely ridiculous. Apple and AT&T should be brought to task for bowing to this kind of crap.