Support for freeze eroding?
You will recall that when we last took a headcount of the 15-member security cabinet (please forgive me for not finding a link - it's late) on the 'settlement freeze' extension, the vote was 7 in favor, 6 against and 2 Shas abstaining. The Shas abstentions may well become votes against, as has been discussed several times over the last few days. Now, at least one of those originally in favor may also be switching to voting against. But this switch ought to light a red light for Prime Minister Netanyahu. It's Education Minister Gidon Saar, one of Netanyahu's own loyalists in the Likud. Is the new freeze on Jewish construction falling apart? Education Minister Gideon Saar, considered one of the main backers of the proposal, is now stipulating his support on written American guarantees that no additional freeze be demanded of Israel – as Prime Minister Netanyahu had claimed was promised by the US.Heh.
The proposal had only a slim majority of one in the Security Cabinet and now appears to have lost even that.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Gidon Saar, settlement freeze extension
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:33 AM
2 Comments:
Good luck to Netanyahu to get that in writing.
And that's not considering all the demands the Palestinians have raised to up the ante.
I don't see the freeze making much headway in the future.
imo Palestinian maximum demands have to be through right of return and other limiting mechanisms to truncate Israel back to Green line--otherwise they jeopardize their own claims--they can cripple Israel for eventual absorption but territorial demands up front can't go beyond Green line in Jerusalem and are hard to make elsewhere. If they ask for West Jerusalem now they give up East Jerusalem, since there are two bases for Jerusalem; the demarcation line split--they only get East--or the original partition--Jerusalem is an international city so they loose the East. They could try to move the goal post back to the original partition plan but this is a stretch; better to use that as the basis for a right of return if they plan to go that root.
Is there actually a freeze plan out there? is there any fire behind all that smoke?
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