Yet another de facto freeze?
Prime Minister Netanyahu may impose another de facto freeze, as is currently the case in 'east' Jerusalem, in an attempt to satisfy both his American masters and the Israeli public. The “mini-freeze” option would involve allowing construction in major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria, while prohibiting new building projects in smaller towns. However, the small town construction freeze may be a “quiet freeze,” officially enacted but never formally announced, in an attempt to maintain ties with groups opposing the freeze.Of course, the 'Palestinians' will never accept the 'mini-freeze' option (which is more or less what was proposed by Dan Meridor last week). But even so, seeing this proposed is troublesome.
Abbas has demanded a full construction freeze not only in Judea and Samaria, but in much of Jerusalem as well, saying that all territory east of the 1949 armistice line is “occupied” by Israel and should be given to the PA for the creation of a new Arab state. Netanyahu is unlikely to give in to the PA demands, which are widely opposed by members of both his ruling coalition and the opposition parties in Knesset.
One of the problems Netanyahu has with a freeze is that his cabinet claims to be overwhelmingly opposed (21-4).
The following list was published by Maariv on 24 August 2010I'd bet on Barak and Meridor being in favor of extending the freeze, and on Ne'eman being opposed. I'm not sure about Sa'ar.
Position on continuing freeze:
For: 4
BINYAMIN BEN-ELIEZER
AVISHAI BRAVERMAN
YITZHAK HERZOG
SHALOM SIMHON
Against: 21
YITZHAK AHARONOVITZ
ARIEL ATIAS
ZE'EV B. BEGIN
YULI EDELSTEIN
MICHAEL EITAN
GILAD ERDAN
DANIEL HERSHKOVITZ
MOSHE KAHLON
ISRAEL KATZ
SOFA LANDVER
UZI LANDAU
AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN
LIMOR LIVNAT
YAAKOV MARGI
STAS MISEJNIKOV
MESHULAM NAHARI
YOSSI PELED
SILVAN SHALOM
YUVAL SHTEINITZ
MOSHE YA'ALON
ELI YISHAI
Question: 4
EHUD BARAK
DAN MERIDOR
YAAKOV NE'EMAN
GIDEON SA'AR
Note that Netanyahu himself is not on the list, and all four who have come out in favor of extending the freeze belong to Labor. That raises another issue: Will Labor leave the coalition if Abu Bluff blows up the talks over the freeze? Ehud Barak is the only one who ever wanted to be in the coalition in the first place, and I'm not sure he's necessary any more.
Hmmm.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:03 PM
1 Comments:
The proposals floated to extend the freeze look like Israel giving the Palestinians something for nothing and its also rewarding them for intransigence. Punishing Jews for Arab perfidy is not only stupid, its immoral.
The Palestinians are free to raise the demand at the table. But only if they give Israel something to compensate for it should it even be considered.
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