And again: 'Palestinian' terrorist stabs two supermarket shoppers
A 'Palestinian' terrorist walked into a Rami Levy supermarket in Mishor Adumim, in the Judean desert and stabbed two shoppers a short while ago. One of the shoppers was injured seriously, and the other was injured moderately.
Two people are injured in a stabbing attack Wednesday, after a
terrorist began attacking civilians at approximately 4:20 pm in a
Rami-Levy parking lot in Mishor Adumim, near Ma'ale Adumim in the
Jerusalem area.
Magen David Adom (MDA) forces arrived at the scene shortly after the
attack and began treating the injured. Both are men in their mid-50s and
suffering from shoulder and head wounds.
The terrorist was apprehended and has sustained light injuries by a security guard at the scene.
Initial reports indicated that the attack was a shooting, but MDA medics and Channel 2 reported
shortly after reports first aired that the attack was, in fact, a
stabbing - and that the terrorist was not shot and killed, but merely
injured.
In the aftermath of the Har Nof terror attack two weeks ago, there was a rumor going around that Rami Levy had fired all 1,500 of their 'Palestinian' employees and offered the jobs to Jews. I have not heard any confirmation of that rumor.
Silly me, I thought that Bedouins were nomads. If that's the case, how could they ever have had homes from which they could be 'refugees'?
But UNRWA is threatening Israel over a plan to move Bedouin from the area of E1 - between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim - to the Jericho area, which is further east.
"If such a plan were implemented this would ... give rise to concerns
that it amounts to a 'forcible transfer' in contravention of the Fourth
Geneva Convention" banning involuntary population relocation in
occupied territory, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said.
"It might also make way for further Israeli illegal settlement
expansion, further compromising the viability of a two-state solution,"
he said in a statement. "I urge the Israeli authorities not to
proceed with the transfer...and I also urge the donor and state
community to take a firm stand against it."
...
UNRWA added that most of those slated for resettlement to Jericho, in
the east of the Palestinian Authority territory, were registered
Palestinian refugees.
The IDF Civil Administration said there were various plans to rehouse Bedouin and they were being conducted in consultation with community leaders. "As part of the effort to draft master plans for the benefit of the area's Bedouin population, whose purpose is to enable the Bedouin to live in places with suitable infrastructure, dozens of meetings were held with Bedouin leaders," the Administration said in a written response to AFP. "Several plans to prepare such places have been advanced, partly through such meetings."
Why don't I hear any Bedouin protesting this plan? Hmmm.
A 'Palestinian' terrorist stabbed a security guard at the entrance to the city of Maaleh Adumim just east of Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon. The terrorist escaped. The security guard suffered moderate to severe wounds.
A terrorist stabbed a security guard at the entrance to the city of Maaleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem, Tuesday.
The guard suffered moderate to severe wounds. He fired at the
terrorist but apprently failed to hit him. The attacker ran away toward
the village of Azariyeh.
Magen David Adom medics gave the guard initial care and took him to Hadassah Har Hatzofim hospital.
Large police and Border Police forces are combing the area.
This is the third attack in 24 hours in the Jerusalem area. The police believe that in each case the terrorists were acting alone. This type of attack is almost impossible to prevent with intelligence.
The Palestinian factions recently encouraged PA residents to do just
this, in the knowledge that Israel will not be able to blame Hamas,
Fatah or any other group for the apparently "spontaneous" actions againt
its citizens.
On Monday, it was reported that the 19-year old who murdered one man and wounded six other people with a tractor was 'upset' because his cousin's home had recently been destroyed due to the cousin's participation in a terror attack. For those of you who wonder why Israel destroys terrorists' homes it's precisely because the family almost always knows what these people are up to and does not report it.
For the record, in the United States of America, if your home is used to commit a felony (e.g. it's being used to deal drugs), your home can be confiscated whether you knew about it or not. So think twice before you criticize. (I saw someone online in the US yesterday criticize the destruction of homes and he was quickly put down by this fact).
For those who missed it in my previous post, we spent a few minutes in our reinforced (it's not really hermetically sealed - no one is expecting chemical weapons) a short while ago. Sirens went off in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh and Maaleh Adumim among others. Iron Dome shot down two missiles.
The sirens alerting Israelis to incoming rockets sounded
Thursday afternoon in Jerusalem, Beyt Shemesh, Maaleh Adumim, Binyamin
and Samaria regions.
Initial reports say Iron Dome rockets intercepted two missiles over Jerusalem.
Additional details are not yet available.
This is the first time that we've had an alarm since Tuesday night.
They've had a busier day in the center of the country.
Hamas terrorists on Thursday afternoon launched yet another heavy
barrage of rockets at Israeli cities in the center of the country.
Sirens were heard in Ramle, Lod, Nes Tziyona, Yavne, and other areas
south of Rishon Lezion. Several of the missiles were destroyed
in mid-air by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, while others fell in open areas. No injuries or damage were reported.
The rockets at the central plain cities were a continuation of the
heavy barrage that Israel faced on Thursday, the third day of Operation
Protective Edge. Six missiles were fired at Tel Aviv Thursday, with a
barrage of four missiles fired at about 8 AM, as tens of thousands of
commuters were driving into the Tel Aviv area. Two more missiles were
fired at about 11:30 AM. All six were shot down by Iron Dome missiles.
No damage to any buildings was reported, although several cars were said
to have been struck by shrapnel. One woman was treated for shock in
Ramat Gan, Magen David Adom officials said.
On both occasions, warning sirens were heard in Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan,
Bnei Brak, Holon, and Bat Yam. Hamas took responsibility for at least
four of the rockets, with Islamic Jihad terrorists firing the other two.
This cannot continue. While thank God there have been few injuries and little property damage, the country's economy cannot continue like this.
I have just been told that Kol B'rama radio is reporting that one of the rockets may have fallen in the Shuafat 'refugee camp.' BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
UPDATE 8:50 PM
Where they hit... from the same link....
Iron Dome rockets intercepted two missiles over Jerusalem, out
of a total of four that were fired at it. No one was directly hurt, but a
74-year-old man in Kfar Adumim suffered a serious head injury as he ran
to the bomb shelter. He was taken to Hadassah Hospital where he is
under anesthesia, and being artificially respirated.
"Four rockets were fired at Jerusalem, of which two landed in open areas and two were intercepted," an army spokesman told AFP, without giving further details.
Witnesses and Palestinian security sources told AFP one rocket struck near Maaleh Adumim, while a second hit close to an Israeli military prison near Ramallah.
Three loud blasts could be heard around the city shortly after sirens wailed, sending people scrambling for shelter, AFP correspondents said.
Speaking at the event, Housing Minister Uri Ariel said that Israel
would not surrender to pressure “no matter what its source” on halting
Jewish settlement efforts in Judea and Samaria.
“The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people,” he said, adding
that “there are people who believe that if they follow the dictates of
the rest of the world in these matters we will have peace and quiet.”
Israel already succumbed to pressure and withdrew from Gaza, throwing
10,000 Jews out of their homes, Ariel said, and the results speak for
themselves. “Look at the missiles being fired at Beersheva, Sderot,
Ashkelon, and many other cities,” he said. “We cannot surrender. The
more we back down, the more they pressure us. As Housing Minister, I am
declaring before the Prime Minister that we are here to ensure that you
fulfill your promise to build here,” Ariel added.
Ariel invited leaders and members of the hareidi community to join
the efforts. “Together with the hareidi community we will strengthen the
world of Torah,” he said. “I call on them to settle Judea and Samaria
and strengthen the entire Land of Israel.”
Also speaking at the event was Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin,
who said that “the people have decided – we want building, not building
freezes, in the Land of Israel. We must remain determined, because
justice is with us.
“They are threatening us now with boycotts and demanding that we
accept conditions that will damage our security,” Elkin added. “We want
to create a solid belt of settlement in Jerusalem, from west to east,
and the Palestinians want to create their belt of settlement from north
to south.” E1 was where the showdown would take place, Elkin said.
“Someone will win in the end, and they are not prepared to surrender. We
must overcome the Palestinians and build in E1. Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu said this,” Elkin reminded listeners, referring to past
comments by the PM prior to taking office.
Also speaking at the event was Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir, who
said that the government “is with you. The reason I am in politics is to
be doing exactly this. I joined the government in order to raise my
hand at the right time and to say the right things. We will not lose
faith in the justice of our path, and only with faith will we be able to
complete our vision.”
"The participation of minsters from the government and Knesset MKs
reveals Netanyahu's [Prime Minister Binyamin] two-headed monster,"
Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said on Friday.
The rally on Thursday
took place at E1, which is an uninhabited area of the West Bank
settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. Settler leaders and Right-wing politicians
at the rally called for the state to build homes for Jews in the area.
"Today
it is clear that in the framework of a peace deal the city of Ma'aleh
Adumim will remain under Israeli sovereignty," Gal-On said.
Well, clear to everyone except the 'Palestinians' to whom Maaleh Adumim, Jaffa, Jerusalem and the tiniest outpost of Samaria are all the same....
Gal-On said that Katz and Ariel know that building in E1 would divide
east Jerusalem from the Palestinian populated areas of the West Bank and
it would lead to complete Israeli control of the eastern part of the
capital. The building would hinder the possibility for east Jerusalem
to be a capital of a future Palestinian state, would split the West Bank
in two and would prevent the Palestinian state from having any
territorial contiguity, the Meretz leader added.
Jews rally for housing in E1 (between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim)
Today is a (short) travel day, but it's snowing here in Boston and I have to work for a few hours so posting may be light. Or if I get stuck in an airport or use the WiFi on the plane it may not be so light....
For weeks now, I've been seeing signs about a rally in E1 - the area between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim in which the Obama administration prevented Israeli construction several months ago. The rally is on Thursday, and Deputy Defense Minister and MK Danny Danon (Likud) says Washington is watching.
There is no doubt that Washington will be watching, Danon told Arutz
Sheva. “It is important that the Americans observe the events, and that
they realize that there are limits to what a government led by the
national camp can do,” he said.
“I think that in the situation we are in today, there is great
significance to an event like this,” he said. Senior political leaders
from the Knesset and the coalition will be present, he said, “and will
tell the Prime Minister that there are things we cannot agree to, and
one of those things is [dividing] Jerusalem.”
“I’m sure they will follow this event in Jerusalem and in Washington,
and it’s a good thing, too. The message needs to be heard loud and
clear,“ he said.
“The Prime Minister, too, who will sit down with President Obama next
month, needs to make it clear that he represents a certain population,
with certain values,” Danon continued. “With all due respect to the
pressure Obama applies, when it comes to matters like compromising on
Jerusalem and evacuating Jews, that is something that [Netanyahu] cannot
do even if he were to agree.
“I hope he doesn’t agree,” Danon added. “But even if he does, he
needs to realize that politically speaking, there are things that can’t
be done.”
I hope a lot of people show up. According to my weather report, it's a warm and beautiful day in Jerusalem. The temperature is about 40 degrees warmer than here (which is 10 degrees warmer than it was here last night)....
Former 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Abu Allah (Ahmad Qrei) was arrested for speeding near Maaleh Adumim on Saturday. The car in which Abu Allah was traveling (yes, of course this poor 'Palestinian' has a Mercedes driven by a chauffeur) was caught going 145 kph (90 mph) in an 80 kph (50 mph) zone.
The car's driver ignored requests by Judea and Samaria police to stop, forcing them to block the road with a police car.
After being stopped, Qureia's car was held for roughly 2 hours as
passengers refused to open the doors or windows of the car, reports Kikar Shabbat.
Eventually with the involvement of General Eitan Dangot, Coordinator
of Government Activities in Judea and Samaria, the car was allowed to
continue. Qureia, the driver and another passenger were summoned for investigation
The Judea and Samaria-based Arab Ma'an News Agency initially claimed the former prime minister was arrested "for no particular reason."
This is not Qureia's first run-in with the law on the roads.
Qurei and the driver were detained for three hours, after which police
ordered them to appear before the police traffic division.
Initially
Qurei refused police requests to open his car window as he sat inside
the vehicle. It was only after the intervention of government
coordinator for activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot,
that Qurei was allowed to continue onward.
Palestinian sources
told the Ma'an news agency that Qurei refused to give police his or his
driver's identification papers. The incident will be among the topics
discussed during Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations on Sunday.
Maybe the 'peace negotiators' can reach a plea bargain for Abu Allah. After all, Livni has a thing for him (see above), and the 'peace negotiators' haven't been able to agree on anything else.
With US Secretary of State John FN Kerry due in our area on Sunday, the 'Palestinians' have put a planned appeal to the International Criminal Court to stop Israeli construction in Area E1 (between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim) on hold.
PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the PA leadership was expecting
Kerry to bring new ideas and proposals for resuming the peace process.
Amireh said the decision to postpone the court bid was taken three
months ago in order to give a chance to US efforts to resume peace talks
between Israel and the PA.
He said the PA was hoping that the US
and other international parties would be able to exert pressure on
Israel to stop its "measures" against the Palestinians.
"The
Palestinian leadership took the decision to postpone its plan to go to
the international court in order to give a last chance to halt Israeli
plans to build in area E-1 [between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim,"
Amireh told the Palestinian news agency Quds Net.
Amireh denied that the PA decision was related to Kerry's renewed attempts to revive the peace process.
An
Israeli government official said the Palestinian decision to "take
unilateral steps in international bodies has been one of the major
causes of friction, because ultimately the only way to solve issues is
through negotiations, not grandstanding at UN forums where they have an
automatic majority."
Another PLO official, Ahmed Majdalani, said
that he did not rule out the possibility that Kerry, who is returning to
the region this week, would carry new ideas to resume the stalled peace
talks. Majdalani said that Kerry's visit to the region would determine
whether the Americans have new ideas to revive the peace process.
He
stressed that the PA's stance regarding the peace process remained
unchanged, noting that Israel must cease construction in all
settlements, including east Jerusalem, and release Palestinian prisoners
imprisoned before the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Please tell me our government won't be dumb enough to cave in to these demands again. The 'Palestinians' don't want a solution and all a 'settlement freeze' will do is to encourage them to stall some more.
Israel changing 'separation fence' route to keep 'Palestinians' out of E-1
After a second 'Palestinian' outpost in E-1 was demolished overnight, Haaretz's Barak Ravid reports that the Israeli security forces have decided to change the route of the 'separation fence' to keep 'Palestinians' out of E-1.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has decided to close the breach in the
separation fence between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, thereby
positioning the fence between the Palestinian village of Al-Zaim and the
contested E-1 area.
This would mean that Ma'aleh Adumim would be located outside the
security fence and that Palestinians would be prevented from reaching
area E-1.
The plan is to be presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his approval next week.
The breach in the fence at Al-Zaim, a small village just east of
Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, is three kilometers wide. However,
there is a wall west of Al-Zaim which was built to prevent the residents
of Al-Zaim who are not permitted in Israel from reaching Jerusalem.
(Al-Zaim can be accessed via the Al-Zaim checkpoint on the road leading
from Jerusalem to Ma'aleh Adumim and the Dead Sea. )
The breach in the wall at Al-Zaim was reportedly left intact to allow
Ma'aleh Adumim to be encircled by a huge loop in the security fence.
However, the defense minister has now decided against including Ma'aleh
Adumim within the security fence because of the astronomical cost of the
loop.
With regard to Al-Zaim, the defense minister had two options: include
it in Israeli territory or position it east of the fence. The main
difference between the options has to do with E-1, in which Netanyahu
plans to build a settlement, despite opposition by the international
community.
Area E-1 ends behind Al-Zaim and is connected to the village by a path; this is how the Palestinians who built the outpost of Bab al-Shams over a week ago reached the site.
Including Al-Zaim within the security fence will cut off Al-Zaim from E-1, leaving E-1 disconnected from Palestinian territory.
Awesome WaPo editorial: The 'settlements' aren't the problem
Okay, so the title of this post is an exaggeration, but you almost certainly would not see words like these in the New York Times.
Twenty-five years ago, Israel’s government openly aimed at
building West Bank settlements that would block a Palestinian state. But
that policy changed following the 1993 Oslo accords. Mr. Netanyahu’s
government, like several before it, has limited building almost entirely
to areas that both sides expect Israel to annex through territorial
swaps in an eventual settlement. For example, the Jerusalem
neighborhoods where new construction was announced last month were conceded to Israel by Palestinian negotiators in 2008.
Overall,
the vast majority of the nearly 500,000 settlers in Jerusalem and the
West Bank live in areas close to Israel’s 1967 borders. Data compiled
by the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace show that more
than 80 percent of them could be included in Israel if the country
annexed just more than 4 percent of the West Bank — less than the 5
percent proposed by President Bill Clinton 12 years ago.
Diplomats
were most concerned by Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to allow planning and
zoning — but not yet construction — in a four-mile strip of territory
known as E-1 that lies between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, a settlement
with a population of more than 40,000. Palestinians claim that Israeli
annexation of the land would cut off their would-be capital in East
Jerusalem from the West Bank and block a key north-south route between
West Bank towns. Israel wants the land for similar reasons, to prevent
Ma’ale Adumim — which will almost certainly be annexed to Israel in any
peace deal — from being isolated. Both sides insist that the other can
make do with a road corridor.
This is a difficult issue that
should be settled at the negotiating table, not by fiat. But Mr.
Netanyahu’s zoning approval is hardly the “almost fatal blow” to a
two-state solution that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described.
The
exaggerated rhetoric is offensive at a time when the Security Council
is refusing to take action to stop the slaughter of tens of thousands of
civilians — including many Palestinians — by the Syrian regime. But it
is also harmful, because it puts pressure on Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas to make a “freeze” on the construction a condition for
beginning peace talks. Mr. Abbas had hinted that he would finally drop
that demand, which has prevented negotiations for most of the past four
years, after the General Assembly’s statehood vote. If Security Council
members are really interested in progress toward Palestinian statehood,
they will press Mr. Abbas to stop using settlements as an excuse for
intransigence — and cool their own overheated rhetoric.
Okay, so they still say (in the part I didn't quote) that criticism of the 'settlement construction' is appropriate. I disagree. At some point, the 'Palestinians' second and third and fourth and fifth and... chances ought to run out and we ought to be able to move ahead. But look at the bright side: They admit that it's not Israel that's killing the 'peace process.' Someone take this editorial to the White House!
The IDF is searching for a 'Palestinian policeman' who allegedly stabbed a guard at the entrance to Maaleh Adumim, a city located just east of Jerusalem.
A suspected Palestinian terrorist launched a knife attack against a security guard at the entrance to the Ma'ale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem on Saturday. The municipal guard was lightly injured in the assault. He was evacuated to hospital for treatment.
Police and IDF forces were searching the area for the suspect.
At approximately 1:50 pm a young Palestinian man approached the security guard. He uttered a few words in Arabic and then pulled out a knife and stabbed the guard. The watchman was lightly injured in him neck and shortly thereafter he was taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem.
It's only been one post since I wrote about French President Nicolas Sarkozy professing his love for Israel. But that love is as fake as everything else about Sarkozy. Just three days after the oral arguments in Zivotofsky v. Clinton, it turns out that the French government has issued a passport to a dual French-Israeli citizen who was born in Israel that says he lives in "Maaleh Adumim, Occupied Palestinian Territory."
Eddy, who was born in Israel to French immigrants, applied for a French passport intending to go study there. He completed the paperwork and was issued a temporary travel document. On his way home from the consulate in Jerusalem, he noticed something strange.
"It had all my details, my identification number, my address – Ma'ale Adumim – but the State of Israel was omitted," Eddy told Ynet.
"It's infuriating," he added. "I wanted to go back there and tell them I don't need their passport. I knew that the French were anti-Semitic, and I wouldn't have been surprised if they wrote 'Ma'ale Adumim, Palestine,' but they chose the harsh wording of 'Occupied Palestine.'"
Ynet has learned that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman intends to send the French government a harsh letter of protest, demanding it to remove the label.
Good luck with that. There are good reasons why Jews have been fleeing France in droves. And with all the best intentions in the world, Lieberman will not succeed in changing the heirs of Vichy.
The settlement's mayor, Boris Grossman, was just as exasperated.
"The territory was not seized from Palestine because there is no such entity," he said. "This is an Israeli and Jewish city whose origins are mentioned in the bible and its land does not belong to Arabs. It's a pity to see a nation that calls itself a friend of Israel supporting the Palestinians and the rhetoric that that harms any chance of a peace process."
MK Lia Shemtov (Yisrael Beiteinu) said the label used an "unfortunate" choice of words.
"Ma'ale Adumim is an inseparable part of the State of Israel," she said.
Shemtov noted that she has received reports of the same wording printed on documents issued to residents of east Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, and called on the French government to strike the statement from all official paperwork.
If all the 'Palestinians' got up and left tomorrow morning, France would find another excuse to label as much of Israel as possible as not being ours. But why does YNet have to refer to a city with a population of more than 39,000 people as a 'settlement'? Yes, Israel's Leftist media hates Jews who live across the 'green line' nearly as much as France does.
One of the current targets of the BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement is Aroma Cafe, a chain of coffee shops throughout Israel (some Kosher, some not), which has a store in New York City. This video was put out by Adalah, an 'Israeli Arab' organization (financed by the New Israel Fund), which is active in the BDS movement. The video is moronic. Please don't have any glasses near your computer when you play it. But I'm showing it to you for a reason that you won't get until you see it.
Let's go to the videotape.
If you click through to the YouTube site, you will see that the comments are overwhelmingly pro-Israel. But this one is too good a catch not to share.
looking at the length of the shadows and also that no one else was around they must have filmed this at dawn. guess their convictions were not strong enough to do this when normal people were around?
Go back and watch again and you'll see that s/he is 100% correct. There's no one inside. It may have been filmed on Shabbat (I have no idea whether the branch in Maaleh Adumim is Kosher and whether it is closed on Shabbat), but it was definitely filmed shortly after sunrise. These people are clearly afraid that someone was going to see them doing this.
Heh.
By the way, if the Aroma Cafe in New York is Kosher, please patronize it.
You thought that with the end of the 'settlement freeze' building would be unrestricted in Judea and Samaria. Or that it would at least be unrestricted in existing 'settlements.' Or that it would at least be unrestricted in 'settlements' that are within the 'security fence.' Or at least building would be unrestricted in 'settlements' that are part of the 'settlement blocs.' Sadly, you are wrong on all counts. And we have Ehud Barak to thank for that.
The mayors of the Ma’aleh Adumim and Ariel settlements have asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to break the silent freeze that threatens to choke their cities by authorizing new building.
While building has been allowed to resume in West Bank settlements since the 10- month moratorium on such activity ended on September 26, the mayors of these two cities have said that they are out of construction permits.
Without such permits, they said, a silent freeze is about to descend on their cities.
This week, Ma’aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel sent a letter to Netanyahu and called his bureau to ask for a meeting.
No such meeting has been scheduled to date, Kashriel told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Ma’aleh Adumim, along with Betar Illit and Modi’in Illit, the largest three Jewish West Bank communities, have consistently fueled the bulk of settlement growth for the last 14 years.
Last year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 58% of all finished homes in the settlements were in those three cities alone.
But Kashriel has warned, and continues to warn, that this kind of growth is about to come to a halt.
The state budget, which the Knesset approved last week, set aside funds for 200 new homes in Ma’aleh Adumim, but according to the Construction and Housing Ministry, the project cannot move forward until it receives the approval of the Defense Ministry.
Sources in the Construction and Housing Ministry said that such approval was not likely to be granted in the near future, because no approval was being given at present for projects in West Bank settlements.
The funds that were approved for Ma’aleh Adumim construction, the sources said, allow the ministry to do preparatory work so the construction can move forward should Defense Minister Ehud Barak sign off on it.
Netanyahu won't overrule Barak on this because it would cause Labor to leave the government (which they may do anyway), and Netanyahu is afraid of having his government branded as a 'Right Wing' government.
In the meantime, the housing shortage continues and Israel is squandering an opportunity to create many more facts on the ground.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
