And who is going to enforce the 'freeze'?
What if the government imposed a 'settlement freeze' and the local authorities all refused to enforce it? That's the prospect facing the Netanyahu-Barak government Sunday morning after Beit El's regional council head tore up the order when it was delivered on Friday and Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman announced on Saturday night that he won't enforce the freeze. "Is this freeze so important that they had to distribute the orders banning construction on Friday afternoon, right before Shabbat?," Nachman asked rhetorically. Speaking to Arutz 7, Nachman said that "when the Defense Ministry called me on Friday afternoon, I thought that a war had broken out. I do not intend to remain silent in light of the humiliation and shame that the mayors of towns in Judea and Samaria have been put through. I plan to petition the High Court over the despicable way the authorities chose to distribute these orders, without giving us the right to respond, without listening to us, summarily taking away our rights.Two points bear mentioning here: Unlike most leaders in Judea and Samaria, Nachman is secular and so is his most of his city. Second, Nachman is a former Likud MK.
"The Defense Minister, without feeling or intelligence, ran roughshod over our rights," continued Nachman. "He thinks he is still leading an IDF intelligence unit and that we are the enemy. Because they took away my authority as mayor to authorize projects in my jurisdiction, I hereby give up my authority to enforce these orders. If anyone violates this building freeze in my jurisdiction I will not act against them. If the Civil Administration wants to handle it, they are welcome to. I am out of the picture," Nachman added.
In fact, within the Likud, Nachman is only the tip of the iceberg.
Rank-and-file Likudniks and lawmakers in the ruling Likud party lambasted the Obama administration at a gathering on Saturday, in response to Israel's decision to temporarily freeze construction in West Bank settlements.There's more too. Deputy Minister Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon, who flirted with Moshe Feiglin a few months ago, was forced to leave Kiryat Arba without speaking on Saturday night after a riot broke out. Read the whole thing.
MK Dani Danon organized the meeting after Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) launched a verbal attack over the matter on U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which she branded "terrible."
...
"The Obama administration is an enemy of the Jews and the worst regime there ever was for the State of Israel," said Yossi Naim, the head of the Beit Aryeh regional council, at the Ra'ana meeting. "I announce to Obama: You won't be able to stop us."
The mayor of the West Bank settlement of Ariel, Ron Nahman, called Netanyahu's announcement of the settlement freeze a disgrace.
Directing his comments to Livnat, he said: "I am proud and happy that you said what you said, because you had the public courage to say what most of the public feels ever since Obama came to power."
Nahman repeatedly referred to the U.S. leader as "Hussein Obama," omitting his first name.
What if there was mass civil disobedience in Judea and Samaria and everyone just built anyway? Who would enforce the 'freeze'? The IDF? Not with much of the officer corps living in Judea and Samaria. That's inviting mass refusal of orders, not to mention what it would do to the IDF's combat readiness during the lead-up to a possible attack on Iran. The police? There aren't enough of them, and the consequences for the rest of the country of deploying the police on construction patrols in Judea and Samaria would be devastating.
But fear not. The country is in good hands. What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:46 AM
2 Comments:
The central government will have to enforce the "evil decree" with its own hands. There will not be any cooperation forthcoming from the inhabitants. There are a lot of things they can do to stem the worst of the damage. The freeze decision flouts basic human rights guaranteed by Israeli laws and deprives hundreds of thousands of people of the protection of the laws simply because they are Jews. It is decreed racism. It has absolutely nothing to do with peace but to the contrary, it has everything to do with suffocating the revanants. Jews will remember this government betrayed them to please America and they will not forget and they will not forgive what is being done to them in the name of political machinations that are as obscure as they are obscene.
Carl - perhaps the worst thing about the freeze is not just the harm done to the Israeli construction sector and the economy but also to the Palestinian Arabs Washington and the Israeli Left claims to care so much about. They will now be out of work and a lot of the progress towards easing tensions in Yesha will be reversed. Of course, it was thought the freeze only harms the revanants but no bothered to look at the larger picture:
Israeli Settlement Freeze Puts Hundreds Of Arabs Out Of Work
Anti-Semitism is not without its ironies. Talk about a blowback. Read it all.
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