My back yard is empty, but that does not give Netanyahu the right to put up an apartment complex on it.

This is from Juan Cole’s article, “Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis.” The whole thing is worth reading, as is much of Cole’s work. I don’t vouch for its accuracy because I’m not informed enough. But the few times I’ve read about it and the one forum I attended at which the issue was discussed, run by Dan Klein at Santa Clara University in Spring 2002, seem consistent with the general tenor of his article. The person who laid out some of the same things was Jeff Hummel, a very careful historian as well as economist.