Clinton: No more settlement construction
By HERB KEINON AND HILARY LEILA KREIGER
Sharp differences emerged between the US and Israel over the settlement issue on Wednesday – one day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu concluded his first official visit to the White House – with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for an absolute stop to all settlement activity and sources close to the prime minister saying the terms of a settlement freeze still needed to be defined.
The settlement issue was expected to be one of the top ones dealt with in working groups that have been set up between the US and Israel to discuss a wide range of topics. Israeli sources said work in these groups had already started.
Netanyahu, upon landing at Ben-Gurion Airport on Wednesday afternoon, said four groups would be set up to deal with the following issues: Iran; strategic issues between the US and Israel; the diplomatic process; and bringing other Arab countries into the process.
“We want to see a stop to settlement construction, additions, natural growth – any kind of settlement activity,” declared Clinton in some of the Obama administration’s clearest comments to date on what it expects from Israel. She was speaking to Al-Jazeera in an interview, of which the State Department released a transcript on Wednesday.
Netanyahu indicated on Tuesday that the settlement issue was still under review and that its details still had to be worked out with the administration.
Senior officials in Netanyahu’s office said the exact terms of a freeze would have to be worked out, since there had been a number of unwritten understandings on this matter with the previous administration.
For instance, Israel has been working on the assumption that, with tacit agreement from the US, it may build inside the lines of existing settlements in the large settlement blocs that it believes it will retain under any future diplomatic agreement.
It was telling that during his two-day visit to Washington, which concluded on Tuesday, Netanyahu made no commitments on settlements, despite the primacy the Obama administration has placed on the issue.
According to former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, writing on The Daily Beast Web site, “Netanyahu was completely silent on the settlements freeze in public; in private, I’m told, he said it would be difficult to do.”
In a conference call with US Jewish leaders following Netanyahu’s meeting with Obama on Monday, a senior White House official said the administration was still waiting for a reply from Israel on settlements.
“This is the focus of the early step they are looking for” from Israel on the Palestinian front, said one Jewish official on the call, adding that the White House had indicated it was looking for a response soon.
“The fact that they were suggesting there was some kind of time frame in the near future suggested that this is a form of pressure on Israel to come back with something,” he said, though he also said that “they’re not at the point” of imposing consequences should Israel fail to comply with the administration’s demands for a freeze.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, said publicly for the first time, upon his return, that he would be willing to begin negotiations with the Syrians, as long as there were no preconditions.
In Washington, he stressed that he was willing to start immediate talks with the Palestinians. Senior government sources said the US had pressed Netanyahu in the meetings to begin such immediate talks.
The prime minister also said upon landing that various strategic agreements that were essential to Israeli security had been reapproved by the Obama administration. He did not provide any details.
On Iran, Netanyahu said the US and Israel agreed that “the goal of joint Israeli-US policy was to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear military capability. Obama also said that the engagement process is not unlimited; I appreciate that and think it is a very important statement. There was also an understanding that Israel reserves the right of self-defense.”
Netanyahu said there was agreement with the US on the need to “widen the peace process to other Arab countries, so that not only does Israel have to contribute, and the Palestinians have to contribute, but the Arabs have to give something concrete, already in the beginning of the process.”
Israel did not publicly propose a new Middle East diplomatic plan in Washington because of a fear that any such plan would automatically be rejected by the Arab world, senior sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said on the way back from Washington.
According to the sources, Netanyahu left Obama with a direction of where he intended to take the diplomatic process. The government’s hope now is that Obama will raise these issues – foremost among them the idea that the Arab world needs to start making gestures toward Israel – with Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas next week.
The underlying logic behind this is that the Arab world and the Palestinians would entertain these ideas only if they came from the US, and not from Israel.
According to the sources, one of the key topics of discussion between Netanyahu and the senators and congressmen he met on Tuesday dealt with the definition of Palestinian statehood.
The prime minister’s position is that he cannot come out in support of a Palestinian state – something the Obama administration has done and is urging him to do – without first defining what a state means, and what aspects of statehood the Palestinians would be denied – such as the ability to muster an army, enter into treaties with other countries and have exclusive control of its borders.
Participants in the conference call said the senior US official had stressed that the two countries were not that far apart when it came to the essence of the issue, as Netanyahu had backed Palestinian autonomy so long as it was demilitarized with other security guarantees.
“They really share the same goals. They may have some differences of opinion about how to achieve them, but this discussion was more about those shared goals,” said another official on the call.
Another participant said the White House had talked about obligations that the wider Arab world had to contribute toward regional peace efforts, noting that while Israelis and Palestinians had obligations under the road map – the former’s including freezing settlements, removing outposts and improving Palestinian freedom of movement – Arab states had an obligation to press forward with the Arab peace plan.
That document calls for normalization with Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders, as well as arrangements on the Palestinian refugee issue that are currently unacceptable to Israel.
The US official noted that the Arab states’ obligations weren’t spelled out in the road map, where Israeli and Palestinian obligations were detailed. This was the closest he came in the conference call to implying that the current framework for peace negotiations should be revised.
“They’re trying to hint that the road map was incomplete or lacking a component,” the Jewish participant said, suggesting it shed some insight on what the administration might be working on as it develops its own Middle East peace plan.
Media speculation on the topic was rife after Netanyahu mentioned in a briefing with Israeli journalists on Monday that Obama had mentioned he would unveil such a plan in the near future.
Despite reports that its details would be unveiled when Obama made his long-anticipated speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4, the US has repeatedly characterized that address as focused on outreach to Muslim world, and officials said that in any case the speech was currently only in draft stage.
Though it could likely include reiterations of Obama’s call on Monday for Arab states to take steps on the road to normalization with Israel – as well as for Israel to freeze settlement activity – officials have suggested it would be the wrong venue and too short a time frame for a major initiative to be unveiled. Another option for putting out such a proposal could be at the Quartet meeting scheduled for later next month.
Participants termed the exchange friendly and professional, and said the White House also characterized the conversations between Obama and Netanyahu as constructive and beneficial.
“They were explicit that the tone and nature of the discussions was very positive,” one Jewish leader said. “There was no bickering. There was none of the Bibi-Bill Clinton behavior that was such a mess.”
Similarly, several Jewish leaders – many from the same organizations – who participated in a meeting with Netanyahu at the end of his trip on Wednesday characterized the encounter as warm and positive.
“The mood was very good,” said Nathan Diament, director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, adding that Netanyahu had described the meeting with Obama as friendly, productive and long – the encounter ended up lasting four hours.
“He told us that the meetings with President Obama went very well. He was very happy, and told us that Obama is exactly on the same page as Israel,” said Mort Klein of the Zionist Organization of America.
Klein noted that in addition to being willing to negotiate with the Palestinians, Netanyahu had also expressed a willingness to talk to Syria as long as there were no preconditions.
The Obama administration has also been reaching out to Syria and supporting efforts for Israelis and Syrians to restart third-party talks that faltered late last year.
Israel should continue to build settlements and give them names such as Boston, New York, Dallas, Chicago…
superb out of the box thinking.
great to be part of Israpundit
Israel inform the State Department, if it doesn’t feel bound by the Bush commitments that led to Israel’s agreement to the Road Map, then the entire Road Map is no longer valid for Israel. Obligations are a two way street. Its not Israel that is seeking to create a Palestinian entity; its the US. So Israel is not without leverage.
Again, what the media reported on and what was said for public consumption continues to ignore the intractable Jew hatred of the Arabs and Palestinians.
It is anyone’s guess as to what Netanyahu meant by saying that the Arab states and Palestinians must also take concrete steps in this peace process. All that has come out of the Arabs and Palestinians are intransigent maximum demands on Israel, a 60 year trail of empty or broken promises and more recently a Saudi peace plan first floated in 2002 which was proferred as non-negotiable. That plan pays lip service to peace, but given the impossibility of Israel ever accepting it, makes the Saudi plan no peace plan at all, but rather it makes a mockery of the whole idea of the Arabs/Palestinians every negotiating reasonably with Israel or giving up anything in favour of Israel, for the sake of peace.
That a White house official stated that the Arabs had an obligation to move forward with the Arab (Saudi) peace plan amounts to calling on the Arabs to hold fast to their peace gesture, which gesture is meaningless.
Hillary Clinton’s conveying via an interview on Al Jazeera, America’s demand that Israel absolutely stop all settlement activities, is not in furtherance of any peace process.
Rather, it is in furtherance of Obama’s grand plan to woo the hearts of the Arabs by being more accommodating of their grievances, regardless of whether those grievances are justified in the least or at all, one of which grievances is that America is too supportive of Israel. Read Clinton’s demands on Israel as playing to the Middle Eastern dicators and Middle Eastern street, but a serious play that signals a lessening of American support for Israel’s needs, let alone wants.
On the positive side, it appears that so far, Netanyahu has given nothing of substance away to Obama and is rightly playing for time to determine what position to respond with.
Keep building
Good grief Israel doesn’t need permission from the US.
Who gives a damn what Hillary and her boss think.
Right on Bill. Well said.
America is pushing Israel to 1948 borders!!!
Why is Hillary so hysterical about stopping all the settlement construction?
It would be understandable had she asked Jews to remove the outposts or refrain from building new settlements. But the Obama administration is pushing Israel for something very different: a total freeze on settlement construction. According to Obama, Jews are not allowed to build even inside the existing settlements, where no land-grab issue is involved.
The only explanation is that Obama envisages evicting 260,000 Jews from all the settlements.
Using same logical precedent if we can transfer a quarter to half million Jews why not transfer 2.5 million Arabs. A lot Cheaper. If the West bank can be Judenrein or Judenfrei, why can’t we make Israel Arab free? Evey settlement we destroy for the Israeli Left and America should be met with the same to Arab towns, villages and cities within Israel.
Palestinians reject Obama’s peace plan
When Israeli rulers turn into spineless traitors, we can only welcome Palestinian reticence in the face of American pressure.
As we predicted, Abbas flatly refused Obama’s proposal for resettling Palestinian “refugees” in other Arab countries.
Still better, Abbas refused to cede the Temple Mount to the UN.
Thank you, Chairman Abbas.
Mubarak shocked by Netanyahu-Obama meeting
The Egyptian president canceled his trip to Washington, allegedly because of his grandson’s death. That explanation is rather unlikely, as Mubarak would normally smother personal grief if it were necessary in order to handle a big political issue. Besides, the grandson is not from the son most close to him, Gamal.
Instead, Obama will visit Cairo.
BB learn something from a Proud Arab who never grovels. Then again BB is just a little politician and is used to groveling. He also lies incessantly.
Incessantly badmouthing Netanyahu on Israpundit will not make a tinker’s damn bit of difference to Netanyahu, the Israeli government or even those opposed to Netanyahu.
Perhaps we are just witnessing your visceral need to blow off steam at Netanyahu.
Your right It won’t make a tinkers dam to BB or anybody else. So What? You can say the same thing about anything we say here about anything including Islam, Hussein O., etc. What’s your point? If anything I say here you can refute of show where you believe I have misstated go ahead, enlighten me.
I have no visceral needs BB or other. I was his biggest supporter once. Worked for him and donated lots of time and money to that effort. There comes a point in time for all of us Peskin included that one must face reality and truth and admit our mistakes and try not to make the same ones over again. BB is a national mistake made over again. He betrayed his supporters before and is now doing the same. Remember we never sought him he sought us and the position. Garnering 27% of the vote (Likud) is not a mandate for anything. Only the more right wing MK’s and parties to his ideological right have given him the chance to govern. So far he has indicated that he will adopt the agenda of the ideologies and parties that did not put him in office. The opposite is true. This is what you call Badmouthing? His approval ratings in latest polls below 20% after 2 months. Does that tell you anything? Badmouthing? Ha, Humbug……
I blow off steam about everything but it’s not a visceral need,
I would love to hear sound bites like these coming from Netanyahu and his office.
Israelis are not going to stop having sex just because Clinton and the muslims want us to. Period!
Israel will stop having sex when the muslims and Americans lead by example.
I will have direct talks with Syria as long as they understand they are not getting the Golan back. Period!
Jerusalem is a holy Israeli city and will not be divided no matter how many times we are asked. Period!
Israel is not going to make any more concessions until the muslims show some good faith. Period!
Israel is not going to go back to the 1967 Armistice lines no matter how many times we are asked. Period!
No more aid or money is going into Gaza until Cpl. Gilad Shalit is released. Period!
However, nothing remotely like this is coming from him. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has not been shy about stating his opinions (and has been roundly bashed for them) but Netanyahu is leaving us all guessing.
In the case of President Obama this is proving to be disastrous. I fear it will be the same for Netanyahu. All my rosy expectations are being dashed. Damn!
I know that Netanyahu has only been in office a few months. But then, so had President Obama and look at all the damage he has done. (I know, bad example)
Idiotic statements like the one above are being made without any official opposing statement from Israel. These and other statements are being given a legitimacy they do not deserve.
America, Jordan, Syria, England and France all seem to think they know best. They come up with one solution after another that is pure absurdity. Why are not counter-statements being made so that the public knows how Israel feels on these issues?
Why is the public not being told, in no uncertain terms, that removing road blocks will happen only when terrorism stops.
Why has there not been a whole-sale condemnation of the idea that the muslim problem and Iran is linked?
Why has there not been any statements showing how bad it is for Israelis to live under the constant threat of terrorism from Israel’s supposed ‘peace partners’?
Why is it not being boldly stated that the muslims have no concern for Israel, yet Israel is supposed to show concern for them?
Why does not Netanyahu counter the rebuilding of Gaza with a suggestion the ‘do-gooders’ rebuilt Sderot? There would not be any concerns that the money would fall into terrorists hands. Problem solved.
Why does not Netanyahu tell Obama that pushing the same old, tried and failed solutions will mean that he, Obama, will fail also?
I could go on and on, but the point is that when Netanyahu could have nipped some of these preposterous notions in the bud, he is allowing them to gain ground.
Israel has no time for puss-footing around yet they are. Is yamit82 correct when he says that Netanyahu is going to fail Israel at every turn? So far, things do not look good.
For beginners PM Netanyahu has to dismiss any and all directives from Obama and his administration.
He has to think out of the US box.
What is best for Israel and her people?
Obama and company are skating on ice in the US and Americans are beginning to wake up.
Their timid strategy in dealing with Iran is absurd.
The mullahs and little Hitler need to be removed and the US should provide assistance to the Iranians in overthrowing the present regime.
In the meantime Israel has to be prepared to take out the nuclear sites something this wimpy Obama doesn’t have the guts to do.
I believe that a majority of Americans support Israel in spite of Obama and company.
Israel needs a good PR program in the US to gain more support from the liberal American Jews and others.
Time for American Jews to stand up and be counted and not be afraid to be too Jewish.
Ron long past the point of PR. Few people in America really give a damn about Israel and those that do are mostly on the negative side. Here I am talking about those who have a somewhat political or ideological interesat and connection to the region and our specific problems. Now if the prices of oil skyrocket and the blame placed on Israeli intransigence even those who don’t have their daily morning coffee and Bagel might take note. In any case the Arab and anti Israel narrative has gained the upper hand and is now rote in all the corridors of public opinion makers and implementers especially it seems with our brother and sister Jooos. They were for Oslo, They were for the Roadmap, They were for Annapolis,Gaza withdrawal and throwing out of their homes and livelihood 10000 Jews still mostly wandering from tent to tent (not really but not far from it). They are for a 3 state solution a 4 state solution any solution as long as the American elites kiss their fat asses ( or so they would like to think) and no accusation of double loyalties can be used to jeopardize their being in America. In short they are mostly stupid, ignorant self interested, self indulgent fools. We have been there before and have somehow survived in spite of them and we will again. in 2-3 generations no matter what happens they will be gone as Jews anyway.
Things here are funny. On the street level we all seem fine, pretty confident but concerned. Last two mini wars did not inspire us in the security area. Nobody but the really brain dead believes or has any confidence in our leaders in any political stripes. We like most Americans are trying to hold down our jobs and get through ea day and ea month as best we can. We just have the added concerns of Arabs and Iranians, Syrians etc. We have been living with that so long it’s like a second skin. Don’t think about that much unless there is an incident.
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At the celebrations of the forty-second anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem, the Israeli president and PM vowed to keep the city united under Jewish sovereignty. That’s a laudable show of defiance to Obama’s pressure.
The devil is in the details: according to Netanyahu, under Israeli jurisdiction the other faiths will enjoy unfettered access to their “holy” sites. The churches with “images of God” will continue desecrating the Holy Land, and Al Aqsa will occupy the Temple Mount.
De facto, Muslims will continue to enjoy sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Realistically, any peace treaty will cede Jerusalem’s Arab districts to Palestine.
The French Foreign Ministry lambasted Netanyahu’s commitment and demanded that Jerusalem become the Palestinian capital
AH, The French?
—————————————————————————————————————————
The British government has removed Israeli tourist ads from their subways. The contentious map pictured the Golan Heights inside Israel. The Syrian Embassy considered that offensive; starting three wars with Israel is apparently not so offensive.
When the Brits were less liberal, they used to proudly call their state, The Empire on which the sun never sets, including India and America in its boundaries.
A bit earlier, the Spaniards applied the same phrase to their vast empire. Now of course, a Spanish judge prosecutes IDF’s top brass for bombing a terrorist’s home in Gaza.
How the mighty have fallen!
I would like to see temperate weather here all year round.
Peter Principle in action: BB has reached his level of incompetence. As a matter of fact it seems all our leaders in and out of Government have as well. We do have some good people but they will have to be drafted. It seems those with ambitions who seek to high office and political power are the bad ones the incompetent ones and those seem to be the ones we are stuck with.
But heh, all you guys sing the virtues of democracy. Right?
This is a good a reason as any to take back Gaza. I hear the weather there is beautiful all year around.
The older I get, the more knowledge I accumulate, the more disenchanted with democracy I become. President Obama’s election win shows that when bad people elect bad leaders, bad things follow.
Yamit Sinai: Similar to Gaza: Only a few miles south of Gaza, same sea, same area same climate.
See What our fools gave up:
http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/01082004/540988/yamit1_wa.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_556oceGxcsU/SY8869gphjI/AAAAAAAAWdw/uMnnoOrhNyc/s720/AASL048.jpg
http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile31190/Yamit,-ruins-of-a-former-city-in-Sinai-desert.htm
http://www.sinai-beach.com/?gclid=CLz1-ZDC1JoCFVB_3godFhh0Kw
http://web.israelinsider.com/Static/Binaries/Article/yamit424_0.jpg
http://www.sos-israel.com/contentManagment/phpThumb/phpThumb.php?w=350&src=../uploadedFiles/2009/4/28/yamit.jpg
I Saw Begin Commit Suicide (and Drag Us All Along)
YES, Sarah Sue,THE WEATHER IS GREAT IN GAZA AS IT IS ALL ALONG THE SOUTHERN COAST. I Know from personal experience.
On the 28th of Nissan we commemorated 27 years since the destruction of Yamit and the Sinai settlements. Rabbi Yisroel Ariel, former Rav of Yamit, shares his reflections on the expulsion from Yamit with Eretz Yisroel Shelanu readers. Learn all about the expulsion, why a general cried, and the consequences of the expulsion.
Rabbi Yisroel Ariel
It is a known fact that Holocaust survivors have difficulty relating or speaking about what happened, and even find it difficult to write about it. There are tragedies that hit so deep that no words can express.
When I was approached to write about the expulsion from Yamit and Sinai, I felt the same way. We are dealing with a great tragedy, and words will only limit the scope of what happened.
Is there anyone who can describe suicide? No, since no one who committed suicide rose up to explain the insanity that overtook him. Have you ever seen a Prime Minister go up on a rooftop and commit suicide? Have you seen a whole nation go up to the roof and commit suicide?
I did! I saw this with my own eyes in Yamit!
Throughout the years I saw the development and blossoming of Yamit and the settlements in the region. I saw the nation as a large, proud and victorious one. With the help of Hashem, we were the strongest that we have been for the last 2,000 years. The entire country was developing at rapid speed; a land with a vision. Settlements sprung up from Yamit to Ofira in Mifratz Shlomo. Giant cranes made their way to the south. Prefab homes rolled down south on trailers. The oil wells enriched the country by millions. Plans for development were made; the sky was the limit! Yamit was to become a large port city with one million residents. Israel became a powerful nation, admired by all the nations of the world.
And then Menachem Begin was elected Prime Minister, went to Camp David in the United States, and upon alighting at the airport announced: “we have brought peace unto you!” It soon was obvious that he returned old and broken, with neither splendor nor glory. He was a Jew who was disloyal to all the ideals he fought for during his entire lifetime. In place of the “two banks of the Jordan”, he came home with a signed piece of paper- a delusionary “peace pact”. The Etzel hero left us a nation without a land. He gave the Egyptians a free gift- a half of the Sinai Peninsula. Yehuda, Shomron and the Gaza Region he gave to the “Palestinian Nation” that never existed. The nation saw a suicidal Prime Minister who went up on the roof to jump off into the abyss. And wonder of wonders: instead of screaming for him to halt, he was cheered on as a false Moshiach who brought ‘peace’, but actually led us into five bloody wars.
The coordinators of the expulsion stooped so low as to schedule the expulsion from Yamit on Yom Hashoah. I clearly recall General Chaim Erez, one of the heroes of the Sinai expulsion. He entered our home after the IDF bulldozers destroyed most of the city. The city resembled the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. The General, who had orchestrated this destruction, sat at the table n utter silence. Suddenly tears ran down his cheeks. “I am a Holocaust survivor,” he said. “During the day I evict Jews from Yamit, and at night I plan the battle to conquer Yamit once again.” I asked him where he gets the moral power to destroy and expel Jews with one hand, and sacrifice lives of soldiers to recapture Yamit with the other hand. I never received an answer.
I witnessed a nation commit suicide. The spiritual holocaust; the defeatism, the flattery, the devotion to the fancy of a suicidal ruler- is worse than the physical catastrophe of the expulsion. And we cry because of this.
And if I can be consoled, it is with the words that I spoke to General Erez: “we will meet again, in the new Yamit, rebuilt on its ruins.
This is our consolation. Despite all the destruction that we Jews bring upon ourselves, we live in hope to see the fulfillment of the Divine prophecy:
“Thus saith the L-RD: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tear for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the L-RD; and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. And there is hope for thy future, saith the L-RD; and thy children shall return to their own border.“
The Lubavitcher Rebbe on Israel’s Security
http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2008/02/the-lubavitcher.html
Yesterday Yamit, Tomorrow Gaza: Israel again to wreck homes, synagogues
By israelinsider staff and partners August 9, 2005
http://images.google.co.il/imgres?imgurl=http://web.israelinsider.com/Static/Binaries/Article/yamit424_0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/6236.htm&usg=__LQW3l4vB7_35hfwUlXRS_6p2XxE=&h=308&w=424&sz=46&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=sspiCBwFRzaK8M:&tbnh=92&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dyamit%2Bsinai%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
YES
Yamit (Hebrew: ?????) was an Israeli settlement. It was home to about 2,500 people in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula that was established during Israel’s occupation of the peninsula from the end of the 1967 Six-Day War, until that part of the Sinai was handed over to Egypt in 1982 as part of the terms of the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
Located in the Rafah Plain region south of the Gaza Strip, Yamit was envisioned as a large city and seaport. Its location served to create an Israeli-populated buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai peninsula. Despite efforts to promote Yamit’s newly-built, relatively affordable housing, the settlement failed to attract enough residents to make it a seaport. Upon the signing of the peace treaty with Egypt, it became clear to residents that Yamit’s days were numbered, and most accepted compensation and evacuated within two years. A minority of residents who chose to stay were joined by nationalist supporters, who moved in to boost their numbers.
Yamit was evacuated on April 23, 1982, amid resistance by some Yamit settlers. Some residents barricaded themselves on the rooftops before being dragged into buses by Israeli soldiers. Among the more extreme examples of resistance were the disciples of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who vowed to take their own lives rather than surrender. After the personal intervention of Kahane, they agreed to leave.
The initial agreement between Israel and Egypt stipulated that Egypt would pay $80 million for the houses and infrastructure of Yamit. However, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (not Ariel Sharon as often thought) decided at the last minute to destroy the settlement instead. According to the Israeli ambassador to Egypt at the time, Moshe Sasson, Begin feared that the Israeli settlers would return to their homes surreptitiously and a disastrous clash between them and the Egyptians might occur. The decision to raze the settlement caused substantial ill will towards Israel among the Egyptian public.
In Israel, this precedent of Israelis forcibly evacuated from their homes by Israeli forces is considered a socio-political landmark, causing and/or signifying the widening rift in Israel between the religious nationalist Jews (such as NRP supporters) and left-wing Israelis; it is one of the many fractures which the Israeli society has to deal with today, especially following similar events seen in Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005.
Since the demolition, the only structure that remains visible is a skeleton of the main synagogue, which contains no visible Jewish symbols. The bloodless evacuation of Israeli civilians and military from Yamit and the Sinai peninsula is considered as a precedent for Israel’s policy of land for peace, exemplified in the Oslo Accords, the Gaza Disengagement, and the now-shelved Realignment plan.
Why not even one inch or grain of dirt of the Land of Israel should be surrendered. The above quote says it all.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5988240835449545188
THE HUSSEIN OBAMA TRAP ISRAEL PLAN BB seems to be a willing partner!
Sacrificing Israel
by Moshe Dann
For Obama, it is win-win.
Linking US action against Iran with freezing settlement building, destroying Jewish communities and establishing a second Arab Palestinian state is a set-up for Israel’s demonization and destruction. For President Barack Obama, it’s a win-win.
“Israeli intransigence” will be given as the reason for America’s failure in Iran.
No matter what happens, Israel will be blamed.
President Obama knows that, short of military intervention, nothing will prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Making Israeli concessions the key to stopping Iran, therefore, allows Obama a perfect excuse: Israel didn’t do enough; it’s Israel’s fault.
“Israeli intransigence” will be given as the reason for America’s failure in Iran. ‘If only Israel had evacuated more settlements, stopped building in Judea and Samaria, dismantled more checkpoints, given more aid to Hamas, stopped demolishing illegal Arab buildings, etc., then we could have done something,’ Obama will say.
But Obama’s agenda doesn’t stop there. The big prize is Israel’s nuclear capacity. Egypt especially has been urging the US to force Israel to open its facility at Dimona. Russian spy planes flew over Dimona prior to the Six Day War in 1967 and, according to Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez (Foxbats Over Dimona), wanted to bomb it. No doubt, Arab terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hizbullah have Dimona in their sights as well.
Pushing Israel against the wall is also a convenient way of deflecting Muslim terrorism away from American and European investments and interests. As long as Islamists think that Obama is on their side, they’ll refrain from attacking, keep oil prices low and keep oil flowing.
Iran will make cosmetic adjustments so that Obama can claim victory; the crisis defused. And Israel will pay the price.
American troops will leave Iraq soon. It’s yet unclear if the Taliban will make agreements with governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan to share power, as Hamas and Hizbullah have done. Jihadists, like the Moslem Brotherhood, will continue to grow in power and influence; they need to consolidate anyway before they move ahead, but their influence throughout the Muslim world and in Europe is substantial.
Israel is the perfect scapegoat: isolated, abandoned, it has few real options. It can try to implement Obama’s agenda, but nothing it does will be enough to satisfy Arab demands. Nor would Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition allow it. He could ditch the Right and turn to the Left, but it is unlikely that he would have enough votes to remain in power for long.
Whether Palestinian terrorists can restrain themselves while Israel carries out some form of withdrawal is uncertain. A freeze on construction in settlements would cripple, but not destroy, the movement; a clear majority of Israelis support settlements and don’t want a Palestinian state. Destroying small hilltop “outposts” and even
‘Amputation to save the rest,’ they will say, trying to justify surrender.
more isolated settlements can be done as a first step and without the trauma of full evacuation. ‘Amputation to save the rest,’ they will say, trying to justify surrender and buy time.
Act II (Munich 1938)
Arab heads of state will parade through Washington, as King Abdullah of Jordan this month with the same message: ‘We are for peace; Israel must accept the two-state solution as offered in the Arab Initiative of Saudi Arabia – withdrawal to 1949 boundaries, including Jerusalem, Palestinian Right of Return, etc.’
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (both of whom are about to retire) will appear full of smiles: ‘We want peace; Israel must accept a Palestinian state.’ There will be no mention of terrorism and incitement, or acceptance of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Even Syria may join, in return for American support for getting the Golan Heights.
Obama will look like the ultimate “peacemaker”; Israel will look like the bad guy.
There will be no hard questions.
Meanwhile, three new PA battalions, US-trained and US-equipped, are being deployed in the “West Bank”. This augments hundreds of thousands of soldiers and terrorists already in the PA military – the highest ratio per capita in the world. General Keith Dayton, who is responsible for these new troops, admitted that if there is no Palestinian state within two years, these troops would probably rebel and return to terrorism.
Act III
Members of the Arab League and other Muslim countries will be invited to Washington, along with Israel, to sign “peace agreements” following Arab demands. It will be a gala event, with the Clintons in high gear, the State Department Jews (Dennis Ross, Aaron Miller, Dan Kurtzer and Martin Indyk, who helped force Israeli concessions during the 1990s), and, of course, Shimon Peres and friends. And what would a party to celebrate Israel’s demise be without Jimmy Carter and Condoleezza Rice?
The Obamas will dance elegantly.
Act IV
A moment of silence
Without commenting on many of the above raised topics, I would like to make one point clear. Anyone who seriously thinks Israel can defiantly expand settlements in the face of opposition from the USA without detriment is delusional. Israel is the biggest recipient of US aid, Israel buys all of its weaponry from America. Do you really think America’s opinion is meaningless? Laughable. BTW, I am not Muslim, I am not a skinhead, I don’t hate Jews. Unlike most people interested in this topic, I am somewhat objective and am looking at this rationally.