Israel Matzav

This too shall pass

Well, of course no one expected the world to be pleased that there are going to be homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria.

The government announced authorization of 851 new homes in the settlements despite an anticipated wave of international condemnations because it believes that – as in previous instances – the storm will pass, officials said on Thursday.

The officials spoke even as the US, France and UN already slammed the decision to build the new housing units.

The decision was made on Wednesday shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blocked Knesset legislation that would have saved unauthorized settler homes from demolition – paving the way for the evacuation of five buildings built on private Palestinian land in the Ulpana outpost, on the outskirts of Beit El.

“We had no illusions that the international community was going to embrace the move,” one official said. He pointed out, however, that with the exception of Kiryat Arba, all the new housing units were to be built in settlements that Israel considered as large settlement blocs that would remain part of Israel under any agreement.

He also said the units would be built within the confines of existing settlements, and did not represent the construction of new communities.

Read the whole thing if you can stand it.

And someone please explain to me why Jerusalem and 'refugees' are issues for 'final status talks' that cannot be changed from the current reality, while it is presumed that the borders with the 'Palestinian' reichlet have already been decided.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Judea and Samaria construction

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:48 AM