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Israel Okays New West Bank Settler Homes Despite Moratorium
JERUSALEM - Israel has given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on such construction, a minister said on Monday.
An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man stands at the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank. Israel has given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on such construction, a minister said on Monday.
(AFP/Ahmad Gharabli) The news surfaced as US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in the region, a day after the Palestinians agreed to hold indirect talks with Israel while warning that further settlement growth would threaten the entire peace process.
Israeli Environment Minister Gilad Erdan said the project in the Beitar Illit settlement near Bethlehem was an exception to a partial halt of settlement activity announced in November.
"At the end of last year, the government decided to freeze construction, but this decision provided for exceptions in cases of safety problems for infrastructure projects started before the freeze," he told army radio.
Israel's continued expansion of settlements is one of the biggest obstacles to the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians, now suspended for more than a year despite months of US-led shuttle diplomacy.
The Palestinians, who had refused to resume peace talks until a freeze on settlements, condemned the latest move and called on the United States to intervene to halt settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
"This was the first item on the president's agenda," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said after a meeting between US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank.
"The president said this cannot stand. We cannot tolerate that each time we have discussions on peace-making the Israeli government tenders more settlements, more incursions, more provocations," Erakat said.
Mitchell praised both sides for agreeing to start indirect talks and said he would return to the region next week to discuss the "structure and scope" of the process.
"We also again encourage the parties, and all concerned, to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks," he added.
The new project was revealed a day after the Palestinians grudgingly agreed to four months of indirect peace negotiations with Israel mediated by the United States.
It also came as Biden made his first visit to the region since assuming office, after having stressed that relaunching Middle East peace talks was in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians and the United States.
The Palestinians insist they will only return to direct talks if Israel agrees to completely freeze settlement construction in the West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
The United States initially backed that demand, but has since called on both sides to immediately return to negotiations while routinely criticising Israeli settlement activity in line with longstanding policy.
Erdan played down the chances of a strong US reaction to the latest settlement boost and blamed the Palestinians for stalling peace efforts.
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden know that the key is that the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) is ready at any moment to engage in direct negotiations," he said.
"However, Mahmud Abbas wants to limit the indirect negotiations to four months after months of setting unprecedented conditions for accepting dialogue, and this is not the way to discuss peace."
Israel announced a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for settler homes in the West Bank in November but it excludes east Jerusalem, public buildings and works already under way.
Around a half million Israelis live in more than 120 settlements scattered across the West Bank, including east Jerusalem. The international community considers all the settlements illegal.
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Israel's motto: LIE, STEAL, MURDER, MAIM!
Israel's motto: "Gott mit Uns".
Creating the state of Israel in the middle east was a gigantic mistake and they have never stop their expansionism and they are the greatest threat to peace in the world.
There is only one solution to the problem of the sharing the Holy Land between the Palestinians and the Jewish immigrants.The one solution is create a single state where all residents have equal rights and responsibilities.
If Jews have the 'right of return' because their ancestors may have lived there centuries ago, surely the Palestinians have the same 'right of return' to their family homes of decades ago.
If Jews have the 'right of return' because their ancestors may have lived there centuries ago, surely the Palestinians have the same 'right of return' to their family homes of decades ago. <--- brilliant
Check out a group called 'breaking the law of return'. An international jewish group standing with Palestinians, of which i am a member.
They are seeking more american jews to join. Anyone interested?
Does anybody really believe Israel's wish for a genuine peace? It's all talk while the settlements keep on growing and Palestinians are being pushed out, incarcerated or killed. Based on an old book and some folklore, the state of Israel can do what no other nation on the planet could get away with by waging a snail-krieg: slow and effective.
So, when does this get recognized as a slow form of ethnic cleansing? Along with a side of never let the other side think that there will be peace.
Saturnalia. Precisely!
To preempt apologists' comments on CD of the US/Israel policy of ethnic cleansing Palestinians, I'll post the following so I don't need to respond to their comments.
Apologists' tactics in regards to the US/Israel policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians:
1 – Attack the messenger (CD poster or whoever criticizes the US/Israel's ethnic cleansing)
2 – If the critic is a Jew, call the Jew anti-semetic or a self-hating Jew
3 – Make it sound like Israel is the victim although Israel is the aggressor and occupier
4 – Point to other injustices in the world to deflect attention of Israel's illegal acts.
5 – State that Jews and Palestinians have a long history of conflict therefore the situation is unresolvable (ignoring Israel's illegal occupation) in order to maintain status quo and further Israel's expansion of illegal settlements
6 – Claim Israel has biblical rights to Palestinian land (thus God supports the ethnic cleansing)
7 – Claim the occupied territory was either no man's land or another countries land to justify Israel's illegal confiscation of the land and the people on it.
8 – Defend the occupation and ethnic cleansing without mentioning the illegal acts: land confiscation, house demolitions and evictions, burning and razing of Palestinian farmland, illegal land annexations, specific apartheid policies in the West Bank, shooting and arrests of non-violent demonstrators on occupied land, restriction of movement, land and sea blockade, restrictions of imports of medicine, food, school supplies and building materials, illegal shooting of Gazan farmers and fishermen...
9 – Make so illegitimate arguments or use inaccurate/misleading facts to justify Israel's illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing policy that it is impossible to respond to them all because every time you try, another illegitimate argument is made. (The Bush administration was a master of this in the buildup to the Iraq war. It seemed every week, another piece of unsupported evidence was made to support attacking Iraq. And every time you challenged one illegitimate argument, the arguer (usually a Fox News viewer) would abandon that argument and jump to the next illegitimate argument and this would continue to the point of exhaustion.)
10 – Switch between tactics 1-9 above in your non-stop argument whenever one of the tactics runs out of steam.
Apologists use tools such as Megaphone Desktop (www.giyus.org) to alert themselves when articles about Israel's destructive policies appear on the internet so they can use tactics like the above to try and win public opinion.
May I add to your list a little story that is in their book of Exodus found at EXODUS 32:7. quote,
7. And the Lord said unto Moses, GO get down for THY people, which thou brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves:......
9. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold it is a stiff necked people.
10. Now let me alone that my WRATH may wax hot AGAINST THEM, and that I may CONSUME them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
11. .........Moses answers,..Lord WHY doth THY WRATH wax HOT against THY people ?
A couple comments here.
1. Neither of these two wants ownership of the "People".
2. With a beginning like this with their GOD an anti-Semetic from this page and on
one has to consider that today is no different than when this story is recorded.
A couple of comments here:
12. Jesus THIS.
13. MOSES that.
14. Abraham hit him with a WIFFLE BALL bat!
15. MARES eat oats and GOATS eat oats....
16. and little lambs eat IVY. (GOBBLE-DE-GOOK 24:7)
Even Obama is held hostage by the jewish lobby. Rham Emmanuel and the whole represented in his administration certainly get their way. I worked on Obama campaign and was surprised by Jewish and Arab participation. Could it be that each side was vying for position. If so the non jews losst.
More illegal settlement expansion in the illegally occupied West Bank?
A week ago, we learn of plans from the West Jerusalem mayor to evict Palestinians and demolish their homes in East Jerusalem (illegally annexed) to build and upscale district of hotels and a King's Garden (King David).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8546276.stm
Yesterday, a group of settlers accompanied by armed Israeli soldiers, destroyed a spring of a West Bank Palestinian town by pouring sand and cement into it. See video.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/03/11679
And today Israel announces planned construction of 1600 new settlement homes in the illegally annexed East Jerusalem. Israel is using the "peace process" to stall and expand its occupation on Palestinian land. The announcement is Israel's way of thumbing its nose at the US and George Mitchell who arrived in Israel to supposively start the resumption of peace talks.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1155171.html
The reality is that there is almost no differnce genetically between the two groups. Man maded differences are the reason for the conflict. The israelis have the upperhand because of the huge influence that jewish americans have over the government of the united states. AIPAC has to be the culprit for stirring up the hatred against fair minded policies by the american government. Today vice-president Biden is in Israel telling the jewish state that its illegal settlements in the west bank are o.k..This is so blatantly onesided that any credibility america seeks to use in the region is laughed at. Also any criticism of Israel is met with an almost endless parade of the history of suffering by Jews. It is as if no other group has been the victim of aggression. Such obvious and short sided actions do not stop the bad feeling and only create more suffering. May god help you. a mark has been missed as israel chooses to play small in this instance. Why cant such a distinct people act in a just and fair way towards its neighbors. Its easy to blame the palestininans. The property of palestinians has been trampled upon and its people displaced. That it was done unto jews does this somehow make it o.k. to do it to palestinians. Joe Liebermann and many others seem to think so.
Biden did issue a White House statement condemning Israel's announcement today but condemned Israel's "planning of housing units" in East Jerusalem, without calling it settlement construction nor using the word illegal anywhere in his statement. For Biden to have issued even this mild rebuke, he must have been fuming and red-faced after arriving in Israel to start peace negotiations. However, he still fell into line when standing next to Netanyahu in front of reporters:
"Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel," Biden said.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-vice-president-joseph-r-biden-jr
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians
Yes more illegal expansion, and where it stops is where the negotiations begin.
Time is on the Israeli's side, isn't it?
I'll bet even in the ranks of the "chosen ones" , some believe that they are 'more' chosen.
Actually, that idea of choseness is like five thousand years old and not something jews go around thinking about. Just to keep things factual.
In fact, at least half of Jews, which are like half a percent of the population of the world, are aetheists. In other words. They really don't believe in a God who makes choices like some guy in L.A. judging on american idol.
That would be more along the lines of the pope, i would suppose. Too bad, though. Until the state of israel, the Jews didn't have much karma....no inquistions, forcing their religion on every indigenous human being on earth for fun and profit, no invention of torture manuals in the middle ages, burning women healers at the stake, rampant pedophilia. And global hedgemony as in christian nations, including the good old usa. Oh yes. It is called, Democratization now.
Seems that the Christian nation of the U.S. feels most supremely chosen. "God Bless America". We know what is best for the rest of the world - wherever and whenever. Nuked those 'Japs' back in the day.
Sorry. As much as i despise israel, i think they are a client state and front for a military contractor operation. And who is paying for their services?
your factual statement of "That idea of choseness is five thousand years old and not something jews go around thinking about." has been brought into question many times in my life. I asked a high school buddy [jewish] only 47 years ago why jews were so fascinated with dealing with finance. He responded with, "Because we are the 'chosen ones' and the only people that understand and have the skill to handle with money." I have since had many conversations with jewish friends where they gave the "fact" of specialness as an explanation concerning politics, palestine banking, etc. the word chosen in this context may have religious connotations but entitlement/specialness/arrogance is found to exist in all areas of life and is not isolated to religion/god. Facts, for me are those moments past and present of which i am directly involved mentally physically and emotionally, not something i have read or heard about second hand.
When Ben-Gurion was trying to assemble enough people so that Jews would not be the minority in an Arab land, his considerations were to bring in the European Jews ( with money) The children would be next as they could be "Trained." ( shades of Hitler Youth, you think?) The "old" Jews, well they weren't needed, well except for Ben-Gurion and his crowd.
Nation building ALWAYS takes importance over the actual human beings. History repeats itself.
Israel, you are such a disappointment . One would hope that with the history of the Holocaust, that one would be enough.
Once again, Herzl's dream of " humanism and tolerance" seems to have been forgotten.
Your actions mirror so much of past history. Sadly, I do not believe that you are building a nation, but digging graves quite furiously, including your own. Walls don't just separate and keep people out; they often end up entombing the builders.
By the way, when the Temple fell in the 2nd century, not all of the Jews left. Many remained ,and when later conqueorors came , some of these Jews became followers of Islam.
It's very possible that, while some of your genealogy perished in the Holocaust, some of your genetic heritage could be perishing right behind the walls that you have built.
The Holocaust was your past, why do you insist on making it your future?
Beautifully expressed, stardust.
As a Jew, i am far less generous than you, when i speak of israel. My hatred, and i don't use that term loosely, is visceral.
Zionists, backed by "wingnut" Evangelicals give judaism a bad name. Making life unbearable for Palestinians in order to "justify" killing them, razing their homes and occupying their land is plain unjust. This video, "Occupation 101", pretty much, tells it all.
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2451908450811690589&ei=18SNS-eEGoGclAfOvbGvAQ&q=occupation+101#
Anyone who believes Israel is a fool! Israel has absolutely NO intentions of giving up ethnic cleansing until it has stolen all Palestinian/Arab lands. And shame on those nations looking the other way and thus tacitly supporting this. Guilty by association...
peacekeepertwo: Schizophrenic US Foreign Policy. A Comment about the results of Joe Biden’s resent Visit to Israel: The capitalist system requires the US Government, to act against the Interests of its own People. The Capitalist system requires that US policy be Profitable. You have to be nice to the people who have the money. Why do we befriend the Israeli Government when it continues to spit in our Face? Answer: Many of the people who control the World Financial System are of the Jewish faith. The current of stage Capitalism, reminds me of a Story in the Christian Bible, which described the reaction of Jesus, when he caught venders selling Farm Animals in the Temple. I believe our Government, should be a Tool that allows God to provide for his People. If Christian Lawmakers follow the Ten Commandments, there will be no more Crises in the Capitalist System. However: The Current form Capitalism is so restrictive, it requires use to break God laws to succeed. We must replace the Capitalist System, to Accommodate the Change Obama promised. The Next President must have the courage to Support a Democratic Socialist System, which will provide us with the Flexibility to bring about real change. Christian Priests and Ministers are beginning to acknowledge that in many ways Socialism may be more compatible, with Christianity than Capitalism. Finally: If your friend is a Sinner, loyalty should not require following him to Hell. We may have time to repent, but we don’t know how much. It would be wise to prepare to face our Maker tomorrow.