Jim, "UNESCO's democratically accepted decision" ignores the built in anti-Israel bias in UNESCO and other UN bodies.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-slams-absurd-unesco-decision-on-jerusalem-west-bank-holy-sites-1.321868

l.lass, an ideologically based confrontation spear-headed by it's supposed allies right now?

..is the US right (and a fully complicit Obama administration) escalating the situation all by itself? Or is it Folie a deux?

Remember, this dispute was engineered by the Palestinian movement.
US is only responding to it.