Israel Matzav

Trump to Israel: 'Just do it (and stop talking about it)'!

On Thursday night, it was reported by Michael Wilner in the Jerusalem Post that Donald Trump believes in a 'two-state solution' and that Israel should stop making announcements that destroy that possibility.

The White House warned Israel on Thursday to cease settlement announcements that are “unilateral” and “undermining” of President Donald Trump’s effort to forge Middle East peace, a senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post.

For the first time, the administration confirmed that Trump is committed to a comprehensive two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict negotiated between the parties.

The official told the Post that the White House was not consulted on Israel’s unprecedented announcement of 5,500 new settlement housing units over the course of his first two weeks in office.

“As President Trump has made clear, he is very interested in reaching a deal that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is currently exploring the best means of making progress toward that goal,” the official said.

"With that in mind, we urge all parties to refrain from taking unilateral actions that could undermine our ability to make progress, including settlement announcements,” the official added. “The administration needs to have the chance to fully consult with all parties on the way forward.”

Trump plans to bring up the peace process in his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House scheduled for February 15.

The JINO (Jewish In Name Only) Left was overjoyed. But that joy was apparently premature. Trump is apparently as pro-Israel as he has always been. 

Trump says, shut up and build. That sounds more like Trump who is asking Israel to play smart and to move only when the table is in your favor.

“Not helpful in promoting peace,” said his White House spokesman today – and where have we heard that before?

Never from Trump. So something’s gone wrong and I don’t think it’s entirely Trump’s fault, nor do I think here we go again. He’s Obama all over again.

That won’t happen. But over the years some of us have noticed Israel’s habit of going public each time it hires an architect. As for me, it’s been an astonishment how Israel telegraphs every move, particularly when it comes to housing in Judea and Samaria.

Who asked? 

What other country does this? What other country stops the presses to announce -- Hello World, We’re Building More Homes.

Got a problem with that? – and in unison the world says yes.

That IS the wisdom of Chelm if you expect any other outcome, and that has to be the cause of Trump’s annoyance. Immediately Israel’s High Court gets into the act along with the “peace groups” and Haaretz and The New York Times and a day later France invites 70 countries for a Paris summit to denounce the Jewish State.

That leaves Trump boxed in and he says so himself, that it cramps his style and his space to maneuver.

How many times a day can he take on the entire world, as he’s been doing, and now must carry Israel on his back – as he has it figured. 

All for no good reason except that Israeli leaders do not know when to keep quiet. Instead they keep rubbing it in and keep asking for trouble.

The trouble comes when they speak loudly and then expect the United States to carry the big stick…like stopping the UN from another 2334.

Have we forgotten that personally Trump owes us nothing? The overwhelming majority of American Jews voted against him. He knows this.

The same majority protests his partial travel restrictions, which means that while he wants to keep anti-Semites out, we want them in.

Even pockets of Israelis were shown on television protesting Trump’s immigration pause. That hurt and it sure wasn’t “helpful” in terms of friendship.

Now we hear that Trump favors a two-state solution and where did he get that if not from Benjamin Netanyahu who keeps promoting that dangerous nonsense.

We can’t ask Trump to be more Jewish than the Jews or more Israeli than the Israelis.
Our only claim on Trump is that we are family. The United States and Israel share the same values.

Only Israel can be counted on through thick or thin throughout the region and he needs Israel as much as Israel needs him.

Trump knows this. But he’s asking Israel to play by new rules, which is to shut up and deal only when the time is right.

Wise advice indeed. 

Labels: Donald Trump, Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:24 PM 3 comments

Real change in US foreign policy?

Greetings from Boston, where I landed yesterday morning. A brief post and then back to work.

The Washington Post is reporting that the entire senior executive level at the State Department has resigned, apparently out of fear of what might happen in a Trump administration. Keeping in mind that most of the senior echelon in the State Department is Arabist, this may be good for Israel, notwithstanding reporter Josh Rogin's obvious discomfort with it.

[Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson was actually inside the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2, and that it was looking to replace the State Department’s long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that job for nine years, was actively involved in the transition and was angling to keep that job under Tillerson, three State Department officials told me.

Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, followed him out the door. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Kennedy will retire from the foreign service at the end of the month, officials said. The other officials could be given assignments elsewhere in the foreign service.

In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory Starr retired Jan. 20, and the director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, Lydia Muniz, departed the same day. That amounts to a near-complete housecleaning of all the senior officials that deal with managing the State Department, its overseas posts and its people.

“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”

All I can think of when I hear about the State Department securing diplomats is Benghazi, although that was clearly Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's fault, and not that of the State Department bureaucrats.

More encouraging is the fact that 'Palestinian' chief negotiator bottle washer Saeb Erekat is expressing  'shock' at President Trump's silence on Israeli 'settlement building.'

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced the approval of 2,500 housing units in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, in order to accommodate the housing needs of the residents and to return their daily routine to normal.

The announcement followed the approval earlier this week of 566 new housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Ramat Shlomo, Ramot and Pisgat Ze'ev.

While the United Nations and the European Union were quick to condemn the new construction, White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Tuesday declined to express a position on Israeli construction when asked about it in his daily press briefing.

"Israel continues to be a huge ally of the United States," Spicer said, when asked about Trump's perspective on the Israeli plan to implement the construction plans.

"He wants to grow closer to Israel to make sure it gets the full respect in the Middle East," he continued. "We'll have a conversation with the prime minister."

Responding on Wednesday to the White House refusing to comments, Erekat told AFP, "We used to hear condemnations, we used to hear American positions saying '(Israel) should stop settlement activities, it's an obstacle to peace.'"

"Not commenting, does that mean that President Trump is encouraging... settlement activities? We need an answer from the American administration," he added.

Life has sure changed for the 'Palestinians,' hasn't it? If they don't get to the table and negotiate (for real) soon without preconditions, there's not likely to be much left to negotiate about. This whiny series of diagrams regarding future Israeli building plans in Jerusalem appeared in Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' daily (HaAretz). If all of these plans go through, Jerusalem will thankfully be surrounded with Jewish children.

All of this follows on the heels of yesterday's news that the first act of the Trump-Tillerson State Department was to place a hold on the $221 million parting gift that former President Hussein Obama attempted to give the 'Palestinians' and that one of President Trump's first executive orders would suspend aid to the United Nations or any of its agencies if they recognize a 'Palestinian state.'

Much of this is, of course, a reversal of Obama administration policy implemented during the last administration's first days in office. But if it lasts, the world will be a very different place four or eight years from now.

Messiah's times?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Judea and Samaria construction, US State Department

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:04 PM 4 comments

Krauthammer incinerates Obama's 'shameful legacy'

In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer explains what was different about that UN Security Council resolution, and how the Obama administration stabbed Israel in the back by allowing its passage.

An ordinary Israeli who lives or works in the Old City of Jerusalem becomes an international pariah, a potential outlaw. To say nothing of the soldiers of Israel’s citizen army. “Every pilot and every officer and every soldier,” said a confidant of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, “we are waiting for him at The Hague,” i.e. the International Criminal Court.

Moreover, the resolution undermines the very foundation of a half-century of American Middle East policy. What becomes of “land for peace” if the territories that Israel was to have traded for peace are, in advance, declared to be Palestinian land to which Israel has no claim?

The peace parameters enunciated so ostentatiously by Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday are nearly identical to the Clinton parameters that Yasser Arafat was offered and rejected in 2000 and that Abbas was offered by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008. Abbas, too, walked away.

Kerry mentioned none of this because it undermines his blame-Israel narrative. Yet Palestinian rejectionism works. The Security Council just declared the territories legally Palestinian — without the Palestinians having to concede anything, let alone peace. What incentive do the Palestinians have to negotiate when they can get the terms — and territory — they seek handed to them for free if they hold out long enough?

Indeed. The Post can look back at this column from 2009 and realize that the 'Palestinians' were correct. 

Yet on Wednesday afternoon, as he prepared for the White House meeting in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, Abbas insisted that his only role was to wait. He will wait for Hamas to capitulate to his demand that any Palestinian unity government recognize Israel and swear off violence. And he will wait for the Obama administration to force a recalcitrant Netanyahu to freeze Israeli settlement construction and publicly accept the two-state formula.

Until Israel meets his demands, the Palestinian president says, he will refuse to begin negotiations. He won't even agree to help Obama's envoy, George J. Mitchell, persuade Arab states to take small confidence-building measures. "We can't talk to the Arabs until Israel agrees to freeze settlements and recognize the two-state solution," he insisted in an interview. "Until then we can't talk to anyone."

And what the Post doesn't mention is that Netanyahu is reported to have offered even more in 2013.

If Hillary Clinton had won November's election, Israel would now have its back to the wall. Fortunately, Donald Trump won the election, and if he is willing to go to the wall in Israel's defense, perhaps this disgraceful resolution can be mitigated.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Donald Trump, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction, John Kerry, Judea and Samaria construction, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorists, settlement freeze

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:21 PM 2 comments

State Department denies threatening Israel over 'settlement' construction

The State Department has denied reports that it has threatened Israel with non-use of its UN veto if Israel pursues 'settlement' construction.

Deputy State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said that while his office was aware of such reports in the press, they were “false.” 

“Our position on settlements is well known and hasn’t changed,” he said. “We convey it regularly to the Israeli Government. I know we don’t generally comment on private conversations, but I’d like to nip that story in the bud. We haven’t issued any kind of ultimatum on this.” 

Toner emphasized that far from issuing any such ultimatum regarding a UN resolution, “there’s not even a resolution out there right now.” 

At a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls by senior ministers for construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank in response to an increase in Palestinian terrorism. 

According to Channel 2, Netanyahu refusal to authorize new construction was due to a purported Obama administration warning that the US wouldn’t necessarily veto a French-sponsored resolution at the United Nations Security Council. 

... 

Washington’s reported threat to not veto the motion at the UN came shortly after a Politico report which said US President Barack Obama had rejected multiple calls by a top Democratic senator that he speak out publicly against a Palestinian statehood resolution at the United Nations. 

Obama’s refusal, the report said, “highlights how wide the gulf between the Obama administration and Israeli government has become.” The rebuff “unfolded in the context of a personal relationship between Obama and Netanyahu that’s become highly toxic, poisoning US-Israeli relations more widely.” 

In March, the administration signaled that it would reevaluate its automatic-veto policy at the UN, after Netanyahu asserted in a pre-election interview that there would be no Palestinian state during his tenure.

Let's just say that I would not put it past this administration to withhold the veto - certainly on a resolution condemning 'settlement' construction, and even on a resolution calling for a 'Palestinian state' and holding out the threat of sanctions under Article VII of the United Nations charter.

It's that bad.

What could go wrong?

 

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, United Nations Security Council, US veto

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:31 PM 0 comments

Wow: Jewish Home MK disses Obama

ח"כ @Ayelet__Shaked מיד ב"אולפן פתוח": "כמו שאני לא קובעת לאובמה מי שריו, הוא לא צריך לקבוע לנו. והם גם לא צריכים להתערב בבנייה ביו"ש"
— ערוץ הכנסת (@knesset99) March 23, 2015

For the Hebrew impaired, the tweet above is from a Knesset Channel (like CSpan in the US) interview with MK Ayelet Shaked, number 2 on the Jewish Home party list and a likely minister in the next Netanyahu government. She says "Just like I don't decide who Obama's ministers are, he shouldn't decide for us. And they also should not be interfering in construction in Judea and Samaria."

She's obviously trying to tell Obama that Israel is a democracy, that the people have spoken, and that it's not his place to interfere.

Somehow, I don't think that message is going to be treated fondly on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

Labels: Ayelet Shaked, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem construction, Jewish Home party, Judea and Samaria construction, Knesset elections 2015

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:04 PM 1 comments

De facto building freeze confirmed

Here's the truth: All those announcements that our government has made about building in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria are for domestic consumption. The reality is that housing starts in Judea and Samaria dropped by a whopping 62.4% in the first three quarters 2014. And the building in Jerusalem may not have crossed the green line.

Data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday showed that ground was broken on 935 homes in Judea and Samaria from January to September of this year, compared with 2,487 during the same period in 2013.

Settler building makes up only 2.8% of the 32,850 country wide housing starts. But the largest drop in construction occurred in Judea and Samaria, compared to an overall decline of 7.4%, according to the CBS.

Housing starts in Jerusalem, in comparison, grew by 20.6% in the first three quarters of this year, compared with last year. But the CBS does not provide data that shows how much occurred over the pre-1967 lines in Jerusalem.

I'm sure the State Department will be happy.

Labels: Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, settlement freeze, US State Department

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:39 PM 0 comments

What really gets Washington riled up

A good something (morning?) from about 40 minutes out of London. Still over two hours to sunrise there.

If you think Washington got excited about a terror attack on Tuesday, wait until you see how much more excited they get over - you guessed it - the construction of 78 Jewish homes in Jerusalem. Nothing could be more 'harmful' to 'the cause of peace.'

According to Reuters, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke stressed Washington's "clear and consistent opposition to construction activity in East Jerusalem."

"During this sensitive time in Jerusalem, we would see such activity as inconsistent with the goal of lower tensions and seeking a path toward peace," he added.

The latest criticism from Washington was made after the Jerusalem municipality approved the construction of 78 new homes for Jews in Jerusalem.

Municipal spokeswoman Brachie Sprung said 50 homes will be built in Har Homa and 28 in Ramot.

Yeah, I'm sure that's what motivated those two shmucks to go into a synagogue and murder people in the middle of prayers. Because there's nothing more inciting than building homes for people to live in.

PS I keep forgetting to throw this out: Can you imagine the outrage in the world if someone went in and shot up a mosque in the middle of prayers?

Labels: Jerusalem construction, Palestinian terrorism, State Department obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:17 AM 4 comments

Of course: Security Council to hold 'emergency session' over Israeli construction in Jerusalem

The massacre of hundreds of thousands of Syrians - first by Assad and then by Islamic State - doesn't merit a Security Council meeting. The massacre of thousands of Kurds by Islamic State doesn't merit one either. Nor does Iran's unwillingness to accept any limitations on its burgeoning nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles program. But 1,000 Jewish apartments in Jerusalem - that's something for the Security Council to call an 'emergency.'

The UN Security Council will hold an "emergency meeting" on Wednesday to discuss Israeli plans to build more Jewish homes in Jerusalem, diplomats said.

The "urgent" talks were requested by Jordan following a letter from Palestinian Authority envoy Riyad Mansour who called on the 15-member council to "address this crisis situation in occupied east Jerusalem."

The announcement follows harsh criticism by senior Israeli officials of the negative international response to building projects for Jews in Jerusalem. 

Contrary to Mansour's statement, the building plans announced include neighborhoods throughout Jerusalem, and not just in its eastern sector. "East Jerusalem" is a euphemism for parts of the capital liberated from Jordanian forces, when Jerusalem was reunited by Israeli forces after the 1967 Six Day War.

If there were a Republican in power, the US would announce in advance an intention to veto any anti-Israel resolution, and that might even thwart the meeting in its tracks. But with Obama and Power, you know this is going to come down to the last minute, and Israel may be condemned or worse.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, United Nations Security Council, US veto

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:11 PM 2 comments

Netanyahu, Edelstein hit back at Obama

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein have both hit back at the Obama administration's criticism of Israeli construction in 'east' Jerusalem. This is from the first link.

Netanyahu, at a ground-breaking ceremony for a new port in Ashdod, said Israel would continue to build new ports, pave roads, lay rail road tracks and “continue to build in our eternal capital.”

“I heard the claim that our building in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem makes peace more distant, but it is the criticism itself that makes peace more distant,” Netanyahu said of criticism that poured in following his announcement of plans to develop 660 more units in Ramot Shlomo in the northern part of the city and 400 in the southern neighborhood of Har Homa.

This criticism, he said, is “detached from reality” and feeds false Palestinian hopes.

...

Netanyahu said the international community remains quiet when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “incites to the murder of Jews in Jerusalem,” but strongly condemns Israel when it builds in Jerusalem.

“I don't accept that double standard,” he said. “We built in Jerusalem, we build in Jerusalem, and we will continue to build in Jerusalem.”

Arutz Sheva adds (quoting Netanyahu):

"The French build in Paris, the English build in London - that's the same as Israel building in Jerusalem," he concluded. "We will continue to build in Jerusalem and will continue to build here in Ashdod."

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein also slammed Obama.

"Building in Jerusalem is not something to be done under the table or under the cover of night," Edelstein told Arutz Sheva.

"It has been part of the policy of every Israeli government and anyone who even thinks that in a peace agreement we will need to evacuate (the Jerusalem neighborhoods) Gilo, Talpiot and Pisgat Ze'ev apparently doesn't understand what they're talking about," added the MK.

...

The Knesset Chairman emphasized that currently there are more than 350,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria, and "the overwhelming majority of them are people of action who are dedicated to the state, and there is no reason to discriminate between them and others."

"Just as the north and the south must be developed, and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - so too there is room for student villages and neighborhoods in Samaria, Gush Etzion (in Judea) and Har Homa (in Jerusalem)," added Edelstein.

Meanwhile, Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator bottle washer, Tzipi Livni, criticized her own government.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, meanwhile, decried the move in an Israel Radio interview, saying these types of steps will make it more difficult for Israel to thwart Palestinian efforts in the UN Security Council .

Livni said while she feels that Israel has the right to build in Jerusalem, these announcements not only hurt Israel diplomatically, but also worsen the volatile security situation in the capital.

Livni was apparently for building in Jerusalem before she was against it. But the problem is that Israel is not actually building in Jerusalem (or in Judea and Samaria).

Indeed, many have argued that the solution to the current housing crisis in Israel lies precisely in the development of Judea and Samaria, a region which according to some estimates is over 90% unpopulated.

Instead, Netanyahu has until now imposed a covert freeze on Jewish construction. The newest announcements still leave much room for doubt as to whether they constitute a policy change, or are merely a case of political maneuvering giving the upcoming Likud primaries. Many similar announcements in the past have not actually led to any physical construction.

 And you thought the American government was weak?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, East Jerusalem, Har Homa, Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, Middle East peace process, Ramat Shlomo, Tzipi Livni, Yuli Edelstein

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:15 PM 2 comments

State Department calls Jerusalem construction 'illegitimate,' maintains claim to being 'most pro-Israel administration evah'

From State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki's Monday press briefing.

QUESTION: On Israel, could you talk about Israel accelerating new settlement units that was just announced today, and if you – we could just follow on last week. It just seems that there’s a little bit of acrimony between the U.S. and Israel right now surrounding the defense minister’s visit, Israel now with these settlements and what’s going on.

MS. PSAKI: Well, we’ve seen – they’ve been reports. There haven’t been an official announcement at this point in time. We’re certainly deeply concerned by the reports. We are engaging at the highest levels with the Israeli Government from our Embassy on the ground to get --

QUESTION: Does that mean the President’s called?

MS. PSAKI: No. We’re – I said on the ground – from our Embassy on the ground to get more information. And we continue to make our position absolutely clear that we view settlement activity as illegitimate and unequivocally oppose unilateral steps that prejudge the future of Jerusalem. Israel’s leaders have said they would support a pathway to a two-state solution, but moving forward with this type of action would be incompatible with the pursuit of peace, and that is certainly a message that we are conveying directly.

In terms of our relationship, the defense relationship, as you know, remains as strong as ever and the ties between us are unshakable. There are times when we disagree with actions of the Israeli Government, including settlements, the issue of settlements, where we have deep concerns about some of the steps the government is taking. We express those, but it does not mean that we don’t have a strong and formidable relationship that continues.

The areas in which Israel approved construction over the weekend - Ramat Shlomo and Har Homa - are nowhere near any 'Palestinians' (okay, they're both near 'Palestinians,' but the areas in which the construction was approved are adjacent to already-existing Jewish housing). 

The State Department is hung up on steps that 'prejudge the future of Jerusalem,' but through its opposition to construction in the city, it is prejudging the future of Jerusalem (and of the entire enterprise of a 'Palestinian state') by ensuring that the 'Palestinians' have no incentive to compromise on their zero sum demands. Israel has shown (Gaza disengagement) that it is willing to uproot 'settlements' (although it would need far stronger assurances that real peace is at hand than are currently on the horizon) for even a remote chance of peace. 'Settlements' are not an obstacle to peace. 'Settlements' are the only consequences that might have any hope on having any effect on the recalcitrance of the 'Palestinians.' by declaring 'settlements' 'illegitimate,' the United States ensures that the 'Palestinians' have NO incentive to compromise.

Additionally, the lack of construction has led to an impossible housing crisis in the city in which most construction is luxury construction that is being sold to foreign investors at prices that young couples can only dream about having the money to pay. A storage room with a window and a corner walled off as a bathroom can rent for nearly $1,000 per month in many neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

There's much more that's disturbing in this briefing and I suspect it's only going to get worse as there will be no consequences for Obama's behavior over the next two years and two months after November 4.

Labels: Har Homa, Jen Psaki, Jerusalem construction, Ramat Shlomo, State Department obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:42 AM 1 comments

Monkey Moon bashes Israel for non-existent 'settlement construction'

Moadim l'Simcha, a happy holiday to all of you.

Just a day after Housing Minister Uri Ariel admitted that there is a de facto building freeze in Judea, Samaria and 'east' Jerusalem, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon attacked Israel for 'settlement building.'

Ban was in Ramallah, where he held a joint news conference with Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Just a day earlier he justified Hamas terrorism by saying its cause is Israeli "occupation," at a Cairo donor conference on Sunday that raised $5.4 billion for Gaza.

"While rebuilding is important, we must tackle the root causes of instability. We must give renewed attention to the West Bank. I once again strongly condemn the continued settlement activity by Israel," said Ban on Monday, according to AFP.

The statement may be a reference to construction plans in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Hamatos that far-left group Peace Now raised to thwart Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit with US President Barack Obama two weeks ago.

The move was in fact merely the approval of building tenders at some future date in the Jewish neighborhood of Israel's capital, and leaves intact the building freeze gripping the area.

Moon also attacked 'provocations' on the Temple Mount after Israeli police prevented 'Palestinians' from preventing Jews from ascending the Mount (you should have heard all the noise around 6:00 am this morning) by locking them in the al-Aqsa mosque.

"I am...deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem. These only inflame tensions and must stop," said Ban.

There's more - read the whole thing. It has to make you wonder why Israel bothers to be in the United Nations at all. 

Labels: Ban Ki-Moon, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, Palestinian Authority, Ramallah, Temple Mount

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:42 PM 1 comments

Is Givat HaMatos such a big deal? Not in Washington

Shavua tov v'shana tova to all of you - a good week and a good year.

On Thursday, I reported on Prime Minister Netanyahu's reaction to the Obama administration going ballistic again over construction in 'east' Jerusalem. If you thought the article I blogged there was over the top, please consider this one from Haaretz's Barak Ravid.

The latest quandary embarrassed Netanyahu. It destroyed his last shreds of credibility and gave a strange, almost ridiculous twist to his speech at the UN and his statement to Obama about integrating the moderate Arab states in the peace process. The new, strategic idea he had brought up now seemed like another one of his spins.

President Obama and his senior advisers go nuts every time they hear the word settlement. They see Israel’s international isolation deepening and the Palestinians advancing a unilateral move in the Security Council, while they have to deal every Monday and Thursday with crises produced by settlements.

“How do such things help me to help you?” Obama asked Netanyahu. Obama and his aides cannot understand how Netanyahu thinks he could advance relations with the moderate Arab states as long as construction in the settlements continues.

“Those moves not only poison the atmosphere with the Palestinians, but also with those Arab states Netanyahu said he wants to build relations with,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, shortly after Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu.

At his meeting with reporters, Netanyahu rejected Earnest’s criticism, but did not attack Obama harshly or personally. He used diplomatic clichés to downplay the fiasco. “The tones weren’t loud,” he said. “The conversation was good and open. I highly appreciate the president’s attentiveness.”

But it was clear Obama did not invite Netanyahu to stay for lunch, preferring instead to dine alone with Vice President Joe Biden. One can only guess who those two gossiped about.

But Times of Israel's Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, who unlike Ravid lives in Washington, says it's no big deal. 

For all the strong language in the Washington statements, according to insiders here, the administration is not interested in turning the issue of Israel’s plans to build some 2,600 units on the southeast Jerusalem hillside into a full-blown crisis.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, East Jerusalem, Givat HaMatos, Jen Psaki, Jerusalem construction, Peace Now, Silwan, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:49 AM 0 comments

Deja vu all over again: Netanyahu slams Obama for speaking without checking the facts

Where have we heard this story before? A White House meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Hussein Obama is accompanied by an Israeli 'announcement' that it would 'move ahead' with the construction of 2,610 housing units in 'east Jerusalem.' The White House and the State Department blast Netanyahu within an hour after he leaves the White House.

Officials chose to publicly admonish the Israeli government only an hour after its premier left the building, presumably deciding on the language as the two leaders met in the Oval Office.

"This development will only draw condemnation from the international community," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said afterwards. "It also would call into question Israel's ultimate commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians."

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki came out with similar language as Netanyahu departed for Joint Base Andrews air force base.

But the apartments were approved in 2012.

The homes will be built in Givat Hamatos, an area of the city that Palestinians believe should be a part of their future state.

The Jerusalem Municipality approved the project in December 2012, but waited almost two years - until the date of the bilateral meeting - to place news of the approval in a local Israeli paper, according to Peace Now, an organization opposed to Israel's presence beyond its 1967 borders.

Really? They weren't announced until now? Hmmm.

Prime Minister Netanyahu harshly rejected the criticism, which now seemed to deal as much with seven existing buildings in Silwan, and not with 2,610 apartments in Givat HaMatos. This is from the first link in the paragraph.

Netanyahu, in a briefing in New York with reporters who accompanied him on his trip to the US, said that as Israel’s prime minister he did not understand the criticism of Jews legally buying and moving into property in Jerusalem.

“Arabs in Jerusalem freely buy apartments, and nobody says that is forbidden. I will also not say that Jews cannot buy property in Jerusalem. There cannot be discrimination between Jews and Arabs,” he said.

Netanyahu said that nobody “stole” the houses in Jerusalem or took them over by force. “This is a normal process, and I see no reason to discriminate,” he said.

Just hours before, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the US condemned the “occupation of residential buildings in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem -- this is near the old city -- by individuals who are associated with an organization whose agenda, by definition, stokes tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Earnest said that the moves by Elad are “provocative acts” that only serve “to escalate tensions at a moment when those tensions have already been high.”

Earnest also slammed Israel in very harsh language for moving forward with planning for homes in the Givat Hamatos area in south Jerusalem. The anti-settlement Peace Now group made another technical step taken at the local planning level last week on Givat Hamatos public on Wednesday, just prior to the Obama-Netanyahu meeting.

“This step is contrary to Israel's stated goal of negotiating a permanent status agreement with the Palestinians,” Earnest said.

“This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from even its closest allies, poison the atmosphere, not only with the Palestinians but also with the very Arab governments with which Prime Minister Netanyahu said he wanted to build relations.”

Oh, and by the way, it wasn't Netanyahu's government that made that 'poorly timed' announcement about Givat HaMatos during the meeting. It was 'Peace Now.'

Without mentioning Peace Now by name, Netanyahu said the group demonstrated a “lack of national responsibility” by publicizing this in order to “harm the meeting.” He said that it was not a “coincidence” that Peace Now publicized the information on Wednesday morning, and that it was meant to sabotage his meeting with Obama.

Netanyahu also said that neither Silwan nor Givat HaMatos came up during his meeting with Hussein Obama. But Israel Radio reports that they did come up.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly leveled unusually stern criticism of the White House's decision to criticize Israeli plans to build 1,610 homes in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem during his meeting with President Barack Obama.

Israeli public radio quoted Netanyahu as telling Obama in talks in Washington Wednesday to "study the facts and details before making statements" about the building plan.

...

Netanyahu's reported comments to Obama echoed similar statement he made to journalists following the meeting, in which he rejected US criticism as discriminatory.

"It’s worth learning the information properly before deciding to take a position like that," he said of the statement.

But the bottom line is that as much as it may bother Obama, both he and Netanyahu now recognize that the 'Palestinian question' is not a high priority item. The difference between them is that Netanyahu still regards Iran as the priority, while Obama is much more concerned about Islamic State. Of course, Obama is not concerned enough to take effective action against Islamic State, but we've heard that one before as well.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, East Jerusalem, Givat HaMatos, Iranian nuclear threat, Islamic State, Jerusalem construction, Peace Now, Silwan, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:10 PM 2 comments

This is sure to draw the ire of Obama and Ban Ki-Moon

In a move that is likely to draw the ire of US President Hussein Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the Jerusalem City Council may reconsider its approval of 2,200 new housing units for Arabs - the only kind of housing units in Jerusalem of which the 'international community' approves.

[Jerusalem Councilman and former mayoral candidate Moshe] Leon said this is the first time Arab construction in the capital is being approved on such a large scale. He warned that the decision would encourage rampant illegal Arab building and create an unbroken chain of Arab neighborhoods from the north to the south on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

Such a move threatens the demographic balance in eastern Jerusalem, where roughly 200,000 Jews live alongside 230,000 Arab residents.

Leon's initiative may succeed in stopping the housing approval, given that members of the hareidi parties on the Jerusalem council supported Leon when he ran for mayor against incumbent Mayor Nir Barkat, and may support him again in the new push.

"It's not a case of Jews against Arabs, and it isn't a political crisis," clarified Leon. "There's a problem here with management and prioritization."

"At a time when thousands of young families can't find a place to live in Jerusalem, or can't hold up under the cost of housing - the mayor chooses to give a prize to criminals that took over land and built illegally, and he approves this project," said Leon. 

The talk of rewarding criminals comes at a time when several Arab-majority neighborhoods have been the source of massive violent rioting in addition to illegal construction, and after a report on Monday revealed that in the past few months terror attacks in Jerusalem have been growing exponentially.

Leon warned "advancing this project will be a grave mistake for Jerusalem."

Read the whole thing.  It is ridiculous that at a time when Jewish construction is essentially frozen in Jerusalem, Arab construction is going ahead.

Labels: East Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:39 PM 0 comments

It's about time: Israel responds to Hamas-Fatah pact

This could be the start of something big. Israel is finally responding in an effective way to the Hamas-Fatah unity government: It has announced 3,000 housing starts in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

The units, which were originally to be approved with release of a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners at the end of March that was never carried out, will include 400 units in Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem, and another 1,100 to be divided between the settlements of Efrat, Beitar Ilit, Adam and Givat Ze’ev. In addition, another 1,500 will be approved for construction in other settlements throughout the West Bank.

...

The announcement of further construction comes amid a serious policy disagreement with the US over its approach to the new Palestinian unity government. US Secretary of State John Kerry pledged continued allegiance on Wednesday to strong security ties with Israel, even as he reiterated the US would engage the new government backed by Hamas.

Speaking at a press conference in Beirut, Kerry – asked why the US felt it had to “recognize the unity Palestinian government immediately” – stressed that Washington does not recognize a “government with respect to Palestine, because that would recognize a state, and there is not a state.”

Kerry said he has had daily conversations with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on this matter as “a friend, as well as the prime minister of the country.” He stressed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas assured him “this new technocratic government is committed to the principles of nonviolence, negotiations, recognizing the State of Israel, acceptance of the previous agreements and the Quartet principles, and that they will continue their previously agreed upon security cooperation with Israel.”

...

The secretary of state reiterated the US position that Hamas is a terrorist organization, which has not accepted the Quartet principles and continues to call for the destruction of Israel, “even as it moves into this new posture.”

“Israel is our friend, our strong ally” Kerry said, adding that the US-Israeli security relationship has never been as strong as it is now under President Barack Obama.

“We are deeply committed. We’ve said again and again the bonds of our relationship extend way beyond security,” he said. “They are time-honored and as close, I think, as any country in the world. We will stand by Israel, as we have in the past. There is nothing that is changing our security relationship. That is ironclad.”

Be that as it may, Israel did nothing to hide its deep disappointment with the US policy, with Netanyahu saying Tuesday he was “deeply troubled by the announcement that Washington will work with the Palestinian government backed by Hamas.

Meanwhile, 'Palestinian' chief negotiator bottle washer Saeb Erekat is threatening to take Israel to court. .

Let's go to the videotape.



Here's more:

“We urge the Israeli government to refrain from any punitive actions,” Erekat told a small group of journalists and diplomats who traveled with him Tuesday to the outskirts of a small Beduin encampment in Area C of the West Bank, just outside of Jerusalem.

“If they [Israelis] go ahead in the line of escalation, we will react,” Erekat said.

...

“We want to give them [Israelis] a heads-up that we are planning to pursue our case internationally.”

He explained the Palestinians would write letters to the member states of the four Geneva Conventions, which among other topics, deal with the issue of war crimes.

“We’ll ask them [member states] to shoulder their responsibility vis-a-vis the occupying power [Israel], vis-a-vis the atrocities and the crimes that are being committed against the Palestinian population in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza,” Erekat said. “We think Israelis and their legal [experts] know what this means.”

The Palestinians also plan to pursue Israel through the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which deals with acts of Apartheid, he said.
In 2014, the international community should “not stomach” the use of an apartheid system, Erekat said.

“Instead of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state we should recognize Israel as the apartheid state.”

He explained he had chosen to visit the Jabal Al-Baba Beduin camp because it is located in an area called E1, where Israel plans to build 3,500 new homes, for the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.

Under that plan, this particular hilltop would have a commercial center and an army post. While plans for E1 are frozen, Erekat and members of the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department that led the tour, believe they will be carried out.

They said Israel would forcibly relocate the Beduin from the hilltop to make way for Jewish building.

Forced displacement is a war crime, Erekat said, as is the Israeli demolition of Beduin structures that has already taken place in the encampment.

“We are preparing ourselves for the defense of our people including the option of signing the Rome Statute,” Erekat said. While the Palestinians are prepared to turn to the international court, they are first focused on using the legal instruments afforded them under the 15 conventions they have already signed, he said.

Israel, in turn, has warned the Palestinians that their signatures on these conventions means they are liable for acts of violence against Israel by Hamas, especially rockets launched from Gaza to Israel’s southern cities.

Read the whole thing. I wonder whether this would be brought up with the court at the same time....

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, E-1, East Jerusalem, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, human shields, Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, Middle East peace process, Saeb Erekat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:06 AM 0 comments

I'm sure we'll hear how this is 'destroying peace'

With some modifications, Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday approved the extension of the Begin Highway in Jerusalem to hook up with the Gush Etzion tunnel road at the southern end of the city. The extension was being held up by objections from residents of Beit Tzefafa, a 'Palestinian' neighborhood on the city's southern edge which claimed that the new highway would cut their neighborhood into pieces.

Despite the overall ruling, the court did make some modifications based on the Beit Safafa residents' wishes, cancelling certain road-networks around the main road and demanding that the state produce a new master-plan before it could move ahead with those issues.  

The battle over the 1.8 km highway has gone on for years, with the state periodically making partial compromises toward the wishes of the residents, but never enough to gain the residents' acquiescence.

Residents of Beit Safafa, located in southeast Jerusalem near Gilo, opposed the extension of the Begin Highway towards the Tunnel Road that leads to Gush Etzion because the highway cuts through the middle of their neighborhood and slices it into multiple sections.

The state wanted the highway extension to improve overall travel within the city, which it said will also pay large economic dividends.

The state had had the upper hand, having won approval from the Jerusalem District Court in February 2013 to continue building the road which is already under way.

At a mid-October 2013 hearing, Supreme Court President Asher D. Grunis seemed to press the residents for compromises, as he demanded they narrow their objections to a few specific items which the state might be able to address.

The residents hammered away at two main points. The first was that there needed to be much more extensive overpasses to enable them to travel easily within the neighborhood without getting blocked by the new highway extension.

The second was that there needed to be much more extensive walls separating the highway from the areas it crossed through, since in some areas it is set to run within three meters or less of residents' houses.

The state said that it had already agreed to 180 meters of walls plus some overpasses to answer the residents' objections.

It had added that the residents' requests for additional walling and overpasses was simply not physically manageable given the layout of the neighborhood and the road and that the residents' maximum requests would costs over an additional NIS 100 million.

 Waiting for the EU and US to protest in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1....

Labels: East Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:19 PM 0 comments

Netanyahu slams EU hypocrisy

Prime Minister Netanyahu has slammed the European Union after Israeli ambassadors in London, Paris and Rome were summoned over Israel's construction plans in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

"This is hypocrisy. The EU calls our ambassadors in because of the construction of a few houses? When did the EU call in the Palestinian ambassadors about incitement that calls for Israel's destruction?" Netanyahu asked foreign correspondents at his annual new year reception.

"It's time to stop this hypocrisy," he said. "This imbalance... doesn't advance peace, I think it pushes peace further away."

The European move was apparently coordinated.

Foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP that Israeli ambassadors in London, Rome and Paris were summoned "in protest" over the settlement plans, which were unveiled last Friday.

Palmor said that the move was coordinated between the three governments and that it was possible other European governments might have matched the move.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office told AFP the Israeli ambassador was summoned "over the Israeli government's recent decision to announce new settlement tenders".

Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Simon Fraser "made clear that settlement announcements had a detrimental impact on an atmosphere conducive to productive talks. The UK urged Israel to refrain from further such announcements," the spokesman said.

I keep saying we should stop announcing it and just do it....

JPost adds:

Calling the claim that settlements are an obstacle to a peace agreement “bogus,” Netanyahu – speaking at an annual reception in Jerusalem for foreign journalists – blasted the EU move, and asked when was the last time the EU countries called in the PLO ambassadors to “complain about incitement to Israel’s destruction,” or to protest that security officers from the Palestinian Authority were participating in terrorist attacks against innocent Israelis.

...

The prime minister, who took only three questions on topics he was informed about in advance, stressed that the settlement announcements did not breach any commitment that Israel took upon itself when it entered the talks with the Palestinians last July.

It was clear to both the Americans and the Palestinians that Israel undertook no restraints on construction, the prime minister said. This was an unspoken, unwritten part of the deal that was very clear to everyone, he said.

“Adding a few houses will not change the map an iota,” Netanyahu said.

He asked if the Palestinians were looking to create an “ethnically cleansed state.”

The article goes on to describe Prime Minister Netanyahu's Wednesday meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah, and says that Jordan is not opposed to Israel remaining present in the Jordan Valley.

Diplomatic officials said that Jordan was very concerned about the future security arrangements in the Jordan Valley, and according to some reports was not opposed – as the Palestinians are – to an Israeli security presence there following a peace accord and establishment of a Palestinian state.

I'll bet. 

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, European anti-Semitism, European Union, Jerusalem construction, Jordan Valley, Jordanian King Abdullah, Judea and Samaria construction

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:52 AM 0 comments

'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 0 comments

Abu Mazen threatens

And we start the new year pretty much where the old one left off....

'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen  is threatening to take Israel to the International Criminal Court, to the UN General Assembly, and to just about anyplace else he thinks he can get a sympathetic hearing, to stop the 'settlement construction cancer.'

"We will not remain patient as the settlement cancer spreads, especially in (eastern) Jerusalem, and we will use our right as a UN observer state by taking political, diplomatic and legal action to stop it," declared Abbas.

The PA Chairman went on to accuse Israel of "escalation on all fronts," which he claimed "threaten to destroy the two-state solution." His statement refers to IAF responses to the fatal shooting of an IDF civilian worker outside Gaza last Tuesday, and to ongoing rocket attacks.

If Netanyahu's calculation in agreeing to release terrorists to get the 'Palestinians' to 'negotiate' was that he'd rather give an incentive that doesn't go to the heart of the negotiations, Abu Mazen's seems to have been to take what he could get  in the form of a terrorist release, and then to pretend - to applause from the 'international community' - that Israel also agreed to freeze 'settlement construction.'

What could go wrong?

Labels: Abu Mazen, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorists, settlement freeze

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:30 AM 0 comments

Building in Jerusalem is about Jewish rights

A great piece on building in Jerusalem by Nadav Shragai (who, incredibly, used to write for Haaretz!) in Israel HaYom.

We've almost forgotten, but Zionism was formed in Zion. Building in Jerusalem -- the manifestation of the Jewish right to return to the homeland -- is Zionism. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his European counterparts may not applaud those sentiments, but its high time we got used to that. More importantly -- Kerry has, for months, been speaking to us in one language, the language of security and security arrangements. We need to remind Kerry that Jews are living in Jerusalem and other cities and towns in Israel because of our bond and right to the land itself, not for the sake of security. We absolutely need to hold a discussion with Kerry and his counterparts about Jewish rights. That's what the Palestinians have done and that's what we need to do. Security is indeed a goal in and of itself, but it's also a means, and we tend to ignore that fact. Building in Jerusalem is the perfect reminder that we are living here in Israel not simply thanks to our might (which is extremely important), but more importantly by the might of our right.

Whether or not we release terrorists from prison, we must speed up our building in and around Jerusalem for other reasons as well. There's a struggle in the city and its environs that the public does not know about. That struggle is going to determine whether Israel could divide Jerusalem -- as the Left so desires -- or not. As Israelis and Palestinians compete to develop various parts of the city (most Palestinian development is illegal), urban contiguity is called into question. 

Take, for example, the Jewish neighborhood in Shimon Hatzadik-Sheikh Jarrah, which is only half finished. The city, under government orders, has halted construction. Once complete, the community would connect the neighborhoods of Ramot Eshkol and Maalot Dafna with Mount Scopus, where the Hadassah Medical Center and Hebrew University are located. If we don't tighten our grip on Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon Hatzadik, the Palestinians are going to do it themselves, bolstering their claims to the area as part of a final arrangement. Disconnecting Mount Scopus from the rest of Jerusalem -- before 1967 it was tiny enclave administered by the U.N. -- is one of the possible outcomes of that scenario.

The picture is similar over the hills between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim (inside the E1 zone). The U.S. has so far prevented Israel from building there, but the consequences of that decision are acute: Either there will be contiguous Israeli development from west to east, connecting Maaleh Adumim to Jerusalem, or contiguous Palestinian development from north to south, which would sever Maaleh Adumim from the capital. In the meantime, the Israelis have stopped building, while the Bedouin, encouraged by the Palestinians to disregard the Israeli authorities, are continuing to build. Even the fragile Israeli link between downtown Jerusalem and the string of neighborhoods Israel built up after 1967 is not secure. Between the two, there are swaths of land that, lacking Israeli development, the Palestinians will utilize. 

Housing in the capital is also a pressing matter. Some 18,000 Jews leave the city every year. Prices have skyrocketed because of the great demand and minimal supply. The Arabs also use the demographic angle to their advantage -- the Jewish majority is shrinking all the time. For these reasons and more, when Israel decides to build, it needs to be in the direction of Jerusalem.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: borders and security, defensible borders, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, John Kerry

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:44 PM 1 comments