April 29, 2010

Official: Israel agrees to halt all Jewish construction

I dind this difficult to believe, not because I think that Netanyahu wouldn’t agree but because I think that this report implies that Netanyahu got nothing in return. So what is the quid pro quo.

That’s not all. Report: Obama Promised Abbas a Palestinian State Within 2 Years

But Bibi expected to lose the Likud vote tonight.

Decision on Jerusalem made under intense pressure from U.S., ‘satisfies’ Palestinians

By Aaron Klein, © 2010 WorldNetDaily

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to quietly halt all Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem as a “confidence-building gesture” toward the Palestinian Authority as demanded by the Obama administration, a top PA official told WND.

The PA official said Netanyahu will not make a public declaration on the subject for fear of upsetting his nationalist coalition, which would be forced to respond to any public Jewish construction freeze in Jerusalem. The official said while the Jerusalem freeze would not be announced, no new Jewish construction in the eastern sections of the city will be approved by the local municipality.

The official said the agreement, brokered last week by George Mitchell, Obama’s envoy to the Middle East, satisfies the PA’s precondition for beginning direct negotiations with Israel aimed at creating a Palestinian state.

The official also said Mitchell extracted a pledge from Netanyahu that he will extend a 10-month halt to all Jewish construction in the West Bank that he implemented in November, also as a so-called confidence building gesture to the PA demanded by the Obama administration.

Meanwhile, the PA has not been asked to make any major gestures to Israel to jumpstart talks. The U.S. has not demanded the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Netanyahu’s spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment regarding the report of a de facto freeze in Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem.

On the ground, there have been almost no new building projects in eastern Jerusalem for more than a month.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper two weeks ago reported staff members of the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee have been instructed by Netanyahu’s office to halt their work. The order followed a public spat with the Obama administration after housing was approved for 1,600 new homes in an already-existing Jewish community during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel in March.

At the time, the White House slammed the construction approval as an “insult” and an impediment to peace.

Posted by Ted Belman @ 6:03 pm | 13 Comments »

13 Responses to Official: Israel agrees to halt all Jewish construction

  1. yamit82 says:

    There has not been a single housing project in Eastern Jerusalem approved as opposed to announced since BB took office. This is more or less common knowlege here for all but the unread or totally obtuse. I have been saying that this is the case for months now and don’t need klein for verification.

    In any event Klein as opposed to most others is usually correct and if he says so, we can take it to the bank. The timing of his report indicates possibly some collusion with Feiglin’s group. Night swing a few votes against BB tonight.

  2. Shy Guy says:

    The timing of his report indicates possibly some collusion with Feiglin’s group.

    Comment by yamit82 — April 29, 2010 @ 6:13 pm

    Anyone could have easily obtained this information a while back by simply subscribing to Manhigut’s e-mailings.

  3. Shy Guy says:

    A reminder from months ago, in January, printed in Makor Rishon (in Hebrew):

    http://www.jtimes.co.il/index.asp?catID=26700&siteLang=3

    “There is nothing new under the sun.”

  4. Shy Guy says:

    On my cell. They’re saying Netanyahu won.

    Stupid Jews.

  5. Israel owes the Palestinians less than nothing. I do not see why Israel should stop construction on ITS land.

  6. Laura says:

    I dind this difficult to believe, not because I think that Netanyahu wouldn’t agree but because I think that this report implies that Netanyahu got nothing in return. So what is the quid pro quo.

    Israel granting concessions with no reciprocity on the part of the PA? I find it very believable. This has been par for the course since Oslo.

    The official said while the Jerusalem freeze would not be announced, no new Jewish construction in the eastern sections of the city will be approved by the local municipality.

    Local numicipality should defy Bibi.

    At the time, the White House slammed the construction approval as an “insult” and an impediment to peace.

    Terrorism and incitement to terrorism against Israel however are not impediments to peace.

    That’s not all. Report: Obama Promised Abbas a Palestinian State Within 2 Years

    hussein obama is more determined to create an islamic terror state of “palestine” than he is about stopping Iranian nukes.

  7. ayn reagan says:

    Likud has ratified Netanyahu’s decision to become Obama’s obedient whipping boy.

    An American president determined to destroy Israel + A total lack of Israeli will to stop him = I need a break from all this.

    Catch you later.

    Likud votes in Netanyahu’s favor

    Seventy-six percent of Likud Central Committee members vote in favor of prime minister’s bid to postpone elections to movement’s institutions. Moshe Feiglin, head of ‘Jewish Leadership’ branch, slams Netanyahu saying, ‘We can’t afford to have leader who takes Rights’ votes and hands them over to Left’

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed the Likud Central Committee members to vote, and it seems to have paid off. The official results released Thursday night show that the Likud chairman vas victorious in delaying elections in the party’s institutions. Some 76% of the party’s central committee members voted in favor of delaying elections, while 23% voted against the motion. In total, around 80% of the committee’s members showed up to vote.

    Netanyahu welcomed the results and said this is an “important achievement, which proves, once again, that the Likud is a responsible and sound movement, that deserves to lead the country.” He thanked the party’s members for responding to his calls “and leaving their homes to vote for the movement’s true path.”

    Head of the party’s right-wing “Jewish Leadership” movement Moshe Feiglin assembled his supporters after the ballots boxes were closed and said he accepts the loss, but vowed to run for the party’s chairmanship soon. “We will be back running for the party’s chairmanship sooner than we think, and we must win,” he said at an assembly in a Jerusalem hotel.

    “We cannot afford to have a national leader that takes the Right’s votes and hands them over to the Left,” said Feiglin, who leads the branch that is opposed to postponing elections. This movement will gather a strong, broad national camp that has a God, and has faith. Tomorrow morning I am going to see to it that people join Likud.”

    He went on to say, “It is possible that, if it wasn’t for all kinds of escapades, we would have won – but there is certainly a large group that is not affected by my words.”

    ‘We are being cheated’
    He said that during the election, it became apparent that Netanyahu is concerned “only with what happens within his party. If it wasn’t for ‘Jewish Leadership’, nothing would have stood in his way to divide Jerusalem. Still, it seems we are working with our hands and legs completely ties. We are being cheated in the elections. ”

    Feiglin added, “The USSR collapsed when the public stopped legitimizing the government. Today I asked members of the Central Committee who voted in favor of Netanyahu: ‘When you learn that Netanyahu used your votes to divide Jerusalem, who will you vote for?’, and they said, ‘for you’.”

    After the results were announced MK Danny Danon said, “We honor the vote’s results and the committee members’ will. All the Likud movement’s members must unite as one and continue safeguarding the Likud’s unity, and I urge all the members of the national camp to join the Likud movement starting tomorrow morning.”

    MK Carmel Shama welcomed the results: “The Likud movement has won and today was saved from entering a political whirlwind. The members demonstrated responsibility and brought about a clear result that can and must serve as a basis for the Likud’s stability and unity.”

    Likud Center Chairman Minister Moshe Kahlon thanked the members for taking part in the vote and said, “Netanyahu has won over the Likud and I am pleased that the center accepted the prime minister’s proposal.”

  8. Re: #7

    If Israel wonders why American Jews won’t make aliyah, it needs look no farther than its own front yard.

  9. Laura says:

    Most American Jews though would agree with Bibi’s capitulation to obama.

  10. Re: #9

    Many American Jews (e.g. National “Jewish” “Democratic” Council) would agree with the United States’ conversion to militant “Islam” if that would make the Turd World happy.

  11. Tar Yag says:

    american Jews and other americans are irrelevant – the future is decided in Israel, by the fact the Jews in Israel go back to our authentic idenity, the galut Jews are irrelevant, this is also Halakha: “majority of Jews” is halakhically equivalent to “majority of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael”, we simply do not care about US and US Jewry, as much as Hashem does not care so much

  12. Shy Guy says:

    american Jews and other americans are irrelevant – the future is decided in Israel, by the fact the Jews in Israel go back to our authentic idenity, the galut Jews are irrelevant, this is also Halakha: “majority of Jews” is halakhically equivalent to “majority of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael”, we simply do not care about US and US Jewry, as much as Hashem does not care so much

    Comment by Tar Yag — April 30, 2010 @ 2:44 pm

    “We have a tradition from our rabbis that Yaakov our forefather buried Rachel Imeinu “on the way” in Beit Lechem, so she would help all her children who passed by “on the way” and cry for them.. As it is written “Rachel cries for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children who are absent.” And You Hashem returned them to her, as it is written, “So says Hashem, cease your crying for there is a reward for your actions, by the word of G-d they will return from enemy lands, and there is hope for your end, as is the word of G-d, and your children will return to their borders” Yirmiahu 31:11.”
    A Summary of Prayers to be said at Kever Rachel

    “Kol Hamerachem al habriyot, beyaduah shehu mezaroh shel Avraham avinu. Vekol me she’eino merachem al habriyot, beyaduah shehu lo mezaroh she Avraham avinu.” – Masechet Beitzah 32:b

  13. ayn reagan says:

    Where oh where is my little yamit?

    Is he in a tree?

    Or is he by the sea?

    Is he in a car?

    Or just outside a bar?