Joe Biden gets his revenge on Netanyahu by forcing Ukraine to vote against Israel
YNet is reporting that
serial groper Joe Biden got his revenge for being '
humiliated' by Prime Minister Netanyahu six years ago by
pressuring Ukraine to vote in favor of a Security Council resolution calling Israeli 'settlements' 'illegal' on Friday.
Ukraine’s decision to vote in favor of the resolution appears to
demonstrate the extent to which US President Barack Obama was behind the
decision.
According to officials in Israel, Ukrainian Prime Minister
Volodymyr Groysman, a Jew who is thought of as one of Israel’s main
supporters, wanted that his country not be involved in the consultations
held on the resolution.
However, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko decided to vote in
favor of its passage following a telephone conversation with US Vice
President Joe Biden.
"The text of the resolution is balanced," Kiev asserted. "It
calls for taking measures necessary for peaceful solution from both
Israeli and Palestinian sides: Israel should stop its settlement
activities while Palestinian authorities – to take effective measures
toward fighting against terrorism."
"Our country consistently advocates the respect for the
international law by everyone and everywhere as has experienced itself
the tragic consequences brought by its violation," the Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry added.
Perhaps this is why one of the first places in which the Netanyahu government has announced that
it will build in response to the United Nations is the scene of Biden's '
humiliation,'
Ramat Shlomo.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Joe Biden, Ramat Shlomo, Ramot, Ukraine, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334
ICYMI: Erdogan sends Deputy Mayor(!) to greet Biden at airport, Biden calls coup plotters 'terrorists'
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
You probably didn't hear much about Joe Biden's trip to Turkey last week. It's funny how Biden was '
humiliated' six and a half years ago when an Israeli bureaucrat announced a building permit when he was here in Israel, but apparently didn't notice
who greeted him at the airport in Ankara last week. But don't worry - that didn't stop Biden from sucking up to Sultan Erdogan.
Erdogan sent a lowly deputy mayor to meet him at the airport and
later said the US must arrest Gulen to stop him from giving press
interviews.
Biden called the coup plotters “terrorists” and urged Kurdish forces
in Syria to move away from Turkey’s borders, but he said the US must
follow due process on Gulen.
“The constitution and our laws require for someone to be extradited
that a court of the United States has to conclude there’s probable cause
to extradite," he said.
"Thus far ... there has been no evidence presented about the coup."
The rift between Western powers and their Nato ally in the Middle
East has prompted speculation that Turkey might forge a new alliance
with Russia.
Erodgan met Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier this month, while
Russian propaganda has switched to highlighting irritants in EU-Turkey
and US-Turkey relations.
By the way, those apartments are now being built six and a half years later. They're scheduled to be ready in 2020 (there's no infrastructure there - that comes first). Aren't double standards grand?
Labels: double standards, Joe Biden, Ramat Shlomo, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
It came to this: Netanyahu had to ask Berlusconi for help with Obama
In case you missed it, Haaretz reported on Tuesday that the US National Security Administration intercepted a 2010 phone call between Prime Minister Netanyahu and then-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in which Netanyahu asked Berlusconi for help in repairing his relations with the self-declared '
most pro-Israel administration evah.'
During their conversation, Netanyahu claimed he needed Berlusconi's help due to an "absence of direct contact" between himself and President Barack Obama.
The document leaked to the WikiLeaks website is a brief summary of Netanyahu and Berlusconi's communications that was published by the NSA for internal usage by the American intelligence community and the White House. According to the document, the call was intercepted as part of U.S. monitoring of Berlusconi's office, and not through a wiretap on Israeli lines.
The conversation between Netanyahu and Berlusconi took place four days after a crisis erupted during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel on March 9 due to Israel's decision to green light 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, which is beyond the 1967 Green Line.
The NSA report said "Israel has reached out to Europe, including Italy, for help in smoothing out the current rift in its relations with the United States."
The call took place on an open international line, so it is likely Netanyahu knew the conversation would be intercepted by U.S. intelligence services. It is even possible Netanyahu used the conversation with Berlusconi to try to reach out to America.
I don't know which is more troubling here - the fact that Netanyahu even had to reach out to Berlusconi in the first place or the fact that the United States, which continues to hold Jonathan Pollard after he spent 30 years in jail for 'spying' on Israel's behalf, was spying on Israel in the first place.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden, Jonathan Pollard, Ramat Shlomo, Silvio Berlusconi, spying, Wikileaks
Hillary Clinton's staffers listened and cheered while one of her deputies chewed out Ambassador Oren
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, when she was Secretary of State in what claims to be the 'most pro-Israel administration evah'
allowed her staffers to listen in from another room when her deputy, Jim Steinberg, 'privately' scolded Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren over the announcement of construction in
Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighborhood of more than 20,000 souls, while Joe Biden was in Israel in 2010. This is from the first link.
By the way, some of those apartments finally got their final approval to be built
last month. Aren't you glad the 'Palestinians' decided to follow the Obama-Clinton-Biden lead and stay away from the 'peace talks'?
Oren recounted that when he landed back in Washington, D.C.,
following the trip, he landed “to learn that [then] Secretary of State
Clinton has excoriated Netanyahu for 45 minutes over the phone, rebuking
him for humiliating the president and undermining America’s ability to
deal with pressing Middle East issues.”
Soon after that, Oren found out that he had been “summoned” to the
State Department for an “immediate meeting,” according to the book.
Before attending the meeting, Oren huddled with his senior advisers
and informed them, “while I would continue to adhere publicly to the
‘all’s well’ [between the United States and Israel] pose, behind the
scenes I would forcibly resist this attempt to fabricate a crisis.”
Oren then traveled to the State Department for a tense meeting with
then-Deputy Secretary Jim Steinberg. Oren later found out the meeting
was being listened to by State Department staffers, who “cheered” as
Steinberg upbraided Oren.
“There, waiting in his not-nice American mode, was Deputy Secretary
Jim Steinberg, who proceeded to read me the text of Hillary’s
conversation with Netanyahu,” Oren writes. “This contained a list of
demands, including a total building freeze in East Jerusalem as well as
the West Bank, most of which would be unacceptable to any Israeli prime
minister, much less a [right-leaning] Likudnik.”
Steinberg went on to lecture Oren in a “furious” manner.
“Steinberg added his own furious comment—department staffers, I later
heard, listened in on our conversation and cheered—about Israel’s
insult to the president and the pride of the United States.”
Oren said he did not hold back in his response.
“Let me get this straight,” Oren recalls saying. “We inadvertently
slight the vice president and apologize, and I become the first foreign
ambassador summoned by this administration to the State Department.”
The Israeli people, Oren said, “will see this as nothing but a pretext to arm-twist us and beat up on us.”
A State Department official declined to comment on the issue.
That last line is an admission that the story is true. Don't misconceive that one. There's more.
One former high-ranking White House official said the Obama administration’s treatment of Oren is unusual.
“In eight years at State and eight at the [White House National
Security Council], I never participated in a meeting with the secretary
or deputy secretary of state that was piped elsewhere in the building
through hidden microphones,” Elliott Abrams, a former deputy assistant
to the president and deputy national security adviser in the George W.
Bush administration.
“There were always note takers present and everyone understood that
each side could distribute its own notes, but foreign diplomats could
rely on the U.S. not to tape the meeting or broadcast it to others
outside the meeting room where it took place,” Abrams said. “If this
really happened as Oren says, one has to ask whether this was a
punishment devised especially for Israel, or whether there were hidden
microphones recording lots of other Steinberg and Clinton meetings.”
And they talk about Richard Nixon.... Oh... wait... Hillary Clinton was kicked off the Watergate investigation committee staff back in the '70's for
lying, unethical behavior, wasn't she? She knows all about hidden microphones and extra email accounts....
One senior official with a D.C.-based Jewish organization was not
surprised to learn that State Department staffers were pleased when Oren
was upbraided.
“The president stacked the State Department with opponents of Israel,
then let them indulge themselves by picking new fights with Israel
every few months,” the source said. “Of course they enjoyed it. This is
who they are. This is what they do.”
Most pro-Israel administration evah? Until Hillary Clinton takes charge....
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Michael Oren, Ramat Shlomo, US presidential campaign 2016
Luckily, they won't name a street 'Joe Biden Boulevard'
Remember the Jerusalem apartments that were the subject of a
Joe Biden temper tantrum five years ago? Well, we are no closer to 'peace' now than we were then, but those apartments finally have received their
final approval to be built. Well, some of them have.
Israel has approved construction of 900 homes in eastern Jerusalem, AFP reported Thursday, shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu formed a new right-wing religious coalition.
The new homes will be built in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo following a decision late Wednesday by the city's district
planning committee.
In March 2010, the interior ministry announced a plan to build 1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo, a haredi neighborhood in the eastern part of the capital.
The announcement came as US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel, provoking fierce American opposition and souring relations with Washington for months.
At the time, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an angry phone call to Netanyahu, berating him for announcing the building plans, and demanding they be canceled.
In November 2013, the plan passed a further stage of approval but construction was held up because the planning committee said new roads must be built first.
Ramat Shlomo is a Haredi neighborhood, so I don't think they'll be naming any streets after Joe Biden. Too bad. It would be a nice touch of irony.
Labels: Joe Biden, Ramat Shlomo
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
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
Coverup in Ramat Shlomo?
Arutz Sheva is reporting that the security forces and the media are
covering up what happened in the Jerusalem neighborhood of
Ramat Shlomo on Friday night. This is from the first link.
Strangely, however, the Jerusalem police insisted Sunday that “it is still not clear what the nature of the attack was.”
Apparently following the police's lead, Israel's mainstream media –
which makes front page headlines out of graffiti attributed to Jews –
has not even deemed the potentially lethal attack inside the capital
newsworthy.
A Google search indicates that besides Arutz Sheva, Behadrei Haredim and another hareidi site, Kikar Hashabat, only the Jewish Press and the Maariv-NRG website reported the attack.
And
Israel Matzav.... What am I? Chopped liver?
An epidemic of burglaries that plagued Ramat Shlomo, which is home to
about 20,000 people, has reportedly subsided somewhat recently, as a
result of neighborhood patrols that are coordinated with the Israel
Police. However, there is serious concern in the neighborhood that
security will deteriorate as a new road connecting Ramat Shlomo with the
adjoining Arab neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina is completed.
Jerusalem Councillor Aryeh King promised to convene the city's
Committee for Emergency and Security Matters in two weeks' time and
demand explanations from police, whom he accused of neglecting the
residents' security.
Police are rarely seen in Ramat Shlomo, except for one neighborhood resident who was made an auxiliary police officer so that he can direct traffic at the entrance to the neighborhood on days when the poorly-located charity fund at the neighborhood's entrance hands out free produce. There is no police station in Ramat Shlomo - residents are meant to call Ramat Eshkol or Neve Yaakov.
There also have been very few problems for many years. The neighboring village of Shuafat (NOT the 'refugee camp') is considered quite wealthy and its residents (who are rumored to include a small handful of Jewish families) are supposedly not interested in creating 'trouble.'
Labels: East Jerusalem, Israel police, Israeli media bias, Jerusalem police, Palestinian terrorism, police coverup, Ramat Shlomo
And again: Terror in (and around) Jerusalem
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
I'm going to open with a story I have not seen reported elsewhere, but heard about throughout the Sabbath.
On Friday night, just before 2:00 am, a 'Palestinian' snuck up from a nearby Arab village and opened fire on a group of boys who were sitting in a park in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.
Fortunately, the Arab missed, and the boys all escaped.
Police have been searching for suspects all day on Saturday (if you live in northern Jerusalem, that's all the helicopters you heard in the middle of the night and during the day on Saturday) and rumor has it that some arrests have been made.
Some of you might recall that Joe Biden went
ballistic over an
announcement that Jewish housing was being built in Ramat Shlomo while Biden was here in 2010.
Meanwhile, a car was
hit by two bullets near Adam, just north of Jerusalem on Friday afternoon.
An Israeli citizen reported Friday afternoon to the Binymin Region
security hotline that shots had been fired at his car as it traveled
near the community of Adam.
Large IDF forces arrived on the scene and a forensics team identified
two bullets that hit the car. The forces bergan combing the region for
suspects.
But peace is at hand....
Labels: East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, Palestinian terrorism, Ramat Shlomo
Of course: US knew of Israeli housing plans... and so did the 'Palestinians'
So this is how it works in Bibiland these days.
The Israeli government releases murderous 'Palestinian' terrorists. Trying to make it look like a tradeoff, Netanyahu announces construction in 'east' Jerusalem and the 'settlements,' to which the United States and the 'Palestinians' have been tipped off in advance. The housing units are never built. But the non-'settler' population blames the Jewish Home party (which deserves plenty of blame, just not for this) for the 'deal' with the 'Palestinians' allowing 'settlement construction' in exchange for terrorist releases. Netanyahu publicizes the fact that the US and the 'Palestinians' '
knew I was going to do this' just to make sure everyone gets that this is an exchange. I'll prove it you after the excerpt.
The US and the Palestinians knew in advance that the release of convicted
Palestinian terrorists would be accompanied by announcements of settlement
construction plans, government officials said Wednesday.
The comments
came as Palestinian spokesmen slammed Israel for announcing that final permits
have been given to build more than 1,500 units in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond
the pre-1967 lines and in communities in the large settlement blocs, as well as
preliminary plans to build another 2,000 units in various settlements beyond the
security barrier and the large blocs.
The announcement of the new
settlement plans came soon after a second batch of 26 Palestinian prisoners was
released late Tuesday night.
While the US and the Palestinians did not
know about all the details of what new settlement plans would be announced, they
knew of the intention to announce new plans, as well as the timing, the official
said.
In order to pacify right wing elements inside his coalition,
Netanyahu planned the timing of announcements of new building to coincide with
each of the four batches of prisoner releases that are to take place by April
under an agreement that led in July to the restarting of talks with the
Palestinians. Some 104 convicted terrorists are to be released in four stages,
two of which have now been carried out.
According to a Channel 2 report,
on July 19, the day that Israel approved US Secretary of State John Kerry’s
framework for restarting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Netanyahu agreed with
Kerry that every time the prisoners would be released, there would be an
announcement of new settlement construction plans to make the bitter pill easier
to swallow for some of his coalition partners.
According to the report,
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett knew this was the agreement, but still came
out strongly against the recent release of prisoners, as well as against linking
their release to construction in the settlements.
Bennett’s party issued
a statement Thursday on the prisoner release, saying “the attempt to link the
release of the murderers to construction tenders is manipulative and morally
wrong. It will be better if the prime minister does not release murderers and
does not build. This looks like a despicable attempt to free murderers and
tarnish the settlement enterprise.”
Bennett’s public opposition to the
move has strained his ties with Netanyahu and caused friction inside the
coalition.
You want me to prove to you that there won't be any building either? Go
here. Aside from this post, look at the other posts. The promise to build in Ramat Shlomo has been recycled at least twice (2010 and the summer of 2012). This is the third time. So far, they haven't lifted a shovelful of earth.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, gestures, Jerusalem construction, John Kerry, Judea and Samaria construction, Middle East peace process, Naftali Bennett, Palestinian terrorists, Ramat Shlomo, settlement freeze
Abu Mazen's garden party
Overnight on Tuesday at the Mukhata, '
moderate' '
Palestinian' President
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen celebrated
Israel's release of 26 more terrorist murderers.
Twenty-one inmates convicted of killing
Israelis before the 1993 Oslo accords were released from Ofer Prison and
returned to Ramallah in the West Bank via the Beitunia checkpoint.
Five
prisoners were freed to the Gaza Strip after they set out from the
prison earlier in the day to await their release at the Erez border
crossing.
Some two-thousand Palestinians gathered late Tuesday
at Mukata, the PLO presidential compound, in Ramallah to celebrate the
release of the 21 prisoners to the West Bank, Israel Radio reported.
The
crowds waved flags baring the symbols of the PLO, Fatah and the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine and carried signs with pictures
of the convicted murderers.
"Our heroes are coming home, long live the prisoners," they chanted in the predawn celebrations.
There's something surreal about the world cheering in (relative) silence as the 'Palestinians' cheer the release of their murderous heroes. But that's not the point of this post. Notice this line buried deep in the story.
On
August 13, Israel released the first group of 26 prisoners. Israel was
given two choices of goodwill gestures at the onset of the current round
of peace negotiations, to either freeze settlement construction or
release prisoners.
Yes, that's the impression the Netanyahu government has continued to give the media - that Israel chose to release terrorists rather than to freeze 'settlement construction' - and that has led to anger at the Jewish Home party from everyone who did not vote for the Jewish Home party.
But were those the only choices? Jewish Home Minister of Senior Citizens Uri Orbach
denies there is any connection.
"This is just a crass lie that people are repeating over and over
again,” he said. “There was no buffet out there, at which we could
choose between a release and a freeze. This government opposes a freeze
and opposes a return to the 1967 borders.
"What Abu Mazen wants is to release their prisoners, and all the rest
is intended to deflect attention. There was never a single moment at
which we had to choose between these things. Even if it is repeated 200
times, it is still a lie,” he insisted.
The prisoner release was intended as “maintenance” for the
negotiations with the Palestinians, he said, “and this is a very high
cost for maintenance.”
Orbach fended off attacks against Bayit Yehudi, regarding its supposed hypocrisy in attacking the terrorist release, when it is part of the government that is carrying it out.
"It does not stand to reason that the release of depraved murderers
would pass completely quietly,” he said. Asked why Bayit Yehudi tried to pass a law
against future terrorist releases, if it would not have affected the
present release anyway, he said, “I think there is an obligation to
protest even if there is no immediate result on the ground.”
He rejected Minister of Interior Gideon Saar's demand that the Bayit Yehudi MKs resign
from the government if they do not like what it is doing. “We are
Gideon Saar's partners, not his lackeys,” he said. “We will decide
whether or not to resign, and over what issue.”
In the meantime, Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to take advantage of this perfect storm, announcing that 1,500 new housing units (which have been announced before) will be allowed in Ramat Shlomo (in 'east' Jerusalem), and that each current resident of Ramat Shlomo will be allowed to
expand his or her apartment by up to 50 square meters.
Shortly after the second of four prisoner releases to the Palestinian
Authority was completed in the early hours of Wednesday morning,
Netanyahu said the government planned to approve tenders for the
construction of 1,500 additional housing units in the east Jerusalem
neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.
In addition, he said current owners
of apartments in Ramat Shlomo would be allowed to expand their homes
with another room to the size of 50 square-meters.
During talks
with Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar, approval was also received for the
establishment of a visitor's center near the City of David National Park
in Silwan.
The premier said plans would also be advanced for the previously-halted construction of a national park on the slopes of Mount Scopus, which would allegedly block the expansion of Arab neighborhoods in the area.
Of course, this ensures that everyone who is not a 'settler' will blame the 'settlers' (and not Netanyahu) for the terrorist release. And the neophytes in the Jewish Home party have no clue how to fight that.
As to Ramat Shlomo (where the Jewish Home party has a miniscule constituency - it's a Haredi neighborhood), we've heard about
1,500 new apartments and
expanding existing apartments before. Don't hold your breaths waiting for those recycled promises to happen.
Labels: Abu Mazen, Binyamin Netanyahu, gestures, Jerusalem construction, Judea and Samaria construction, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorists, Ramat Shlomo, unilateral concessions
Jerusalem allocates NIS 62 million for Ramat Shlomo infrastructure
Just last Tuesday, I reported that construction had been frozen in Ramat Shlomo, with budgets non-existent and existing residents unable to expand their homes. On Monday, the Jerusalem city council allocated
NIS 62.4 million for infrastructure that will at least get new construction going in Ramat Shlomo. There is no word (in this article) on whether existing residents will finally be allowed to expand their homes.
A total of NIS 62.4 million will be
allocated for the construction of approximately 1,600 housing units and the
infrastructure needed to develop the planned Jewish community.
The
Finance Committee decision came less than 24 hours after the government
allocated NIS 16m. to develop the City of David National Park in the primarily
Arab neighborhood of Silwan, as well as NIS 150,000 to construct a mikve, or
ritual bath, for the Jewish neighborhood of Nof Tzion in the Arab quarter of
Jebl Mukaber.
...
In a statement
issued on Monday, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor and Finance Committee head David Hadari
lauded the funding announcement, deeming it “Jerusalem’s vaccination shot
against those who think about dividing it somehow.”
However, Meretz
councilman Meir Margalit, who holds the east Jerusalem portfolio, reacted with
disappointment.
“This was an unnecessary and counterproductive decision –
not because I’m against the infrastructure, but because I’m against the timing,”
Margalit said Monday evening.
In a statement, the Jerusalem Municipality
noted there had been no changes in its construction policy over the past four
decades, adding that it would continue to “build in all of the city’s
neighborhoods according to statutory plans” for both Jews and Arabs.
“In
the coming years, tens of thousands of housing units will be built all over the
city for all sectors,” the statement said. “New construction in Jerusalem is
necessary for the development of the city and in order to give young people and
students the opportunity to live and buy houses in the capital.”
I hope this also means that the apartments for which the infrastructure is being built will also be built and that existing residents will be able to expand their apartments.
Labels: East Jerusalem, Jerusalem construction, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Ramat Shlomo
Joe Biden's revenge: Building suspended in Ramat Shlomo
Remember when
Joe Biden went bezerk over Jewish building in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood when he was here three years ago? The plans for part of that building were
finally approved in December 2012 after a delay because of the whole Biden affair. The bulk of the 1,500 new apartments that had received a preliminary approval while Biden was here were never finally approved.
Now, Merkaz HaInyanim (the Center of Matters), a small freebie newspaper that is distributed in Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem, is reporting that as part of the 'peace talks,' and unlike any other Jerusalem neighborhood, the Netanyahu government has forced the suspension of building in Ramat Shlomo. Not only has new construction been suspended, worsening a severe housing crisis for Haredim in Jerusalem, but plans to allow the more than 2,000 families currently living in the neighborhood to expand their apartments have been placed on hold.
The newspaper based itself on a copy of a scathing letter to Netanyahu from Jerusalem Deputy Yossi Deutsch. Deutsch argues that no government has ever suspended building within Jerusalem to the extent that Netanyahu's government has.
Since the Biden incident three years ago, all building plans for Jerusalem must receive the approval of the Prime Minister's office. A new neighborhood building plan was presented which would have retroactively approved expansions that were already made to apartments, and allowed all residents to expand their apartments. Residents who previously expanded their apartments without permits were to have paid an administrative fine, but would not be subject to demolition orders. That plan is now being suspended.
Deutsch writes that there are no foreign policy consequences from allowing apartments in Ramat Shlomo to be expanded - as is allowed in every other Jewish neighborhood in the city - and since the order to suspend construction came directly from Netanyahu's office, one can only wonder why Netanyahu imposed such a building suspension (i.e. it is part of an overall government pattern of discriminating against Haredim). And because the government had decided to prepare an overall neighborhood plan giving permits to all residents to expand their apartments in the same way, individual residents are barred from submitting building plans of their own to legally expand their apartments. The average family size in Ramat Shlomo is eight children per family....
Deutsch and United Torah Judaism Jerusalem City Council faction head Yaakov Halpern (who lives in Ramat Shlomo) are to meet soon with Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home), who believes in Jerusalem being the undivided capital of Israel, to convince him to pressure the Prime Minister's office to reverse the decision.
In response, the city (in which the Haredim are a significant faction) may hold up city approval for apartments in the southern end of the city (which are intended for secular residents), which were approved by the government when the negotiations began.
Maybe the government plans to turn Ramat Shlomo over to the 'Palestinians'? (If you look at a map, you will see that turning over Ramat Shlomo while keeping neighborhoods like Ramot, Pisgat Zev, French Hill and Neve Yaakov would be totally bizarre). What could go wrong?
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Joe Biden, Middle East peace process, Ramat Shlomo
Livni whines over Ramat Shlomo
Building in Jerusalem is very popular. In addition to the 1,500 housing units that were approved in Ramat Shlomo earlier this week, the Netanyahu government has announced that it will speed up the approval process for another 5,000 units. Needless to say, this has not endeared the Likud-Beiteinu combination to the Tzipi Livni party. On Wednesday morning, on Israel Radio,
Livni had a tantrum.
Speaking to Israel Radio, Livni said "They do this every election. The
Likud is exposing Jerusalem to international condemnation for electoral
purposes."
...
For her part, Livni said Israel must reserve the right to build in
Jerusalem, Israel's capital city. "I myself built in Jerusalem," she
said, referencing her governmental experience in previous Likud- and
Kadima-led coalitions. "I built in Jerusalem," she repeated, "and I will
protect it in any diplomatic negotiations [with the Palestinians.]"
The
difference, she added, was that her construction over the green line
was undertaken in conjunction with negotiations. "When we built, there
was international silence. Because we were building alongside a
diplomatic effort to reach a solution," she said.
Actually, that's a load of crap. Ramat Shlomo was completed in 1996 - before Livni took office. The only new neighborhood that has been built in 'east' Jerusalem since has been Har Homa, which was approved and started... during Netanyahu's first term in office. In fact, Livni and her boss,
Ehud K. Olmert, spent most of their time in office
denying that they agreed to a freeze in 'east' Jerusalem.
The only housing that has been built in 'east' Jerusalem since then has been small projects here and there. There has been nothing as significant as Givat HaMatos, a new neighborhood proposed for the southern end of the city, and no project has been as large as the 1,500 units proposed for Ramat Shlomo.
Israelis aren't dumb enough to be fooled by Livni.
Labels: East Jerusalem, Givat HaMatos, Har Homa, Ramat Shlomo, Tzipi Livni
Tell it to Biden: Housing in Ramat Shlomo gets final approval
The Interior Ministry District Committee finally approved the construction of 1,500 Jewish homes in Jerusalem's
Ramat Shlomo neighborhood on Monday. Ramat Shlomo is the neighborhood about which Joe Biden threw a temper tantrum in March 2010.
The Interior
Ministry District Committee approved construction of 1,500 housing
units in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in north Jerusalem, beyond the
Green Line, Israel Radio reported.
The project already became a
major source of international controversy as part of the "Biden Fiasco,"
when the project was approved for deposit during the US vice
president's visit to Israel in March 2010.
Following the
incident, the Prime Minister's Office instituted "increased mechanisms"
to ensure they are involved and updated about all east Jerusalem
building projects.
Israel approved the construction of 3,000 new
housing units in Jerusalem and in the West Bank last month in response
to the UN approving the Palestinian bid for non-member observer state
status, government officials stated.
I'll bet that the UN Security Council meets on this before it meets on the 25 'Palestinian refugees' who were killed in Yarmouk 'refugee camp' by the Assad regime on Sunday.
Labels: East Jerusalem, Joe Biden, Ramat Shlomo
Government advancing Ramat Shlomo project
Amidst international pressure over E-1 and the 3,000 new housing units announced by the government on Friday, the interior ministry has decided to push ahead with the construction of 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a neighborhood well within Jerusalem city limits (located on land that was no man's land before 1967), but which much of the world regards as
'east' Jerusalem.
The Interior Ministry's District Planning and Construction Committee
will discuss the project in just two weeks, according to Jerusalem
deputy mayor Yossi Deitsch (UTJ), who told reporters he was pushing the
project to show Jerusalem's sovereign right to build in the capital.
The
project already became a major source of international controversy as
part of the "Biden Fiasco," when the project was approved for deposit
during the US vice president's visit to Israel in March 2010. Following
the incident, the Prime Minister's Office instituted "increased
mechanisms" to ensure they are involved and updated about all east
Jerusalem building projects. The discussion is set for December 17 in
the District Committee.
Ramat Shlomo is one of five Jerusalem ring
neighborhoods, along with Gilo, Ramot, Pisgat Zev, and East Talpiyot,
which are located across the 1967 Green Line. The District Planning and
Construction Committee last discussed the project in August of 2011,
during the height of the social justice tent protests, when Yishai
trumpeted the project as a way to build affordable housing for young
people.
This is kind of ridiculous. There is absolutely no chance in the world that the government is going to abandon Ramat Shlomo in negotiations. Even the 'Palestinians' agreed with Olmert in 2008 that Ramat Shlomo is staying with Israel. So to say that Israel cannot build there is pathetic.
Labels: East Jerusalem, Ramat Shlomo
Migron and Jerusalem: Everyone's struggle
At the height of the Ramat Shlomo controversy in March 2010, I did a post where I explained how Ramat Shlomo
looks down on the highways that connect different parts of Jerusalem. This picture lets you visualize it better than any I have ever posted. Let me give you a quick tour.
The mountain with all the buildings on top that is dead center in the picture is Ramat Shlomo. The highway that seems to start at bottom right, runs under the two bridges and then runs below Ramat Shlomo is known as the Arazim tunnel road until it becomes Road #9 under the first bridge. It connects the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway to the northeastern end of the city. After Ramat Shlomo, there are turnoffs to the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Zev and French Hill, to the Jewish towns in Samaria, to Maaleh Adumim just east of Jerusalem and to the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. Although the Arazim tunnel part was opened just five years ago, this road is a major artery.
The first bridge is the Ramot road. If you were to turn left (north), it runs right through the five neighborhoods of Ramot (1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 - please don't ask me why there is no 5) and then out to the prophet Samuel's tomb and Givat Zev before linking up to Route 443 near Ramallah. If you turn right, it runs to Har Hotzvim (one of our two major high tech office parks) and then to the center of the city and the Old City.
The second bridge is Route 443 on the left and the Begin (as in Menachem Begin) highway on the right. The Begin highway cuts across all of Jerusalem to its southern end, coming out near the Malcha mall, a hop, skip and jump away from the tunnel road that leads to Gush Etzion and Hebron. Route 443 is a back road heading toward Tel Aviv, joining the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway near Ben Gurion Airport.
So as you can see, Ramat Shlomo is more than just a Jewish suburb of Jerusalem. The fact that 20,000 Jews live there is protection for a main point in Jerusalem's highway system.
What's true in Jerusalem is true outside Jerusalem as well. Giulio Meotti talks about Migron, which I have discussed several times before, and how the battle for Migron and other so-called 'illegal outposts' is the same battle as the battle for Jerusalem. Like Ramat Shlomo, Migron sits atop a major highway, Route 60, which runs North-South through Judea and Samaria. Meotti fears - justifiably - that
giving up the outposts will make the lives of residents of Judea and Samaria much more hazardous, and will open the possibility of giving up similar assets in Jerusalem like Ramat Shlomo. In a word, the battle for Jerusalem and the battle for Judea and Samaria are one and the same, and we need to stop pretending otherwise.
The army and the government have perhaps forgotten that many outposts were necessary for security to protect the core settlements and roads. Some outposts were constructed at dangerous junctions in the West Bank where terror attacks had occurred. Many of them were built with government support to the combined tune of more than NIS 70 million.
The Migron outpost, now threatened for destruction, was built with military assistance because of its strategic location overlooking a main road. Nobody likes to say it, but Migron saved the IDF from having to be deployed there. Settlements and outposts are the forward defense line of the coastal plain and Jerusalem.
Compared to the hell of terror in Sderot, Ashdod, Beersheba, Ashkelon and the other communities located in the area near Gaza, the Jewish communities of Samaria look like a bit of paradise, despite the threat of terror.
It's because those communities continue to develop and contribute significantly to the IDF’s control of the area. In consequence, the Arabs there don’t dare attack as they do daily in Gaza.
Barack Obama made it clear that there is no difference between outposts, settlements and towns inside pre-1967 Israel. Obama claims that even Har Homa and Gilo are “illegal” Jewish enclaves. Obama’s de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s post-1967 neighborhoods (Neveh Yaakov, Ramot Eshkol, French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev or East Talpiot) is the American version of the Sasson’s report for the outposts.
These neighborhoods, which house about one-third of Jerusalem’s population, protect the city.
The neighborhood of Ramot serves as a buffer to the north; Mount Scopus, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and Sanhedria protect Jerusalem’s east.
To decide, as a matter of policy, not to endorse the building of Jewish homes within existing Israeli areas is the abrogation of the right of Jews to live wherever they wish in Israel.
Migron and Gilo are the two laboratories where terrorists and peaceniks sought to discover whether they could force Jews into abandoning their homes. If the Jewish homes are abandoned and/ or handed over to the Palestinians, the latter will see it as confirmation of their belief that terrorism pays off and that they are on the right road in a war that will eventually return them to Jaffa, Haifa, Zichron and Jerusalem.
"Migron: Everyone's struggle", states the placard stretched along the road from Jerusalem to the Binyamin region. Destroy the outposts and you will see the domino effect: all Israel will be in danger.
Read it all.
Labels: Jerusalem, Migron, Ramat Shlomo
The 'Lady' throws a tantrum
EU Foreign Policy chief
Catherine Ashton had about the expected reaction to the news that Israel is going to build 1,600 new homes in its capital city.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday said she "regrets" hearing of Eli Yishai's decision about the Ramat Shlomo construction, saying that such moves threaten the two-state solution.
The EU official said in a statement that she deeply regrets receiving "information of the publicly stated intention of the Israeli government to continue settlement expansion in east Jerusalem," noting that the EU has "repeatedly called on Israel to end all settlement activity."
Continued construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Ashton said, "threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution and undermines ongoing efforts to resume negotiations."
Six years ago this week, we expelled 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza. Six years later, most of these refugees still have no homes and no jobs. If the 'two-state solution' means that 500,000 Jews (the number that currently live in 'east' Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria) will be expelled from their homes, let's forget about it and fight it out to the finish. Since that's what is likely to happen anyway, we may as well do it now while our borders are still defensible.
But if what the world really wants is a 'two-state solution,' as they claim, I would suggest that they teach the 'Palestinians' the art of compromise. Because 18 years after Oslo, Israel has made one compromise after another and prepared its people for a peace that will likely never come, while the
'Palestinians' Arabs have yet to yield on a single point and continue to prepare their 'people' to commit genocide.
Labels: Catherine Ashton, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Ramat Shlomo
Finally: Israel to build 4,300 housing units in Jerusalem
On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Netanyahu had what his office described as a '
friendly' phone conversation with American President Barack
Hussein Obama. When Obama awakens on Thursday morning, he is likely to be in a much fouler mood 9and he might have even been awakened during the night in Washington to hear about this: Interior Minister Eli Yishai gave final approval on Thursday to the construction of
4,300 housing units in 'east' Jerusalem.
Yishai has reportedly green-lighted the construction of 1,600 housing units in the northeastern neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo alone.
Another plan will see 700 new housing units built in the adjacent neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev.
A third, 2,000-unit project is planned for Givat HaMatos, which is also beyond the Green Line.
The 'Green Line' is the common term for the 1949 armistice lines, so-called because they were green on the map (yes, really).
Those units are in addition to the
930 units in Har Homa that were approved last week.
But here's the best part: We can thank all those 'housing crisis' demonstrators supported by the New Israel Fund and billionaire peacenik S. Daniel Abraham for bringing this about.
Sources in the Interior Ministry said that Yishai views the projects as one of the solutions to Jerusalem's housing plight, adding that the recent induction of the National Housing Committees' Law, has allowed for the projects' authorization process to be accelerated.
Heh.
Haaretz has the story slightly differently.
But only slightly.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai has given final authorization to build 1,600 apartments in East Jerusalem, and will approve 2,700 more in the next few days.
And yes, Netanyahu knew this was coming.
Ministry spokesman Roi Lachmanovich said Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office knew the construction plans in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in East Jerusalem were moving ahead.
This is a cold calculation by Netanyahu. Obama cannot refuse to veto the 'Palestinians' unilateral attempt for 'statehood' in the UN next month without seriously damaging - and maybe even destroying what is left of - his reelection chances.
Until this week, the Netanyahu government, which is a government of the Right, had not initiated a single housing unit in 'east' Jerusalem, let alone Judea and Samaria, in more than two and a half years in office. The 'Palestinians' have had their chances to come to the table and have refused. Now, they will have something to lose if they don't come to the table. The message is clear: We will build where we want and when we want, and if you wait for a freeze to come to the table, there just might not be anything left to discuss other than lots of 'demographic realities.'
This strategy is long overdue.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Campaign 2012, Givat HaMatos, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, Pisgat Zev, Ramat Shlomo, settlement freeze, unilateral declaration of statehood, US veto
French whines
On Sunday, I reported that a local planning agency had approved the
addition of one room to each of the approximately 2,000 apartments in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.
At first, the news went over quietly. Maybe because it was Sunday. But now Fwance has expressed its '
deep concern,' and you can bet that it will come up in Monday's State Department briefing too.
"Our position is constant: settlement building is illegal in the eyes of international law, in the West Bank as well as in east Jerusalem," said foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.
...
"We call on the parties to resume negotiations based on principles contained in the French initiative presented by Alain Juppe to Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas during his recent visit to the Middle East, and to refrain from unilateral gestures which undermine the trust necessary for this resumption," Valero said.
Just for fun, I did a Google search to find other things about which Fwance is '
deeply concerned.' Of course, 'Israeli settlement' returns the top results, but after that there's '
outbreaks of Middle East violence' (no, not in Syria but on Israel's borders with its neighbors),
Iranian missile launches (glad to see someone else on the list), and the '
impending execution' of Iranian citizen Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.
The only item on the first page of the Google search results that did not involve one of the above was
continuing drought and climate change.
And so it can be said that at least in the context of the Middle East, France regards adding a room onto your house as equivalent to riots, missile launches and executions.
What could go wrong?
Labels: feckless French, Jerusalem construction, Ramat Shlomo
