- 15 nov 2010
Gilo building plan pulled from agenda
Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee decides not to discuss plan to build 130 housing units near village of Beit Safafa. 'It's clear that there was pressure here, and it was in place,' says committee member Yosef Pepe Alalo of Meretz.
Political pressure in Jerusalem? A plan to build 130 new housing units in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, beyond the Green Line, was pulled from the District Planning and Construction's agenda on Monday.
Ynet reported last week that the committee published its agenda with the plan about an hour before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
The land, which is located between Gilo and the village of Beit Safafa, is owned by a private entrepreneur and is designated for a hotel. The committee was scheduled to discuss the entrepreneur's request to build three 11-story apartment buildings instead of the hotel.
Committee member Yosef (Pepe) Alalo, chairman of the Meretz faction in the Jerusalem Municipality, told Ynet that "this plan is a provocation within a Beit Safa territory. I don't even know why it's being referred to as Gilo."
According to Alalo, "It's clear that there was pressure here and it was in place. I find it hard to understand how the municipality is being run here. The committee chairman said the mayor wanted to reconsider the plan, meaning there is no coordination here %u2013 otherwise the plan would not have been brought up in the first place.
"People forget that the Palestinians, not we, view Gilo as a settlement," he added. "In order for it to remain a Jewish neighborhood, we must stop doing foolish things and enter negotiations. This is the only way to develop Gilo. What the municipality is cowardly."
Attorney Elisha Peleg, chairman of the Likud faction in the municipality, complained of the decision to remove the plan from the agenda "due to dictations from above."
He noted that "despite the denials, I believe this is a political decision. Everything that needs to be said about the planning policy should have been said, and the plan should not have been pulled so brutally."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3984852,00.html 7 jan 2012, 16:10 , Respect -
Maria 16 nov 2010
On Bribes, Begging, and Lunacy
Nothing quite says "we encourage you to make peace with your neighbors" like a shipment of advanced weaponry.
If you thought the recent move by the United States to offer the Israelis $3 billion more than the $3 billion a year they get anyway in the form of advanced military fighter planes was farcical enough, guess again.
First, if you missed some of the reaction to Obama's offer, Mark Perry hit the nail on the head when he wrote:
The Obama Administration's newest promise to Israel is abject, embarrassing and gutless. Our country -- our president -- is rewarding a foreign leader who openly boasts that America "is something that can easily be moved," who urges a waiting game with the U.S. because he knows that Israel's friends in the Congress will defy a president who opposes him, who tells his cabinet that he will outfox Barack Obama. We are paying Israel to do something that is in their own interests -- and very much not in ours. That's extortion.
Christopher Hitchens, who seemed to resemble a previous version of himself in this piece, also described the situation well.
But this is where it gets loonier. This report from the Canadian Press seems to confirm Hitchens' worst suspicions:
The future of the Mideast peace process could rest in the hands of one very undiplomatic man: an outspoken 90-year-old rabbi who recently sparked an uproar by saying the Palestinian president should "perish from the world."
The ultra-Orthodox Shas Party is expected to hold the swing vote when Cabinet ministers decide on a U.S. proposal to resume Mideast peace talks. The two Shas ministers participating in the decision are waiting for instructions from the party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
"All decisions go through the rabbi," said Roi Lachmanovitch, a spokesman for the Shas interior minister.
More on Yosef here. http://bit.ly/cMux7t
Does anyone else wonder why we care so much about Israeli domestic politics? I find it hard to think of another situation where we cater our foreign policy to the whims of a foreign governing coalition to the extent that we are willing to embarrass ourselves. For example, when the Palestinians elected a government the U.S. did not like, sanctions followed promptly. But the logic is somehow inverted when it comes to Israel. When the Israelis elect a government the U.S. doesn't like, well, then we reward them with everything we've got.
I know some are trying to make sense out of the Obama administration's move and are arguing that he has limited options given domestic constraints, but I just don't understand how rewarding Israel's incorrigible behavior could be a good thing.
It seems like we are in for several months, if not years, of more failed policy toward this conflict, and Congress certainly will not be of any help. I recently wrote about how Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was in the twilight zone, and she isn't the only one. Check out the video of the Congressman below arguing that its the Palestinians who must end their settlement building (Yes, you read that right).
(1:15) Rep. Gohmert Doesn't Like "Illegal Palestinian Settlements"
Seriously, after all of this can anyone really claim to have optimism or even cautious (read: naive) optimism about the future of U.S. policy toward the conflict?
I suppose there is one thing to be optimistic about: at least the United States is still a country of opportunities because clearly anyone, regardless of I.Q., can be elected into Congress. Sigh.
http://bit.ly/9z2zxU
Settler protest: Strike and anti-PM clip
West Bank Jews to strike against renewing settlement construction freeze; animated clip released showing weak PM 'eaten' by US President 'Hussein' Obama
The decision to renew the settlement construction freeze in the West Bank has still not been taken officially, but in a last-minute attempt to prevent the worst, settlers announced a one-day warning strike, scheduled for Sunday. Meanwhile, the My Israel movement, linked to the Yesha Council, launched a new personal campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu using an animated clip.
The clip shows US President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas preparing a hamburger in the White House. Obama "squeezes" ketchup from a bottle in the form of Netanyahu, saying to the Palestinian president, "That's how I like Netanyahu."
Later, Abbas asks the US president %u2013 referred to throughout by his second name, Hussein %u2013 whether he intends to add salt. Obama replies, "I eat Netanyahu without salt," a reference to a Hebrew expression meaning Netanyahu is unable to pose any problem to Obama.
The strike will include the Samaria and Binyamin regional councils and the regional councils of Kedumim, Karnei Shomron, Efrat, Kiryat Arba and Beit El. All educational institutions will strike and services to residents will be halted.
Strike just 'opening volley'
The strike was initiated by the joint headquarters of the Judea and Samaria settler committees and the rightwing organization Komemiyut, which promised this was just the first small step of much stronger measures.
"We aim to warn against the harsh significance and the dangers of renewing the (settlement) freeze," the organizers said. "This strike is just the opening volley of an uncompromising struggle of the settlers against the prime minister, if he moves, god forbid, in the direction of deportation and evacuation."
As part of the protests, hundreds of settlers and students from the educational institutions that are participating in the strike will demonstrate in front of the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem during the ministers' weekly meeting there.
Rightwing activist and chairman of the Our Land of Israel movement called on the Yesha Council to wage an uncompromising public struggle against a further freeze on settlement construction.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985681,00.html
Likud rebels gathering Knesset signatures for anti-freeze protest letter
Right-wing Knesset members demand that Netanyahu fulfill promises he made to them that West Bank building will not be frozen again.
Members of Prime Minister's own Likud party have prepared a letter to protest Netanyahu's apparent willingness to agree to an American proposal to freeze construction in the West Bank settlements for 90 days in exchange for a series of incentives.
The 'Likud Rebels' plan to garner signatures from cabinet and Knesset members and submit the protest letter to the prime minister in order to apply pressure on him, before a cabinet vote will be held on the American proposal.
The rebel MKs believe that they can collect the signatures of a majority of the Likud MKs to oppose a renewal of a building freeze in the settlements.
Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely said, "The letter that we initiated is intended to send a sharp, clear message to the Prime Minister. The Likud faction opposes the bankrupt process of extending the [settlement building] freeze, and calls upon the Prime Minister to stick to the principles that he himself formulated."
The letter that will be presented to Prime Minister Netanyahu says, "Over and above our obligations as representatives of the Likud to stand up for the values of continued settlement, we believe that accepting the current proposal is a terrible step."
The letter elaborates on the authors' reasons for finding fault with the U.S. proposal: "Commitments must be respected, and we promised that the freeze would be one time only, and that at the end of the freeze period we would continue to build as we had before."
The letter adds, "Red lines must be strengthened, not erased. We are at the beginning of difficult negotiations, during which there will be a lot of pressure on us to cross red lines that must not be crossed."
"We must not accept a new norm under which we will be expected to pay for diplomatic support or military aid that we have received up until now only by virtue of the alliance [with the United States].
http://bit.ly/aV9uaw
State official: Palestinians delaying freeze
Cabinet yet to vote on 90-day settlement construction moratorium, but fingers already being pointed. Jerusalem source says final agreement version being stalled due to Palestinian fear that US incentives take pressure off Israel
The forum of seven ministers has already discussed the details of the American freeze proposal, Likud members are outraged , but the cabinet has yet to vote on the proposal for a three-month construction freeze.
A state official said Tuesday that despite the cabinet majority Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has secured for the move, it's the Palestinians who are delaying a finalized version of the proposal.
"What is causing the delay in drafting an agreed version of the American paper is the Palestinian claim that the understandings between Clinton and Netanyahu are too good for Israel and deny them of pressure means," the state official said.
"The political benefits take the pressure off Israel and prevent the Palestinians from carrying out their strategic plan of evading direct talks and trying to impose UN resolutions on Israel."
Despite the Israeli accusations, Palestinian Authority officials refrained from directly addressing the benefits Israel is slated to get from the US in exchange for an additional settlement construction freeze.
'Israel trying to lower our expectations'
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat stressed that his men had yet to receive the details of the deal from the Americans, implying that Israel was trying to cause the PA to respond to the understanding through the media, before an official agreement had been reached.
"Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) informed Netanyahu that the Palestinian Authority would not resume the negotiations if Israel renewed the settlement construction," Erekat said.
"The Israeli talk about resumed construction even in some of the settlements is a one-sided step which greatly influences the negotiations. This is an Israeli attempt to lower our expectations."
Erekat stressed, however, that the Palestinians had no plans to compromise on any of their demands.
"Peace, as far as we are concerned, does not include giving up on any rights. It will be based on the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders %u2013 in addition to the return of refugees and the release of all prisoners. Israel must think twice before it builds a strategy supporting leaving the situation as is. We won't take part in such a move."
Netanyahu presented the plan he drafted with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the cabinet over the weekend.
The US proposal presented to the ministers is premised on a construction moratorium extension for another three months. Netanyahu apparently reached an understanding with Washington that the building freeze would not apply to Jerusalem, and that no further moratorium would be sought following the 90-day period.
US President Barack Obama and Clinton were quick to commend Netanyahu for his willingness to impose another moratorium, however the paper awaiting the cabinet's approval has not been finalized yet. "Nothing is set in stone until there is a written paper," the state official noted.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985467,00.html
Obama Middle East policy 'regression'
US President Barack Obama
A Palestinian official has criticized the administration of US President Barack Obama for offering inducements to bribe Tel Aviv into postponing its settlement activities for another 90 days.
"The US policy clearly is witnessing a real regression," Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said on Tuesday.
US officials "are desperately trying to accommodate Israeli demands by paying them in strategic currency in order to obtain some temporarily tactical gains," she was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The ongoing Israeli settlement construction issue put an end to the US-sponsored direct talks between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority.
A new report indicates that Israelis have begun construction of 1,650 new settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories since the end of Tel Aviv's 10-month partial settlement freeze in late September.
In an effort to persuade Tel Aviv to extend the freeze, the US agreed to give twenty F-35 fighters to Israel and to veto any anti-Israeli resolution at the United Nations Security Council, in exchange for a three-month settlement freeze.
The US offer was proposed when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks in New York last week.
Israeli vice Prime Minister Dan Meridor confirmed on Tuesday that Netanyahu was waiting to receive the offer in written form before putting it to a vote in cabinet, which is expected to convene on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that the US would offer more assistance to Israel, in case of extending the partial settlement freeze for 90 days.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151259.html
Israeli officials: Netanyahu awaiting written offer from Obama on settlement freeze
Proposal calls for a 90-day extension of the moratorium on building West Bank settlements in return for a series of incentives including the sale of 20 new fighter jets to Israel and certain guarantees in United Nations discussions.
The Obama administration has not yet presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the written details of a package of incentives it offered in exchange for a temporary freeze in West Bank construction, senior Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
%u201CWe still do not have a final proposal in writing that can be discussed in depth,%u201D Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio.
Netanyahu's communications adviser, Nir Hefetz, added that Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had reached "understandings on the matter", but that the proposal would take time to formulate in writing.
"There are understandings between the U.S. secretary of state and the prime minister, but it takes time for them to be put in writing, and we have to wait," Hefetz said.
The plan proposed by the American administration calls for a 90-day extension of the moratorium on building West Bank settlements in return for a series of incentives including the sale of 20 new fighter jets to Israel and certain guarantees in United Nations discussions. The previous ten-month settlement construction ban expired in September.
Netanyahu's majority in the cabinet coming into a vote on the proposed freeze will be a razor-thin one, officials estimated this week. Considering the wide opposition from within Netanyahu's own party and other right-wing lawmakers, approval will only be possible if Shas ministers agree either abstain or absent themselves from the vote.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Clinton both praised Netanyahu following his return from Washington this week for his willingness to extend the freeze. The Palestinian Authority has declined discussion of the matter pending an official U.S. announcement, but aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have reiterated that any settlement freeze must also include East Jerusalem.
http://bit.ly/aHRggU
Haniyeh: No enemy but occupation
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Despite the wind-down that followed the end to the latest round of unity talks, "the door is still open for reconciliation," Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said during his Eid speech in Gaza City.
The announcement came the day after Palestinian factions rejected an American proposal for a 90-day Israeli extension to a settlement moratorium excluding East Jerusalem, reportedly in exchange for a US veto over UN recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN, and the provision of 20 new fighter jets to the Israeli airforce.
Haniyeh said he would continue to "adhere to an end to division," despite his disavowal of the relationship between the Fatah-lead Palestinian Authority's relationship with the United States. The Hamas leader has accused Fatah of bowing to American influence over the reconciliation issue. The United States put Hamas on its list of terrorist organizations in 2005, the year before it was elected to power in the West Bank and Gaza.
"Some are depending on the will of the Americans," Haniyeh told tens of thousands gathered in the Gaza City Stadium for the Eid prayer, explaining that Hamas preferred to rely on "unity and reconciliation with our land and our nation," for an ultimate solution to the struggle or a Palestinian state.
While "it is true that there are political differences in the Palestinian arena, the only enemy is the occupation," the official continued.
Haniyeh stressed the strength of Palestine as a member of the "Arab and Islamic nations," and appeared to brush off the prospect of a strengthened Israeli aiforce through the American-Israel deal for a return to negotiations, saying "our enemy is small, no matter how many weapons the Americans give them, they will remain an isolated entity geographically and historically. This land is ours, Jerusalem is ours."
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333908
US 'has no fixed ME deal deadline'
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley
The US has backtracked on its one-year deadline for a deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a deadlock over Israel's settlement building continues.
US President Barack Obama's administration invited the PA to join the negotiating table with Israel on September 2, setting an initial deadline of September 2011 for a deal between the two.
But the US-sponsored direct talks soon hit an impasse over Israel's refusal to extend a partial moratorium on its settlement construction in the West Bank after it expired on September 26.
"I can't stand here and say, you know, do we have to reset the clock to, you know, September or October of next year," US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told reporters on Monday.
"We -- at the start of this process, we felt that an agreement could be reached within 12 months. We still think an agreement can be reached. If it takes 12 -- if we can do it in 12 months, that would still be our goal," the Jerusalem Post quoted Crowley as saying.
He said Washington was still seeking to reach a Middle East deal "within a reasonable period of time," but admitted it was "hard to say at this point%u2026 given the delay over the issue of settlements, where we stand on that clock."
Israel has been under mounting international pressure over its settlement expansions on the land where Palestinians plan to build their future state.
The United States has reportedly offered an incentive package to Israel to agree to renew the partial freeze that excludes East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and also licenses the construction schools, synagogues and other "community centers" across the West bank.
The package includes additional sales of advanced F-35 jets and a guarantee to Tel Aviv that any resolutions against Israelis in the United Nations Security Council would be vetoed by Washington.
Although any official decision by the PA was postponed until consultations with Palestinian and the Arab leaders, its top negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized the US proposal for not including the illegally annexed East al-Quds which Palestinians demand as the capital of their future state.
On Friday, the Palestinian official said that if Israel failed to halt its construction activities in the West Bank by the end of November, the PA would ask the international community to recognize it as an independent state.
A new report by the Israeli group Peace Now indicates that Israelis have begun construction of 1,650 new settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories since the end of Tel Aviv's 10-month settlement freeze in late September.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151198.html
Palestinian factions reject US proposal
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian political factions rejected on Monday a partial, one-off 90-day settlement freeze as a basis to return to talks with Israel.
The US has offered Israel military and political incentives, including 20 fighter jets and a guarantee of US support at the United Nations in exchange for the freeze, which would exclude occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to accept the offer, which reports say has not yet been finalized. Israeli media reports suggested Netanyahu's security cabinet would pass the proposal by a slim majority.
The offer is an attempt to relaunch negotiations which broke down in late September over Israel's refusal to extend restrictions on settlement expansion. Palestinians said Israel could not be considered a serious partner for peace while it continued to build settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah said Monday that Palestinian negotiators would not resume negotiations without a "comprehensive" freeze.
Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat reiterated that settlement construction must stop before the PLO would return to talks. "If Netanyahu stops the settlements, we will go back to direct negotiations," he told AFP.
Meanwhile, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine politburo member Taysir Khaled said the US-Israel agreement was a blatant violation of international law.
In a statement, the a PLO Executive Committee member called on the Palestinian leadership to reject the deal and to seek recognition of the state of Palestine at the UN.
The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front said that by offering bribes to an occupying power, the US was playing a political game which revealed the extent of the US bias and collaboration with Israel.
David Hale, assistant to US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, was scheduled to discuss the proposal with Abbas in Ramallah on Monday, however Abbas postponed the meeting due to the Muslim holiday of Eid-Al-Adha which begins Tuesday.
US President Barack Obama has praised Netanyahu for taking "a very constructive step."
"It is not easy for him to do, but I think it is a signal that he is serious," the president said.
Likewise, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the Israel premier for making a "serious effort" in considering the offer, said to be worth $3 billion in military aid.
"We are in very close touch with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, working intensively to create the conditions for the resumption of the negotiations."
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333834
Settlement petitioned government in 2001 to avoid paying taxes, saying it was not part of Israel
Swimming pool in Ariel settlement
In contrast with its claims in recent months that it is part of the state of Israel and should be treated as such, the municipal government of the settlement of Ariel has been shown to have argued the exact opposite in 2001 in order to avoid paying VAT (value added tax) taxes to the state.
The documents uncovered by Israeli reporters with the Ha'aretz newspaper show that Ariel's leaders filed a petition to the Israeli government in 2001 demanding the return of past VAT taxes, claiming that since Ariel was not a part of Israel, it did not have to pay these taxes.
The settlement of Ariel is the largest settlement in the West Bank, consisting of over 50,000 Israeli settlers. It was constructed on stolen Palestinian land far beyond the 1967 armistice line known as the 'Green Line', and its construction, along with all other Israeli settlements, are considered illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of civilian populations onto land occupied by military force.
When the Israeli court ruled on the Ariel petition, the judges said that Ariel's attempt to avoid paying taxes was "hardly appropriate," given that the settlement is "nourished by state funding and accepts the laws of the state, seeking the state's protection by means of the security fence."
Israeli Knesset (Parliament) member Nitzan Horowitz criticized the Ariel municipality for claiming to be part of Israel, but "when it comes to taxes Ariel has to pay, then it's not in Israel. It seems the truth in Ariel is highly flexible."
The status of Ariel has recently reached the Israeli public due to a cultural center that was recently opened in the settlement, but was boycotted by dozens of prominent Israeli actors and theatre professionals who refused to perform in a settlement constructed on stolen Palestinian land.
During the public debate on the issue, Ariel's mayor Ron Nachman has repeatedly stated that Ariel is a part of Israel despite its location on Palestinian land far beyond the recognized border but the new revelations that Ariel tried to get out of paying taxes by claiming it was not part of Israel calls that claim into question.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59912 7 jan 2012, 16:10 , Respect -
Maria 16 nov 2010
US refuses to confirm offer of 20 F-35 fighter jets
P.J. Crowley says US is "committed to maintaining Israel's qualitative edge in region"; suggests 1-year deadline is flexible.
The United States on Monday refused to confirm a key component of the security guarantees it reportedly offered Israel in exchange for a 90-day freeze on new settlement construction in the West Bank.
Supporters of the freeze have cited the US offer to give Israel 20 F-35 joint strike fighter jets worth $3 billion as a critical reason to support the deal; the initial details of which were hammered out last Thursday between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But when quizzed about the weapons offer, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, We are committed to maintaining Israel's qualitative edge in the region but beyond that, I'm not going to comment."
"I would just always caution that any time you have reports about specific things, some details may be right, some details may be wrong, Crowley said.
Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio that the US had made such an offer.
These jets, Barak said, have more long-term significance than the temporary friction, which exists between Netanyahu and the politicians in his party who oppose the deal.
In past talks with the US, Barak said, Israel had wanted to purchase 40 of them planes, but due to budget cuts could only afford 20.
The US is now offering to give us the additional 20 planes in exchange for the 90-day freeze, Barak said.
Should Israel and the Palestinians succeed in coming to a final status solution to the conflict, Barak said, the US has offered it a military deal that is six or seven times larger.
Since the details of the deal for the 90-day freeze were released late Saturday night, speculation has been high that the US wants to see the conflict over the borders of a future Palestinian state resolved during that time period.
But at the State Department on Monday, Crowley speculated that it may take anywhere from a number of months to more than a year to finalize an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
It does remain our view that an agreement can be reached within a reasonable period of time. As you know, when the process started, we said this could be accomplished within 12 months. Hard to say at this point, given the delay over the issue of settlements, where we stand on that clock, Crowley said.
If we get to August 2011, and we need a little more time to get this done; we'll take that time, said Crowley.
What is most important, he said, is the resumption of the fledgling negotiations, which broke down at the end of September, Crowley said.
You can't get to an agreement unless the parties are into negotiation. We want to get them to stay at the table, work through the issues, and get to an agreement. That remains our goal, Crowley said.
The talks, he continued, would include the core issues of borders, security, refugees, Jerusalem and water.
He believed, Crowley said, that the Palestinians would resume direct talks with Israel, even though their main conditions for such talks halting constructions in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem had not been meet.
Crowley dismissed the idea that by offering security incentives in exchange for a freeze, the US had rewarded Israel for breaking its commitment under the Road Map to halting settlement activity.
Crowley said it was important to reassure Israel that the peace process would improve their security.
We also are very conscious of the fact that there is at least one country in the region that is committed to wiping Israel off the face of the earth, Crowley said.
He added that David Hale, the assistant to US Special envoy George Mitchell was in the region.
Israel has said that the final terms of the deal with the US for the 90-day freeze have yet to be finalized. When they are, Netanyahu will bring it to the 15-member Security Cabinet for a vote.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=195487
Rabbi threatens to support Lieberman as Prime Minister
Levanon speaks at emergency conference against the emerging possibility that Netanyahu would extend the building moratorium.
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, head of the Elon Moreh Yeshiva, warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night that if he broke his word and prolonged the construction freeze, prominent rabbis from the national-religious sector would call on their flocks to support Israel Beiteinu leader Avidgor Lieberman as the next prime minister.
Levanon was the last speaker at an emergency conference that took place in Jerusalem regarding the emerging possibility that Netanyahu would extend the construction moratorium.
The rabbi did not mention Lieberman by name, but he left no doubt as to who the leader of a big party, who tells the truth and has aspirations to be prime minister was, nor did he disregard the problems we have with some of his policies, such as on conversions.
Unlike Netanyahu, Levanon said, Lieberman will continue to speak the truth as the head of the state.
A member of the Knesset who lied in court lost his seat, he said of Kadima's Tzahi Hanegbi, but a prime minister who lied to an entire nation carries on as if nothing happened how could such a thing be? Participating in the Jerusalem gathering were some of the most senior rabbis from the national-religious sector, including Beit El Yeshiva head Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Or Etzion Yeshiva head Rabbi Haim Druckman, Mercaz Harav Yeshiva leader Rabbi Ya'acov Shapira, former rabbinical courts head Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, and some 80 others.
Most of the other speakers, however, were more positive in their addresses, and stressed the need to join forces and provide backing to the premier, who should under no circumstances agree to another freeze.
Shas received special attention as the party representing our brother in heart and soul in spreading Torah and faith, in the words of Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, head of the Ramat Gan Yeshiva.
Don't hide the truth from [Shas mentor] Rabbi Ovadia Yosef you are building the bridge for this freeze, he said. It all depends on you; have courage.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=195604
Likud rebels cast doubt on US pledges, warn of party split
J'lem committee cancels discussion of 1,000 new homes; Begin slams Netanyahu for not honoring promises; Clinton hails PM's serious effort.
While the US on Monday heaped further praise on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for moving toward a renewed settlement freeze, ministers and other hardliners from his Likud party stepped up their campaign to block it, going so far as to suggest that some of the ostensible US incentives may not hold true.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein told The Jerusalem Post that he and other Likud skeptics are not convinced that, despite assurances to the contrary, the US will give its support in writing to continued Jewish construction in east Jerusalem or to a commitment that the mooted 90-day freeze would be the last such moratorium on new construction in the settlements.
Furthermore, Likud rebels are warning, an American promise of a guaranteed one-year US veto in the Security Council against any Palestinian moves to unilaterally seek statehood, rather than representing a benefit for Israel, constitutes something of a threat, since it opens the door to the possibility that, after the year is over, the US might in fact support Palestinian unilateral moves.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Regional Planning Committee has removed from its agenda discussions on more than a thousand housing units in the Gilo neighborhood set for Tuesday. The municipal spokesman refused to draw a link between the change of agenda and any political considerations, and stressed that the city is a city like any other, with ongoing bureaucratic issues pertaining to its natural growth.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that she was encouraged by Netanyahu's moves to push the freeze through the cabinet.
This is a very promising development and a serious effort by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Clinton said.
We're in very close touch with the Israelis and the Palestinians, working intensively to create the conditions for the resumption of negotiations that can lead to a two-state solution and comprehensive peace in the region, she said.
The US wants the resumption of talks on all final-status issues, she said, and added that the status quo is unacceptable.
In remarks marking the start of Id al-Adha, the Muslim festival of the sacrifice, Netanyahu said, We are trying to renew negotiations with our Palestinian neighbors and to advance peace agreements with other Arab nations.
But even as Netanyahu tried to sway opposing cabinet members to support the agreement he is hammering out with the US, MKs from his own Likud Party met in the Knesset on Monday to stop him.
Those present included: Edelstein, coalition chairman Ze'ev Elkin, Danny Danon, Yariv Levin, Tzipi Hotovely, Miri Regev and Haim Katz.
They agreed to formulate a lightning campaign intended to sway Shas not to abstain in the vote on the deal when Netanyahu brings it to the 15- member security cabinet.
Shas has made its planned abstention from this cabinet vote an abstention that would likely give Netanyahu a narrow majority in favor of the freeze dependent on an explicit commitment to increased building in Jerusalem throughout the period of the freeze, and in key West Bank settlements following the moratorium's conclusion.
Danon told the Post that he had written a letter to Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in which he called upon the rabbi to check if it is really true and to ask to see in writing American commitments regarding continued building following the end of the proposed three-month moratorium.
The anti-freeze Likud MKs believe that the two Shas ministers with votes in the security cabinet are leaning in opposite directions, with Interior Minister Eli Yishai tending toward opposing the freeze and Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias leaning toward supporting it.
The Likud opponents also want to erase Netanyahu's narrow margin of support among the seven security cabinet members who are expected to support Netanyahu when he brings the deal to a vote.
Although Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin did not attend Monday's Knesset meeting, he gave the freeze opponents a strong boost on Monday evening when he broke two days of silence to denounce the intended move.
Government promises must be followed through, said Begin, in reference to his own pledges and that of Netanyahu that the first freeze on new construction, which ended on September 26, was a onetime deal.
Begin, who is believed to be the man who can best rally the party's right wing, told Channel 2, One should have been able to anticipate the actions of recent days, and if they weren't taken into consideration in advance, that is strange to me. Someone needs to offer some explanations.
Edelstein said that in speaking with cabinet members, We decided that the main effort will be directed in the next two days to try to convince Likud ministers and MKs that nobody can sit on the fence on this issue.
Edelstein, the only minister to attend the meeting, said the antifreeze campaigners would try to have as many Likud ministers and MKs as possible sign a letter voicing their opposition to the freeze.
I think that this is a very bad situation for the Likud, Edelstein responded when asked if his party could split over a second freeze.
The participants in the meeting aren't some extreme elements that infiltrated the Likud. These are Likudniks. And if they remain bitter and disappointed, it would be very serious for the party. I would not want to be the one who has to organize and rally the faction around major issues after we go in to a freeze.
Should efforts to block the freeze in the security cabinet fail, the Likud MKs promised that they would consider more serious sanctions against the coalition, including boycotting key votes in Knesset committees.
Meeting with the deputy chairwoman of the German Bundestag in Jerusalem, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin also voiced discomfort with the proposal.
The freeze has created a serious argument in both the Knesset and the Israeli public. The possibility that Israel will stand alone before the UN Security Council without an American veto creates a new situation in the Middle East, and that must be examined in a long-term perspective, Rivlin said.
Israelis now wonder: What will happen next time that there is a disagreement with the Americans? From now on, will every step that Israel takes be measured against the threat of the Americans rescinding their veto? Separately, Jerusalem's Local Planning Committee removed from its agenda for Monday a discussion of the request of a contractor to change the designation of a plot of land from a hotel to apartments.
The plot in southern Jerusalem, which lies between Beit Safafa and Gilo, has already received approval for a private entrepreneur to build a hotel. He recently decided that he'd rather build three apartment buildings instead.
The Local Committee made its agenda for this Monday public last Thursday, a few hours before the marathon New York meeting between Netanyahu and Clinton.
The municipality released a statement saying the committee is bound by law to discuss such a request, which was likely to be denied since the city encourages the construction of hotel rooms, as the capital has a shortage of them.
On Monday, the request was removed from the agenda. The municipality said in a statement that this was done to examine the ramifications of changing the plot's designation from a hotel to private living units, in light of the city's policy on this issue.
A spokesman for the municipality denied that the committee might have removed the topic from the agenda to prevent unwanted hubbub in the current politically tense environment, and stressed that there has never been a construction freeze in Jerusalem.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=195476
PA looks for its own incentive package for negotiations
The Authority wants financial aid and promise from US to intervene in direct negotiations to reach a peace agreement within one year.
The Palestinian Authority is also expecting a package of incentives from the US in return for resuming peace talks with Israel, Palestinian sources said on Monday.
The US has offered such a package to Israel in return for a 90-day settlement freeze. That one would likely include using its veto power in the UN against unilateral moves to declare a Palestinian state, and eventually providing 20 additional F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets. The terms have not been finalized and the security cabinet has yet to vote on the proposal.
According to the Palestinian sources, the PA wants additional financial aid and a promise from Washington to intervene in the direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel to reach a peace agreement within one year.
The PA is also hoping that the US package of incentives would include a political commitment that an agreement would be reached on the borders of a Palestinian state within three months, the sources told the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper.
In addition, the PA wants a US commitment to solve the issue of the Palestinian refugees and compensate them through an international fund that would involve most countries in the region, including Israel.
However, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said he was unaware of such a request by the PA.
Erekat warned that the PLO could not remain committed to peace talks with Israel indefinitely. He accused Israel of using the negotiations as a cover for its practices, which are designed to undermine the twostate solution and make it impossible to achieve.
Erekat said Israel was still refusing to recognize the Palestinians right to establish an independent state on the June 4, 1967, lines with east Jerusalem as its capital.
The Palestinians, he stressed, would not relinquish their right to achieve their goal namely to achieve liberty and establish an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, solve the issue of the refugees on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and release all prisoners held in Israeli jails no matter how long it took.
Erekat hinted that the Palestinians would seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
The PLO and the Fatah Central Committee cannot accept the option of allowing Israel to maintain the status quo, he said.
Today Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has begun implementing a Palestinian strategy aimed at rejecting attempts to create new facts on the ground.
Abbas met in Ramallah on Monday with Fatah leaders and briefed them on the latest developments surrounding the peace process.
He reaffirmed his commitment to work toward establishing a Palestinian state free of settlements that would exist alongside Israel in security and stability, a PA official said after the meeting. Abbas said reconciliation with Hamas was at the top of the PA's agenda.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=195479
7 jan 2012, 16:10 , Respect -
Maria 17 nov 2010
Clinton refuses comment on written guarantees request
Israeli officials: E. J'lem hasn't delayed freeze document; Erekat refutes claims that PA holding up talks.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday declined to comment on Israel's request for written guarantees from Washington regarding the agreement for a renewed settlement construction freeze.
She said she could not go into details, but that the US is working closely with the two sides towards creating conditions that would enable renewed talks.
Earlier on Wednesday Israeli officials tried to defuse speculation that a disagreement between Israel and the US over east Jerusalem construction had delayed the anticipated American document detailing the terms of an incentives package in exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze.
All details of that incentives deal, which have been leaked to the media, have stated clearly that such a moratorium would not involve east Jerusalem construction.
Israeli officials said that during last Thursday's meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netnayhu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where they discussed the 90-day freeze deal, it was understood that east Jerusalem would not be mentioned in the document.
The Shas party's expected abstention from the Security Cabinet vote on the deal a stance which is critical to its passage is linked to its understanding that the document would clarify that east Jerusalem construction is not included in the settlement freeze.
Israel has continuously explained to the US that east Jerusalem is part of Israel's united capital and that it does not intend to halt construction there, Israeli officials said.
The Palestinians in contrast, have insisted that all Jewish construction must be halted both in West Bank settlements and in east Jerusalem, before they would agree to return to the negotiating table.
Earlier Wednesday, Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Army Radio that the PA will only learn the details regarding the new US freeze proposal during a meeting between the assistant of US Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
"All Israeli claims that Palestinians are torpedoing the [new] understanding between Washington and Jerusalem are just part of the regular Israeli machinations in the blame game," Erekat told Army Radio.
Erekat also said during the interview that the key to peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is in the hands of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
"The Israelis know our position...we will negotiate beginning with borders and security...all other core issues...will be dealt with after 90 days," he stated.
The Palestinian official also called for a two-state solution along 1967 borders.
"I am under your [the Israeli] occupation...we want to reach a two-state solution with 1967 borders... we have recognized your existence," Erekat said.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=195746
Shas threatens Netanyahu
Shas demands exact details of number of homes to be constructed in Jerusalem.
According to details of a draft agreement between Israel and the US on a 90-day settlement construction freeze, the US will not demand any further freeze when the moratorium comes to an end, Ynet has learned.
Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned in the document despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presenting this issue as an achievement. Meanwhile, the prime minister's narrow majority in the cabinet is in danger due to Shas' demands.
Earlier, Ynet reported on secret meetings between Netanyahu and his staff and senior Shas representatives. The haredi party is demanding the exact details of housing construction to be permitted in Jerusalem during the moratorium in return for its support in the cabinet. Shas expects Netanyahu to present such details to the US and obtain its blessing even if this is verbal alone.
Shas is also demanding that Defense Minister Ehud Barak approve building in the West Bank immediately after the freeze period. Party representatives say that Barak has not signed any such permits since the current government was formed.
Sources close to Shas Chairman and Interior Minister Eli Yishai said earlier that it was likely Shas would vote against the moratorium as opposed to abstaining. One senior source noted that the issue of Jerusalem was critical to the prime minister, and that great efforts were being made to deal with this issue.
Meanwhile, efforts are being made to reach a compromise Wednesday night and formulate a draft to bring before the cabinet Thursday for final ratification.
According to the draft, construction will be banned at various sites during the freeze, but as noted, Jerusalem is not mentioned. A paragraph on security issues has not yet been agreed to, while the US aid package is yet to be formulated; there are still differences between the sides on this issue.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986263,00.html
IDF officers: Talks failure may cause Fatah collapse
IDF sources reportedly say Fatah government's survival depends on peace talks' progress.
WASHINGTON - Delays in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations not only cloud Israel's relations with the US, but may also undermine Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.
According to foreign reports, IDF military and intelligence officers warn that if no peace agreement is soon reached, the Fatah government may collapse, leaving the regime in the hands of Hamas supported by Iran and Syria.
In an interview published in the Washington Post, a senior Israeli officer warned that those handling negotiations have a narrow window of opportunity before the period of calm comes to an end. The quiet will not remain forever, he warned, saying that if Israeli politicians fail to achieve anything through negotiations, there will be an escalation within six to nine months.
Despite improved coordination between Israeli and Palestinian security forces that is contributing to the calm, the situation is liable to ignite. The officer said he doubted that Palestinian forces would be able to continue the coordination if the talks fail, which is why the IDF is preparing for a third Intifada.
The newspaper also quoted another officer from Israeli intelligence, who agreed the Palestinian security infrastructure could rapidly disappear.
The weekly magazine Time also claimed the success of joint Israeli-Palestinian security efforts was dependent on progress in negotiations. During a briefing with foreign reporters, an Israeli officer said Israel requires real progress in the peace process in order to retain the legitimacy of Palestinian security forces.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986210,00.html
Yaalon: Bibi taken captive by Barak
Rift between prime minister, deputy PM growing; Yaalon slams Bibi for 'capitulating' to US.
Tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his deputy Moshe (Bogi) Yaalon are "on the verge of explosion," Likud sources say.
Yaalon, who serves as Minister for Strategic Affairs, has recently escalated his statements against the PM and in conversations with other ministers charged that "Bibi has been taken captive by Ehud (Barak)".
The rift between the two figures had grown against the backdrop of Yaalon's objection to extending the settlement construction freeze. The deputy PM slammed Netanyahu for "capitulating" to American demands.
Yaalon is also holding Defense Minister Barak accountable for the extended moratorium, charging that most understanding with the US on this front were secured by Barak during his trip to America a few weeks ago.
Yaalon slammed the move on Sunday already, referring to it as a "honey trap." At that same Likud session, the deputy PM told Netanyahu that he is violating his pledges not to extend the freeze.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu's close associates also had harsh words for Yaalon, and a government source said that "officials at Netanyahu's office are very angry at the minister for strategic affairs."
Wednesday morning, Yaalon signed a Yesha Council letter objecting to the extended freeze, in essence placing himself at the head of the group of "rebels" against PM Netanyahu.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986152,00.html
Netanyahu meets Yishai on freeze deal
Prime minister attempts to secure Shas's support for freeze while rightists fight to protest before homes of ministers who refuse to take sides on issue.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's chief negotiator, Attorney Yitzhak Molcho, met confidentially on Wednesday with Shas ministers Eli Yishai and Ariel Atias, Ynet has learned.
Netanyahu and Molcho presented the ministers with an agreement reached with the US on an additional freeze in West Bank settlement construction, in an attempt to keep them from objecting to the freeze.
Earlier Wednesday, right-wing activists filed a petition with the High Court of Justice demanding that Jerusalem Police allow quiet protests of restricted numbers to take place before the homes of Yishai and Atias, against their immobility on the issue of an additional freeze.
The activists say it is every citizen's democratic right to express his opinion publicly, and that the attorney general is violating that right in his orders against quiet protests before the homes of public officials.
Roee Rider, a discharged soldier coordinating the activities of the Binyamin settlers' council, claims in the petition that police rejected his request to hold protests, despite his promise not to disturb the peace and limit the number of participants.
The petition claims the police, acting on orders by the attorney general, are ignoring the difference between public and elected officials as well as the law, which states that protests with less than 50 people do not require permits.
Police dispersal of such rallies create an "absurd situation", according to the petition, by which the right to protest in front of the home of a minister depends on where he lives.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985944,00.html
US official to brief PA on talks
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A senior US official will brief Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Thursday about the latest developments in efforts to renew direct talks with Israel.
Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Israeli radio that David Hale, a deputy to US Mideast envoy George Mitchell, would deliver "details and suggestions" in his briefing.
He added that President Abbas would review Hale's suggestions with the PLO and Fatah, and with the leaders of Arab states.
The US is currently asking Israel to resume a partial moratorium on the construction of illegal West Bank settlements, in order to coax the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table.
Last week US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton offered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a package of incentives, including military aid and promises to veto UN resolutions critical of Israel, in exchange for a 90-day extension of the freeze.
Netanyahu has promised to put the US proposal to his 15-member security cabinet -- but only after receiving written details of the offer.
"There are understandings between the US secretary of state and the prime minister but it takes time for them to be put in writing, and we have to wait," Nir Hefetz, a senior Netanyahu adviser, told Israel's army radio.
"No date has been set for the cabinet meeting because we have to wait for the written clarifications from the Americans," he said.
Earlier this week, Netanyahu said that details of the proposal were still being hammered out, and a source close to the negotiations said the premier was "holding out" over a number of conditions.
But on Tuesday, another senior Israeli official accused the Palestinians of holding up the letter's arrival, saying their complaints about the generous US offers to Israel were the source of the delay.
"What is causing a delay in putting together the agreed formula in the US document are Palestinian objections to what Israel has managed to gain through the understandings," he said.
"Only when the guarantees document is received will the prime minister present it to the cabinet," he added.
Under the terms of the proposal, Israel would declare a one-off three-month moratorium on new construction in the West Bank excluding annexed Palestinian east Jerusalem.
In exchange, the United States would pledge not to ask for a further freeze, would deliver to Israel 20 F-35 fighter jets, worth three billion dollars, and would pledge to block any international efforts to force a political settlement on Israel.
Netanyahu is facing opposition from members of his own cabinet in extending the freeze. On Wednesday three cabinet ministers, all members of his Likud party, sent a letter to settler leaders declaring that they would oppose the deal.
According to the Israeli news site Ynet, Ministers Silvan Shalom, Moshe Ya'alon, and Benny Begin added their signatures to the letter which states "their objection to a construction freeze in Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria."
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333967
PMO: E. Jerusalem not part of US freeze proposal
Netanyahu's office reject reports that J'lem building may be frozen as part of deal; Erekat says claims PA holding up talks false.
The discussions between the US and Israel regarding an extension of the settlement building freeze did not include any restraints on building in the neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the Prime Minister's Office announced on Wednesday.
The PMO rejected the veracity of reports claiming that the main point of contention between the US and the Netanyahu government in extending the building freeze has been the continuation of building projects slated for east Jerusalem.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Army Radio that the PA will only learn the details regarding the new US freeze proposal during a meeting between the assistant of US Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
"All Israeli claims that Palestinians are torpedoing the [new] understanding between Washington and Jerusalem are just part of the regular Israeli machinations in the blame game," Erekat told Army Radio.
Erekat also said during the interview that the key to peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is in the hands of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
"The Israelis know our position...we will negotiate beginning with borders and security...all other core issues...will be dealt with after 90 days," he stated.
Erekat comments were made in reference to the proposed three month freeze on West Bank settlement construction.
The Palestinian official also called for a two-state solution along 1967 borders.
"I am under your [the Israeli] occupation...we want to reach a two-state solution with 1967 borders...we have recognized your existence," Erekat said.
Erekat's comments contrasted with previous news reports over Palestinian intentions vis a vis negotiations.
On Tuesday, The Jerusalem Post learned from sources close to the issue that Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table even if a 90-day settlement freeze is in place was delaying the anticipated agreement between Israel and the US for a package of incentives in exchange for such a moratorium.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=195678
Security cabinet members skeptical over new freeze
Since Israel carried out first freeze, Palestinians have just gotten further away from negotiating table, MK Tzipi Hotovely says.
Political efforts within the coalition to defeat the security cabinet's approval of the 90- day settlement freeze continued full steam ahead Tuesday evening, even as diplomats confirmed that the US had yet to give a written pledge for an incentives package.
While Likud MKs opposed to the freeze circulated a letter to their fellow faction members, more ministers in the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet joined the category of vocal skeptics on the initiative.
Since Israel carried out the first freeze, the Palestinians have just gotten further away from the negotiating table, MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), one of the leaders of the anti-freeze effort, told The Jerusalem Post.
Their stubborn refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish people's state, and the impossible demand to freeze building also in Jerusalem prove that the Palestinians are attacking peace, she asserted.
The Likud faction opposes renewing the freeze in numbers that would have an impact. The prime minister must listen to his faction before making significant decisions that have diplomatic implications, and must stand by his earlier promises.
Following through with one of the steps determined during a strategic planning meeting Monday, the anti-moratorium Likud MKs aimed to get as many signatures as possible on their letter to faction members.
The brief letter, addressed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, was rewritten to attract the maximum number of signers.
We, Likud ministers and MKs, express our opposition to a building moratorium in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, it read. The decision made by the ministers of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet on November 26, 2009, that with the end of the suspension, the government will return to carrying out the policies of previous administrations on the topic of building in Judea and Samaria must be carried out.
Although seven Likud faction members participated in Monday's planning meeting, and an additional five have already expressed their opposition to the freeze plan, the gathering of signatures was slow-going Tuesday evening.
In the meantime, key ministers in the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet began to voice increased skepticism regarding the American commitments reportedly offered to Israel to sweeten the deal.
Although in the morning, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio that he supported the moratorium because of US promises that no further freeze would be requested, sources close to the finance minister said that while Steinitz believed you need to support the prime minister, he won't make a final decision until he sees an agreement in writing.
Shas also voiced new reservations about the party's intentions for its two cabinet ministers to abstain from any vote on the freeze. A Shas abstention from the cabinet vote would likely give Netanyahu a narrow majority in favor of the freeze, whereas Shas's vote against it would guarantee its failure.
Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias said that Shas would either vote against a proposed 90-day extension of the moratorium or abstain, depending on the opinion of the faction's spiritual leader.
We will not support the proposal. We will either oppose it or abstain from voting, depending upon the decision of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said Attias during an interview with Israel Radio.
In previous comments, Interior Minister Eli Yishai had said Shas would abstain, arguing that the abstention was solely dependent on assurances that building would continue in Jerusalem in general, and in the West Bank after the end of the 90-day freeze.
Attias said Yosef had not made his final decision because the US had not given Israel its final proposal, laying out benefits Israel would receive in return for an extension of the freeze.
On Monday, MK Danny Danon (Likud) sent a missive to Yosef, calling upon the rabbi to ask to see in writing American commitments regarding continued building after the end of the proposed threemonth moratorium.
Outside of the Knesset, activists are maintaining pressure on the government by threatening to hold a warning strike throughout the West Bank this coming Sunday.
Local governments, including the Samaria and Binyamin regional councils and the local councils of Efrat, Kedumim, Karnei Shomron, Kiryat Arba and Beit El, have already announced that they will participate in the strike, which will include the closure of all municipal services and educational institutions.
During the strike, West Bank residents also plan to protest outside Sunday's cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=195617
Israeli minister: Future borders must be based on wall and settlements
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Israeli Minister of Intelligence Dan Meridor said the border-drawing process for future Palestinian and Israeli states must be based on the apartheid wall and settlement blocks, while retaining Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Meridor said in an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz published on Monday that new borders must be based on the wall and settlements, while insisting that Jerusalem was the eternal capital, and challenging the right of Palestinians to return to their lands.
The Israeli public heavily supports the establishment of the Palestinians state in exchange for Jerusalem and the settlement blocks remaining under Israeli sovereignty along with the Palestinian people renouncing what they call the dream to return.
The Palestinians must understand they will not have a state without agreeing to settle, which includes waiving the dream of the right to return.
The Israeli minister said that the U.S.'s offer to resume the negotiation process between the Palestinian Authority and Israel was a reasonable offer. He added that it was in Israel's interest to approve the Ministerial Council's extension of the settlement freeze.
In a separate development, Israel's former war minister Shaul Mofaz announced plans to run for prime minister in the upcoming elections scheduled for more than two years from now.
Mofaz, a Kadima party member in the Israeli Knesset of Iranian descent, said in statements on Israeli channel 2 on Monday: I see myself as a candidate for prime minister.
I have never hidden the fact that I'm running for the Kadima party leadership, and I will win in the party and general elections.
Mofaz said he expected the current Israeli government headed by Netanyahu to collapse.
There is no peace process, in which case there will be elections. It's only a matter of time, he said.
http://bit.ly/c0KLrY
Clash with U.S. over terms of settlement freeze stalls cabinet vote[/b]
Disagreements rose from American desire to remain vague over whether it will seek another freeze three months from now.
Disagreements with the U.S. administration are delaying the inner cabinet from discussing and voting on a potential settlement freeze. The letter outlines U.S. guarantees to persuade Israel to agree to a three-month moratorium on settlement construction.
As of Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy for the peace process, Isaac Molho, was conducting marathon talks with senior advisers to U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the text of the letter, so that it could be brought before the inner cabinet on Wednesday.
Most of the disagreement concerns the American desire to remain vague over whether it will seek another freeze in three months' time. The Americans would like the text to say that progress over the next three months would render another freeze unnecessary.
With regard to the guarantees, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said "we're prepared to do everything we can to create the conditions for both the Palestinians and the Israelis to return to direct negotiations."
Crowley added: "Our message to both is the same: Get back to direct negotiations, work through the core issues and get to a just, fair and equitable settlement and agreement within 12 months." As with the previous construction freeze, the Americans will not ask Israel to stop building in East Jerusalem, but will not say so publicly or in writing.
Another question at hand is whether the letter will state that the Americans will not seek to extend the freeze only if significant progress is made on the question of borders. Netanyahu has said borders would only be discussed with the other core issues.
The prime minister's office is reportedly concerned that the present delay will give the settlers more time to influence Shas ministers, eroding his already slim majority to approve the moratorium. At press time, both the Americans and the Israelis said the disagreements were just hours to days away from being bridged.
A senior Israeli official familiar with the details of the talks said the delay was because "the Palestinians claim that the understandings reached between Clinton and Netanyahu benefit Israel too greatly, while denying the Palestinians leverage and bargaining chips."
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday refused to sign the letter of the "Likud rebels" protesting the freeze, although he is known to strongly oppose it. He told the Yesha Council of settlements that as speaker of the Knesset his job was to manage the debate, not take sides.
http://bit.ly/bPqxfX
7 jan 2012, 16:10 , Respect -
Maria 18 nov 2010
Arab paper: Abbas' insistence on freeze pointless
Senior Arab journalist claims 'Palestinians fell victim to false conception that halting settlement construction was beneficial'; says Palestinian president's tactics bolstered Netanyahu administration, weakened Obama.
Al-Arabiya TV Director-General Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed has slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over his insistence of a construction freeze in the West Bank.
In his column in the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, al-Rashed claimed that this insistence bolstered Netanyahu's government and even led to the US democratic party's defeat in the Congressional midterm elections.
Al-Rashed is considered an influential figure in the Arab world and holds unconventional liberal views. In his article, titled "The Palestinian president's gifts," al-Rashed accused Abbas of a political failure which is enabling Netanyahu to "evade the negotiations he has been fearing."
"In exchange for 90 days of construction freeze the Palestinian president gave Israel 20 fighter jets, $20 billion and has prompted Jewish donors around the world to support the construction of houses and apartments in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem," he wrote. "Had it not been for the freeze terms, the Israelis might not have won all this. The Palestinian side fell victim to the illusion that halting settlement building is beneficial."
'Abbas encouraged the Jews to support settlements' (Photo: Reuters)
Al-Rashed also claimed that the American support of Abbas played a part in the current political crisis US President Barack Obama is immersed in. "One of Abbas's achievements is the democratic party's defeat in the recent elections. The party lost the support of American Jews for what they called 'Obama's extreme attitude towards Israel.'"
"And all this for what? Not returning the West Bank or salvaging occupied Jerusalem and not even returning several thousands of Palestinian refugees to their homes. The whole campaign boils down to the insistence to freeze the construction of houses and apartments in the settlements."
Lesson in shrewdness
Al-Rashed praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the situation. "If you want a lesson in shrewdness %u2013 watch Netanyahu. He has turned the problem into lucrative commodity.
"Since insisting on this condition, Abbas has struck four achievements: He exempted Netanyahu of the talks he feared, he kept the Americans concerned with minor issues during Obama's two most important years, he encouraged radical Jews to support settlements and caused Obama to change his stance - instead of punishing Netanyahu, he rewarded him. All this in order to suspend construction in several settlements for a while."
The biggest tragedy, the journalist said, was that the move had turned Netanyahu into "a hero among the Israeli people and many of the Jews around the world, for he has said 'no' to Obama.
"He beat the Palestinians without one bullet or any negotiations. Netanyahu regained power with a weak government which was not expected to last more than a few months. Now he's a significant political leader. Can anyone tell us what the great people of Ramallah are planning?"
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986865,00.html
PM: Understandings must maintain security
Netanyahu says expects understandings with US to maintain Israel's interests, 'primarily security'
In the backdrop of attempts to pass the settlement construction freeze proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a ceremony at the Israel Institute of technology for the "prime minister's award for innovation."
Speaking at the ceremony, Netanyahu said he is expecting understandings with the US administration which will maintain the State of Israel's interests, "primarily security."
"That is the only consideration I am guided by. Should I receive such an offer from the United States I shall present it to the cabinet right away," he said.
President of the Institute of Technology Professor Peretz Lavie also spoke at the ceremony and said that Israel is ranked 6th out of 160 countries in terms of innovation. "We are performing modern alchemy," he said. "We take ideas and make them into products."
Lavie added that 50% of the Israeli companies traded in the NASDAQ stock market are run by the institute's graduates.
Meanwhile, state officials were optimistic about the possibility of seeing a finalized US paper soon. The document is slated to include the details of the deal to freeze West Bank settlement construction for a period of 90 days.
"There are still several little details to be worked out but it appears that most of the details have been finalized," one source said. "The fighter jets issue has also been resolved and they are expected to arrive in 2015 after the Congress's approval."
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak held talks with US administration personnel on Wednesday night and met with Interior Minister Eli Yishai.
Referring to Yishai's demand from Barak to authorize construction in the West Bank following the freeze, one source said that no agreement has yet been reached on the matter.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986838,00.html
Mofaz: Freeze a major strategic mistake
Mofaz. 'Internal problems to worsen'
Kadima's No. 2 warns that after new settlement construction moratorium, Israel will be required to accept 'another one and another one.' It's time for big moves, he says, adding that 'waiting for core issues will only lead to 20 years of conflict'.
Knesset Member Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said Thursday evening that the new settlement construction freeze being discussed these days is a "major strategic mistake".
Speaking at a conference organized by the Geneva Initiative, Mofaz said that the building freeze "has become a precondition for negotiations, although not progress whatsoever has been made in the negotiation."
The former IDF chief wanted that if Israel agreed to another 90-day construction moratorium, as requested by the American administration, "after these three months are over it will be asked to accept another freeze and another freeze."
He stressed that "we will not pull through before a decision is made on stabilizing the borders and the security arrangements."
According to Mofaz, Israel is facing a very important junction, which will either lead it to a long-term diplomatic agreement or a serious conflict which the Jewish state will win, but which will claim a heavy price in blood and postpone the peace process by many years.
"Then, we will be forced to reach the same point," he clarified. Mofaz said "major moves" were needed, linking between the peace process and Israel's internal problems.
"Today young people cannot buy a house, the poverty in Israel is only expanding, and 20% of Israel's population lives under the poverty line," he noted. "If we don't take major moves it will grow.
"In order to make higher education and technologies accessible to any person in this country, in order for the middle class' social-economic status not to wear out, in order to guarantee a home for young people in Israel we must reach a peace process. Israel's constant state of anxiousness does not allow it."
'Hamas will rule West Bank'
Braverman. 'Arab state with Jewish minority'
The MK warned that "anyone waiting for the core issues can add 20 more years of conflict. We must lead a major move."
He said that his political plan would be implemented within a short time and lead to a change of atmosphere on both sides, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas receiving more than 60% of the West Bank territories and having 99% of the Palestinian population under his control.
"He will be able to establish a state with a territorial sequence from Jenin to Hebron, apart from east Jerusalem."
According to Mofaz, time is not in both sides' favor. "The Palestinian Authority may grow weaker, and we may wake up into a reality in which Hamas controls the West Bank as well and the 60,000 Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria which live outside the large settlement blocs will turn into 100,000 and it will be even more difficult to get them to resettle elsewhere."
He added that resettling the 60,000 residents of isolated settlements in one move as part of the permanent agreement would be unrealistic.
Oron. 'Jerusalem will have two capitals'
Minister for Strategic Affairs Avishay Braverman warned during the conference that "without a peace process, the State of Israel will become an Arab state with a Jewish minority. Everything points to that the demographic indicators, the decline in America's power, and the rise in the power of India and China. We are slowly descending to hell."
Meretz Chairman Chaim Oron said during the conference that "the only partner we have in the world is the Palestinian partner. We must accept an exchange of land at a 1:1 ratio within the 1967 borders, and understand that Jerusalem will have two capitals for both people."
He stressed that it would be crucial to come up with a solution for the refugee problem as an essential part of the conflict, and that the solution would be the refugees' return to the Palestinian state rather than to the State of Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986804,00.html
Abbas: We Refuse Any Link Between Settlement Freeze and Arming Israel
Ramallah PNN - Commenting on reports of an American deal circulated by Arab and international media, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Thursday that Palestinians refused to be the means to further arm Israel.
We assure you that we will not be linked to that, said Rudeineh in a press statement. We will not get involved in that. The position of Mahmoud Abbas is that we are against any link between a settlement freeze and armament of Israel. The American-Israeli strategic relationship still stands, but we will not be involved in it. There is no doubt that some voices will exploit this cynically, but they do not see the reality, only the distortions and falsifications.
http://bit.ly/993DFr
Rightist rabbis back Lieberman for PM
Rabbi Levanon: PM's a lier
In protest of freeze, rabbis dub Netanyahu a 'fraud', call on Shas not to abstain from vote 'as in Oslo'.
Dozens of rightist rabbis rallied on Tuesday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intention to accept the US proposal to renew the construction moratorium in the West Bank. The rabbis supported Netanyahu's replacement with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
The rabbis gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss the matter, then marched in front of Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman's home, demanding that he oppose the renewal of the construction freeze.
"Minister Ne'eman really is loyal... but he is under tremendous pressure to support the freeze," said Avi Smotrich, the town rabbi of the Beit Yatir settlement in the West Bank. "We are here to remind him of his loyalty. Jews of all generations have agreed to sacrifice their lives to fulfill the Torah, so what is this pressure in comparison?"
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the Elon Moreh settlement in Samaria slammed Netanyahu and called fellow rabbis in leadership positions to shift their support to Lieberman. "We are dealing with a fraud," he said. "A Knesset member who lies pays with his seat, but a prime minister can lie to the entire nation.
"There is a party head that definitely has his eye on leadership, and when he will lead the nation he will continue to speak the truth," he said without mentioning Lieberman by name. "You know who I mean." Elaykim noted that a Lieberman administration will cause a different set of problems, but expressed his support nonetheless.
'Don't hide behind abstention vote'
Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, who heads the Ramat Gan Yeshiva likened continuing the moratorium to "drinking vinegar." According to him, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak "drink vinegar" and tell themselves it is the last time, but soon find themselves drinking it again.
He turned to Shas members and said that the decision is in their hands. "Everything depends on you," he said. "Don't hide behind 'abstention' voting, as occurred in Oslo. My brothers, don't be afraid."
Rabbi Lior: Netanyahu, be strong
On Monday, Rabbi Dov Lior of the Kiryat Arba settlement in Judea published a letter in which he calls Prime Minister Netanyahu to resist the pressure from the US to resume the moratorium. "You have the honor of representing our people during one of the hardest periods in the process of our salvation," he wrote. "This is why you must stand strong against all the enemies threatening to harm us. I have no doubt that you will show decisiveness, the evil of the gentiles will diminish, and Hashem the God of Israel will help you get out of this mess."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985825,00.html
Israel: Freeze deal with US nearly finalized
Government sources say Jerusalem, Washington close to agreement on American incentives package aimed at convincing hard-liners to back settlement construction moratorium. 'Pressure on Bibi increasing daily,' official says.
Israeli government officials expressed optimism on Thursday regarding the possibility that the drafting of letter detailing understandings on the proposed 90-day building moratorium in the West Bank will be completed shortly.
The crucial document from the US is meant to persuade government hard-liners to renew a ban on settlement construction so that the stalled Mideast peace talks could resume.
A US official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Washington was drafting a letter that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reached with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York last week.
An Israeli official said an agreement has been reached on most of the American incentives detailed in the document, including the delivery of 20 F-35 warplanes in 2015.
It remains unclear whether the Cabinet will convene Thursday to vote on the agreement, but a government official said, "It must be passed as soon as possible, because the pressure on Netanyahu is increasing every day."
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with Interior Minister Eli Yishai overnight Thursday in an effort to garner Shas' support for a three-month freeze.
Yishai, who heads the religious party, demanded that the government approve the construction of dozens of housing units in the West Bank once the freeze expires.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986589,00.html
7 jan 2012, 16:10 , Respect -
Maria 19 nov 2010
Israel to continue building in al-Quds
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev
Israel has insisted on its position over a possible future slowdown on its settlement projects, saying it will continue building in al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said on Thursday that any future moratorium would not apply to al-Quds.
The ongoing Israeli settlement construction issue put an end to the US-sponsored direct talks between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority, which began in early September.
A report indicates that Israelis have begun construction of 1,650 new settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories since the end of Tel Aviv's 10-month partial settlement freeze in late September.
The Israeli spokesman also noted that an earlier settlement slowdown did not include al-Quds.
"The previous moratorium did not apply to Jerusalem ... If there is a future moratorium, it will similarly not apply to Jerusalem," Regev said.
In an effort to persuade Tel Aviv to extend the freeze, the US agreed to give twenty F-35 fighters to Israel and to veto any anti-Israeli resolution at the United Nations Security Council in exchange for a three-month settlement freeze.
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has announced that he will not return to the talks unless Tel Aviv freezes settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Palestinians argue that the settlement construction is aimed at preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel occupied al-Quds and the West Bank in the 1967 war -- a move not recognized by the international community and the United Nations.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151591.html 7 jan 2012, 16:10 , Respect -
Maria 20 nov 2010
US will not pressure Israel to extend freeze after 90 days
National Security Adviser Uzi Arad says US committed, in writing, to not asking for additional building moratorium.
The US has given written assurance to Israel that it won't be pressured to impose any additional settlement freezes after it accepts a limited 90 day construction moratorium aimed at reviving peace talks, a top Israeli official said Saturday.
"A commitment not to ask an additional freeze after 90 days was written by the Americans," National Security Advisor Uzi Arad said Saturday afternoon to Channel 2.
Arad also told the channel that the F-35 stealth fighter jets are not a gift and that Israel will be buying them. "Payment agreements need to be worked out," he said.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu returned from meetings with US officials last week with an American incentive package designed to revive the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace talks.
The Palestinians left the negotiating table soon after talks commenced, after the settlement construction moratorium expired on September 26.
The US proposal would mean Israel would cease settlement building for 90 days in return for US pledges to veto anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations and a fleet of next-generation stealth fighter planes.
The proposal does not include a freeze on building in east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has asked for the assurances in writing in part to appease some members of his cabinet who oppose the deal.
Israel and the Palestinians are supposed to try to and work out a deal on their future borders during the 90-day freeze period. Once borders are settled on, Israel could then resume building on any territories it expects to keep under a future peace deal.
Palestinian officials were not immediately available for comment.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=196068
Former US ambassador: Freeze deal 'very bad idea'
Ex-American envoy Kurtzer says US rewarding Israel's bad behavior with settlement freeze deal. 'Washington will almost certainly come to regret bribing Israel; Israel may regret receiving such bribe even more,' he says.
WASHINGTON %u2013 The settlement freeze extension deal between Israel and the United is a "very bad idea," whereby the 'US will be rewarding Israel's bad behavior," former Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer says.
In a Washington Post article, Kurtzer warns: "Washington will almost certainly come to regret bribing Israel; Israel may regret receiving such a bribe even more."
The harsh words are especially meaningful as they have been uttered by a veteran State Department diplomat with dozens of years of experience in the Middle East. Kurtzer also served as one of President Barack Obama's close Mideast aides during his election campaign.
In his article, Kurtzer writes that only a year and a half ago, the Obama Administration demanded an Israeli freeze of all settlement construction, including natural growth in existing settlements.
"But now, the administration says it is prepared to pay off Israel to freeze only some of its settlement activity, and only temporarily," he writes. "For the first time in memory, the United States is poised to reward Israel for its bad behavior."
The veteran diplomat adds that in the past, US objection to settlement construction prompted punishments rather than rewards.
"If it goes forward, it will be the first direct benefit that the United States has provided Israel for settlement activities that we have opposed for more than 40 years," he writes.
Kurtzer also wonders whether the US will also be compensating the Palestinians for their own bad behavior.
"Will Washington pay them to, say, halt the incitement against Israel and Jews in their public media and some educational materials - something that shouldn't have been going on in the first place?" he writes.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3987248,00.html
US Will Increase Aid if Israel Renews Freeze
Washington DC - PNN - In a news briefing by the US State Department yesterday a spokesman emphasized the willingness of the US to put incentives for Israel in writing should Israel reinstate a freeze on settlement building for 90 days.
P.J. Crowly, a spokesman for the State Department, said at the briefing that the US is continuing "discussions with the Israelis. If there is a need to put certain understandings in writing, we will be prepared to do that."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed the American quid pro quo to the Israeli cabinet last week, but the freeze remains extremely unpopular with Israeli politicians.
The Obama administration has been eager to offer incentives to Israel in the hopes that a new ban on settlement building would revive the currently stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The US has offered both diplomatic and military aid in return for the three month ban. Should the discussed incentives be offered in writing, Netanyahu said on Thursday "I will bring it before the security cabinet and I have no doubt that my colleagues will accept it."
Nonetheless there has been a great deal of fuss over the actual terms of the deal. The latest concerns the donation of 30 Stealth F-35 warplanes, worth 3 billion dollars, to Israel. Though Israeli sources claim that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered the planes, it is unclear weather they will be free for Israel. The US already gives Israel 3 billion dollars worth of military aid annually.
Israeli politicians in Netanyahu's coalition government also demand that the written proposal exclude the illegally occupied land of East Jerusalem from the settlement freeze and forbid the US from urging for any future freezes.
Palestinians view the current proposal as further evidence of the biased nature of US moderation in the talks. Many are also furious that the US would offer what they see as a bribe in hopes that Israel will stop activities that are already illegal under international law.
http://bit.ly/cszvmk
Price of 'Peace': 20 F-35 stealth jets to bribe Israel?
(6:19) Price of 'Peace': 20 F-35 stealth jets to bribe Israel?
7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 20 nov 2010
Israeli authorities planning to eject 100,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Observers say the situation in Jerusalem is likely to explode in light of a decision by Israeli occupation authorities to demolish hundreds of Palestinian homes in the city.
Israeli legal consultant Yahuda Feinstein, during a meeting Thursday between Israel's planning and construction committee attended by the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem and police force representatives, gave directives to partially close down a settlement outpost in the Arab district of Silwan and demolish hundreds of nearby Palestinian homes.
Silwan defense committee member Fakhri Abu Dhiab told Al-Jazeera that hundreds of residents have already received demolition notices.
Referring to sources inside Israel's Jerusalem municipality, he added that Jerusalem mayor Nir Barakat received the green light from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to carry out the demolitions.
The committee said 340 homes are threatened to be demolished in Silwan for allegedly being built without a permit.
Israeli authorities approved only 60 building permits since the eastern part of the city was occupied in 1967.
Jerusalem attorney Ahmed Al-Roweidi said in a press release on Thursday that more than 20,000 homes in Jerusalem will be affected by decisions made in Israeli courts, adding that demolition orders against these homes would require 100,000 Palestinians to be ejected from their homes in an attempt to attract more Jewish settlers to reside in new settlements.
Roweidi said the Jerusalem district of Silwan, the Bustan neighborhood in particular, was under the greatest danger as the Israeli government threatened to take down 88 homes and evacuate 1,500 Arab residents to build a new biblical park dubbed the King's Park on its place.
The Israeli occupation government is also expected to approve during a weekly meeting on Sunday a 30 million dollar plan to finish digging and construction in the Buraq Square, known by Jews as the Wailing Wall area.
Sources in Jerusalem said the plan, scheduled to stretch between 2011-2015, includes archaeological excavations in the area and tunnels near the Aqsa Mosque set to make the area accessible to the Jewish public.
The plan was complementary to an earlier 20 million dollar plan that lasted from 2006 to 2010 aimed at developing the Buraq Square and surrounding areas.
http://bit.ly/bDukSE 7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 21 nov 2010
Tel Aviv wants US to release Israel spy
Jonathan Pollard was a former US Navy intelligence analyst, who was convicted of espionage in 1987.
Israel conditions the extension of a partial freeze on settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian lands on the freedom of one of Tel Aviv's spies imprisoned in the US.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the US to release the agent, Jonathan Pollard, in exchange for a temporary halt in Tel Aviv's construction of the Jewish settlements, Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post wrote on Sunday.
Tel Aviv refused to renew a partial 10-month moratorium on its September 26 expiration date, breaking off Washington-backed direct talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
A September piece, ran by the prominent British daily The Guardian, quoted Israel's Army Radio as saying that Netanyahu was ready to extend the partial freeze for three months in return for the release.
A former US Navy intelligence analyst, Pollard was arrested by the country's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on charges of selling classified material to Israel, which was later sold to the Soviets. In 1987, Pollard was convicted of espionage and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He has already spent 25 years in prison with Israeli leaders pressing unsuccessfully for his freedom. In 1998, Netanyahu said that "if we signed an agreement, I expected a pardon for Pollard."
Israel is accused of hunting for military and dual-use civilian technology on the US soil through espionage activities with impunity.
Former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Philip Giraldi has said the Israeli lobby's massive clout has prevented Washington from addressing Tel Aviv regarding the spying issue, which has been going on for many years.
While each side has rated the other as its strongest strategic ally, relations between the two have been marred historically and repeatedly due to several incidents, involving Israeli fifth columnists.
In 2008, the US arrested an American suspected of spying for Israel.
Ben-Ami Kadish had given Israel secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles in the 1980s. The case was linked to that of Pollard's.
Should the settlement freeze be extended, it would be used as an incentive for the PA to return to the US-backed talks.
Washington has also reportedly offered to give Tel Aviv twenty F-35 fighters and veto any anti-Israeli resolution at the United Nations Security Council in exchange for the three-month freeze.
The US proposal, however, calls for a halt of construction activities in the occupied West Bank and not East al-Quds (Jerusalem). Tel Aviv occupied the Palestinian territories in 1967 and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the international community.
The Palestinians say that the settlement construction aims to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Also on Sunday, acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas said his organization would not return to the negotiation table, "if there is no complete halt to settlements in all of the Palestinian territories including [al-Quds] Jerusalem," Reuters reported.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151950.html
PA calls for 'complete' settlement freeze
The acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief, Mahmoud Abbas
The Palestinian Authority (PA) rejects a US proposal for resuming talks with Israel, if Tel Aviv fails to completely halt the construction on the occupied Palestinian lands.
Acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that his sice would not return to the negotiation table, "if there is no complete halt to settlements in all of the Palestinian territories [including al-Quds (Jerusalem)]," Reuters reported.
Israel stalled the talks, which were re-launched in early September in the United States, by refusing to extend a partial 10-month freeze it had imposed on the construction and expansion of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Washington recently offered to give Tel Aviv twenty F-35 fighters and veto any anti-Israeli resolution at the United Nations Security Council in exchange for a three-month settlement freeze.
The proposal, though, said the building activities had to be halted in the occupied West Bank and not East al-Quds. Tel Aviv occupied the Palestinian territories in 1967 and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the international community.
The Palestinians say that the settlement construction aims at preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The Israelis, however, have begun the construction of 1,650 new settler units on the occupied lands since the end of Tel Aviv's partial moratorium some three weeks into the negotiations.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151895.html
7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 21 nov 2010
Israel approves $23 million plan to renovate near Western Wall
Government spokesman says five-year maintenance work will not cover areas that house disputed shrines holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Israel approved Sunday a five-year plan to the tune of NIS 85 million ($23 million) to renovate near the Western Wall and the adjacent Jewish quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem.
"The aim of the plan is to improve access for millions of visitors to the site and also to the archaeological sites, and to upgrade the physical infrastructure and the transport infrastructure on the area," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
"The Western Wall is the most important heritage side for the people of Israel, and we are committed to develop it and preserve it so it will continue being a focal point for visitors and an inspiration for millions of visitors, tourists, both old and young, from Israel and abroad."
The Western Wall is considered the most revered prayer site for Jews and is located in a hotly contentious area of the city.
Government spokesman Mark Regev said the budget would be for maintenance work only and does not cover areas that house disputed shrines holy to both Jews and Muslims.
The Western Wall brings millions of tourists each year, Regev said.
"This money is for upkeep and preservation and in no way does this change the status quo," he said.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib condemned the Israeli renovation plan, saying it was bad for the peace process.
"Any Israeli activities in the occupied part of Jerusalem are illegal," Khatib said.
"It's not healthy as far as the peace process is concerned because peace would require the end of the occupation of East Jerusalem," he said.
http://bit.ly/aoOAfp 7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 22 nov 2010
'Global firms help Israeli illegal acts'
(click to make bigger)
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine has shed light on the complicity of a number of international firms with Israel in its violations of international laws.
The London-based tribunal issued a statement on Monday after two days of discussions on how the corporations help to facilitate Israeli occupation.
"The Tribunal heard compelling evidence of corporate complicity in Israeli violations of international law, relating to: the supply of arms; the construction and maintenance of the illegal separation Wall; and in establishing, maintaining and providing services, especially financial, to illegal settlements, all of which have occurred in the context of an illegal occupation of Palestinian territory," the statement said.
The tribunal noted that Israel and the corporations that are complicit in Tel Aviv's unlawful actions are in clear violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.
According to the findings, G4S, a multinational British/Danish corporation, supplies scanning equipment and full body scanners to several military checkpoints in the West Bank.
In another example, US-based Company Caterpillar supplies bulldozers to Israel, which are used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and the construction of settlements.
Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and former Special rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian territories John Dugard were among the international personalities who participated in the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/152027.html
(9:03) Remember Palestine-Russell Tribunal of Palestine-11-20-2010-(Part1)
(8:17) Remember Palestine-Russell Tribunal of Palestine-11-20-2010-(Part2)
(7:22) Remember Palestine-Russell Tribunal of Palestine-11-20-2010-(Part3)
7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 22 nov 2010
Buraq Square development plan aimed at erasing Islamic identity of Aqsa Mosque
MAKKAH, (PIC)-- Palestinian religious affairs minister in Gaza Dr. Talib Abu Sha'ar warned Sunday that the NIS 85 million project that Israel approved this week to develop the Aqsa Mosque's Buraq Square, known to Jews as the Wailing Wall, is aimed at erasing and Judaizing the Islamic history of the region.
The budget, which was allocated to expand and develop the square, increase the number of Jewish visitors to the site, and fund archaeological digging, will be placed before concerned ministries over the next four years.
Abu Sha'ar said he was concerned about the sharp increase in Israeli projects targeting Jerusalem monuments and Islamic holy sites, while assigning specific blame to right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his responsibility for the implementation of the project and management of its budget.
The Palestinian minister called on all Arab and international officials to defend Jerusalem, its holy sites, and people from Israel injustices practiced against them through developmental projects in the holy city on one hand, and Israel%u2019s legalization of Judaization in the city on the other.
http://bit.ly/cimx33 7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 23 nov 2010
IDF flights over West Bank to continue ahead of freeze
Army monitors building in settlements, possible violations; fears future freeze may bring escalation in attacks against Palestinians in W. Bank.
The Civil Administration is continuing to conduct reconnaissance flights over Jewish settlements in the West Bank ahead of the possible implementation of a new freeze on construction in the coming weeks, senior defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The flights over settlements were conducted during the previous 10-month moratorium that went into effect last year and expired in late September.
The administration has decided however to continue the flights as part of an effort to map out ongoing construction in settlements and possible violations.
Several months ago, towards the end of the previous moratorium, the administration received Defense Ministry approval as well as the necessary funds to recruit some 40 new inspectors responsible for enforcing the freeze on construction.
Some predictions were that following the expiration of the freeze, the new group of inspectors would be disbanded. With the possibility of a new freeze on the horizon, The ministry has decided to retain the new inspectors who will be needed, more than before, in the event of a new moratorium.
A new freeze will be much harder to enforce, one official said on Monday. The settlers have learned how we work and are threatening to be less compliant with a new government edict that stops construction work.
Earlier this month, Peace Now released a report claiming that settlers had built foundations for over 1,100 new homes in the weeks since the moratorium ended.
No full calculation was ever presented regarding the number of housing units on which work was suspended from November 26, 2009, to September 26, 2010. Based on past figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics, it was likely that work on anywhere from 1,000 to 1,600 housing units was affected.
According to defense officials, a new moratorium, if imposed, could include all construction, even buildings which foundations have already been laid for, unlike the last freeze when such sites were permitted to continue working.
A new freeze will be much more complicated due to the magnitude of the construction that is going on in the territories, another official said.
Another concern is the type of violence that could erupt in the West Bank following the implementation of a new freeze. Fears in the IDF are that settlers will not respond quietly to a future freeze like they did in the past and that there could be an escalation in Jewish attacks against Palestinians.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=196403
'Israel's Buraq Sqare development project part of plan to impose fait accompli'
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Jerusalem Grand Mufti Mohammed Hussein warned that the new Israeli project to develop the Aqsa Mosque's Buraq Square, known by Jews as the Wailing Wall, is aimed at erasing the Islamic identity and converting the religious traits of the area.
The Sheikh added that Israeli authorities seek to eradicate every last Islamic and Arab landmark in Jerusalem under the framework of a programmed policy aimed at imposing a fait accompli on the ground.
After approving the NIS 50 million plan to develop the Buraq Square, Israel has been digging beneath the mosque, destroying Islamic monuments, and raising new Jewish structures. The Sheikh said the ultimate plan was to convert the area into a Jewish site and eventually take control. He confirmed that every last corridor and segment of the mosque is for the Muslims alone.
Top Gaza politician Musheer Al-Masri said Israel races to impose a fait accompli in Jerusalem by Judaizing the Aqsa Mosque, altering the city's landmarks, and displacing its public officials and residents.
The Change and Reform party bloc spokesman said Monday: Resistance, and steadfastness option is the most effective way to put an end to Israel's continued abuse of Islamic holy sites.
[Israel] does not believe in the language of peace, but the language of eradication of the Palestinian people and Islamic sanctities.
Masri called Palestinian peace talk efforts attempts at begging. At this time Israel's practices show no intentions of restoring the rights of the Palestinian people through negotiations.
http://bit.ly/e5WEpR 7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 24 nov 2010
Gilo building plan on agenda again
After being removed from agenda, developer's controversial request for rezoning land for residential use to be debated by planning committee.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from Washington just two weeks ago, yet the construction plan for east Jerusalem which created such embarrassment in America is already back on the agenda.
After the original debate for the plan was postponed, apparently due to political pressure, Jerusalem's planning committee is to debate on Monday the use of land between Gilo and the village of Beit Safafa for 130 housing units beyond the "Green Line" (the pre-67 border).
Though the plan will be discussed next week, it is unlikely to be approved due to disagreements over planning issues. The rezoning of the land, originally set aside for hotels, was requested by a private developer, yet the city's policy goes against the request to change the zoning to a residential area.
Opposition chairperson at the Town Hall, Yossi Alalo, who is also a member of the planning committee, opposed the debate on the plan.
"It is sad that Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and committee chairperson Kobi Kahlon decided to go on with this provocation," he said. "They're putting a plan on the agenda which goes against the consensus, and I don't believe it will be carried out. However, it will harm our relations with the US and the Palestinians."
The developer wants to construct three 11-floor residential buildings even though the master-plan for the area permits buildings of up to six floors only.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3989582,00.html
IOA resumes work on Jerusalem light rail project
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has declared resumption of work into the light rail project linking western and eastern sectors of the holy city of Jerusalem.
Hebrew media said that the 14-kilometer long railway would link Mount Herzl to Pisgat Ze'ev, noting that work in the project had stopped in 2008.
The project was supposed to be complete by the end of 2008 but was stopped due to technical problems following the withdrawal of a French company from the project.
The project is backed by all Israeli parties whether in the government or in the opposition. It serves the IOA efforts to Judaize occupied Jerusalem that took an upsurge over the past few months.
http://bit.ly/gmgbxq
Shin Bet May Build Shortcut for Netanyahu through Nature Reserve
Shin Bet security service is considering building a private road through a nature reserve that would connect Prime Minister Netanyahu's house to the Route 2 coastal highway, Haaretz claimed on Wednesday.
The Shin Bet is envisaging the possibility to construct a shortcut from Prime Minister's Jerusalem residence to his Caesarea house, clarifying that, if carried out, the plan would be legal. The move would allow the security service to keep away from having to block residential traffic in Caesarea when Netanyahu arrives and leaves.
Environmental advocates claim the building plan would cause irreversible ecological damage. The Society for the Protection of Nature points out that an alternate route should be identified in order to avoid the damage, even in the event the road is required for security reasons.
Security officials addressed to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, at the beginning of this week, and requested a response to its proposed plan.
It is not clear whether the shortcut would be accessible for the use of Caesarea's residents, in Netanyahu absence, or whether it would be for the exclusive use of the Prime Minister and his guests.
The nature reserve is known to be one of the last habitats of its kind in the country. Part of the reserve has been already obstructed by turning its northern border into a large sand bank to mark a barrier between Caesarea and the neighboring Arab village of Jisr al-Zarqa.
Residential development has incorporated over the years most of the sand dunes in the area. Environmental campaigners are afraid that further construction would irrevocably harm the flora and fauna that live in the dunes.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59996 7 jan 2012, 16:11 , Respect -
Maria 24 nov 2010
Mideast expert: US letter on freeze deal was completed
'Post' learns Netanyahu made verbal commitment to make progress on borders during renewed freeze as part of agreement.
The parties have finalized the text for the US letter to Israel concerning the terms of a renewed settlement freeze, according to Middle East expert David Makovsky.
Makovsky highlighted, however, complicating factors in the effort to get from a deal on paper to actually having it approved by the Israeli cabinet and signed by the United States.
Makovsky, who spoke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Tuesday, recently returned to the US after extensive conversations with Israeli and Arab leaders.
The crux of the deal centers on the US providing Israel with advanced fighter jets in return for a three-month West Bank settlement freeze that both the US administration and the government in Jerusalem hope will get Palestinians back to the negotiating table, he said.
Makovsky pointed out that while the Obama administration is making the offer, it's Congress that must eventually sign off on sending fighter jets to Israel. Although Congress is typically supportive of Israeli aid and military acquisitions, incoming Republicans who will be taking over the US House have been talking about the need to save money and perhaps cut foreign aid.
In this climate, Makovsky said that Netanyahu is looking for some sort of fallback understanding so that he can present the security cabinet with an iron-clad arrangement for the planes in order to get the ministers backing for the freeze.
He also referred to a verbal affirmation from Netanyahu to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the there would be meaningful progress on border issues during the 90-day freeze. He said that Israeli officials have concerns about a solitary focus on territory, or even on territory and security, over those 90 days, since Israel sees its best chips as being land. Officials are worried that if they give ground on this issue it will leave them in a weaker position when it comes to dealing with the even more sensitive issues of Jerusalem and refugees, so they are looking to find a formula they feel comfortable with.
Makovsky said that while the text didn't contain any references to a long-term Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley a key point Palestinians objected to Israel would raise it in the future.
In addition, Shas ministers are trying to ramp up East Jerusalem building, Makovsky noted. While the agreement between the US and Israel would keep the same terms of the previous moratorium which exempted East Jerusalem Shas is looking for explicit permission for building which the US has long opposed and is unlikely to look on favorably.
Meanwhile, the wide gaps inside the government were on full display on Tuesday, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak saying Israel must work toward a two-state solution or face losing its Jewish or democratic character, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying that a final agreement with the Palestinians is unrealistic, and that the diplomatic focus should instead be on reaching a long-term interim agreement.
These widely varying visions of the future came as Jerusalem continued to wait for the just finalized letter of commitment from the US.
But while Barak indicated that direct talks with the Palestinians were absolutely vital for Israel, Lieberman said they were as important for the Palestinians as they were for Israel.
There is no choice but to separate from the Palestinians, the defense minister said at a conference of regional authority heads in the Negev. Two states for two peoples is not a formula or slogan and is not a favor that we are doing for the Palestinians. That is the only way to ensure the future of the Jewish people.
Barak said two states were necessary because if a boundary could not be drawn through the Land of Israel and there were only one political entity, that entity would have to be either Jewish or democratic, but it could not be both.
Barak said it was critical for Israel to come to an agreement with the US over the understandings regarding settlement construction.
Either we will reach an understanding with the Americans, and the Palestinians and the Arab world will have to suit themselves to it, or the opposite will occur the Arab world and the Palestinians will reach an understanding with the Americans, and we will have to suit ourselves to the conclusions, he said.
Barak said a way had to be found to end the disagreement with the US over the construction issues, because this is our greatest vulnerability in the world; there is not a government in the world that recognizes our right to build in Judea and Samaria.
Lieberman, meanwhile, displayed the government's other approach, saying at a press conference with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini that it would be wise to move from the current track of trying to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians reaching a final agreement to a different track where the goal would be a long-term interim agreement.
I think we have a deep political, diplomatic disagreement, which is very emotional, Lieberman said of the conflict with the Palestinians. So it is preferable now to focus on the two issues where there is joint interest and cooperation that has proven itself in the past: in the spheres of security and economics.
Regarding negotiations with the Americans over the document concerning a settlement freeze, Lieberman said that if the Palestinians were truly interested in talks, then the guarantees [from the US] and the document are much less important than starting the direct talks.
Lieberman said that while he didn't know the status of the talks with the US, I am not willing to pay another additional price for the joy of conducting negotiations [with the Palestinians]. This is in their interests just as it is in ours.
Frattini, meanwhile, related to recent Palestinian threats to get the world to recognize a Palestinians state inside the June 4, 1967, lines, thereby imposing a solution on the parties, by saying that so far there is an understanding among the EU states that we should support negotiations and negotiators, not replace the negotiations and negotiators.
What is very important is to let the negotiators sit around the table and get an agreement including on the borders, not to decide from Brussels or elsewhere what should the Palestinian state be Frattini said. We do want a Palestinian state as soon as possible, but there is no consensus and there are no proposals in Europe to have a decision on behalf of the two negotiators.
As Frattini was meeting with top Israeli officials, in Brussels foreign ministers and other senior representatives of EU countries were discussing the Middle East at the monthly Foreign Affairs Council.
Following the meeting, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a statement saying that the ministers exchanged views and voiced their concern at the current lack of progress and the ongoing settlement activities, particularly in east Jerusalem. The High Representative [Ashton] pointed to the Council's December 2009 conclusions and recalled that settlements are illegal under international law, are an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.
According to the statement, the ministers also expressed their ongoing concern at the situation in Gaza, calling for the Gaza crossings to be opened and, in particular, for exports to be allowed out of Gaza.
One Israeli diplomatic official said that what was so striking was that the statement was completely out of sync with the message that Frattini brought to Israel, one reason why the EU's influence here is so limited.
Regarding the EU statement, the official said that as long as this is their world view, they will continue to remain locked in their own fantasy work, without any possibility of influencing the real one.
It is also mind boggling, the official said, that the statements routinely issued from the EU make no acknowledgment of Israeli positions. They hold on to their slogans for dear life, and no reality makes them change it.
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