Israel Matzav

'Just not in front of John'

Under pressure from the United States, Prime Minister Netanyahu has agreed not to make any announcements about 'settlement construction' until Secretary of State John Kerry leaves the country.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had intended to announce the construction of 1,400 new homes in Judea and Samaria Tuesday, but decided at the last minute to put it off under US presure, reports Maariv/NRG.

Netanyahu will wait with the announcement until US Secretary of State John Kerry ends his current visit to Israel.

Initially, according to the report, Netanyahu had intended to wait two or three weeks with the announcement, because the US said that announcing the construction immediately after the release of Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist murderers would anger the PA and endanger the US-brokered “peace talks” between it and Israel.

However, the recent surge in terror attacks in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and pressure from nationalist ministers who felt that a release of terrorist murderers was more than they could accept, caused the government to decide to time the construction announcement to accompany the release of the terrorists.

The Ministry of Housing and Construction was about to issue the tenders for 1,400 new homes in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria Tuesday when a phone call from the Prime Minister's Office put the plan on hold. Government Secretary Avihai Mandelblit asked Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) to wait with the tenders, and they will probably be issued next week, after Kerry has left Israel.

I really don't care when they announce it. I care that the units get built. To this point, most of what I've seen is the same units being announced over and over again and nothing being built. 

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem construction, John Kerry, Judea and Samaria construction, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:50 PM