By Ted Belman
Netanyahu’s coalition is fraying at the edges. MK’s from Likud and Habayit Yahudi are speaking out in defiance of Government policy. The driver is Netanyahu’s embrace of the peace process and his willingness to have a de facto building freeze.
Two weeks ago he said that Israel had to be “smart about” where it built and hinted it was ready to limit expansion to settlement clusters it intends to keep in any future land-for-peace deal. At around the same time MK Danny Danon attracted a lot of attention when he declared that the governing coalition is staunchly opposed to a two-state solution and would block the creation of a Palestinian state if such a proposal ever came to a vote. He went so far as to say “This government will block any two-state deal”
For this he was chastised by many on the left and by Min Boogie Yaalon who I used to like. Yaalon is backing Bibi all the way.
Naftali Bernnett joined in to declare Oslo dead. So did Zippy Hotovely.
Last week Minister of Housing Uri Ariel, publicaly complained that Bibi had imposed a total freeze on any new building plans. Daniella Weiss, one of the leaders of the Nahala movement, says that Netanyahu should live up to his promises to build in E1. She called for a rally in E1 believing that those in favour of construction should focus on building there.
On Saturday, Danon spoke at a Sabbath-day event in E-1 in which one thousand Israelis urged the government to follow through on promises to build new homes for Israeli citizens in the area. In reference to Bibi statement about being smart on the timing, he said “There is no such thing as ‘timing,’ every day is the right day to build,”.
There seems to be a pro-construction faction developing. Danan said
But if the Housing Minister knows about it (the freeze), I expect that we’ll work together against this decision.”
“We will fight this decision together as we’ve fought together in the past,” Danon declared. “We don’t need to allow a de facto freeze.”
Stay tuned.
Charge away USA!
Today’s the local media has an headline… “Netanyahu lost the Likud”, precisely as I have reported for some time. He is pushing, conniving, but his goose is overdone. Should Soetoro persist, the SD should get be ready to be taken to task on the “Indian Reservations” subject with a large cadre of Native Americans who are familiar to us as activists.
We reject keeping enemies in our midst any longer. That includes the Islamics and their “partners”.
I understand the urgency for Nobel seeking Netanyahu seeing his plots unravel.
But his grip on power is ending.
@ ken.mathews:
While I agree with you, the fact is that if pro-annexation MKs come out saying “We won’t give citizenship to a violent population”, their project would never take off the ground. It would be demolished by the loud pro-Arab minority, which would enlist every humanitarian agency, the UN, the US govt, the EU, celebrities… you name it, to push for partition. The psychological impact on these struggling MKs would be considerable.
These MKs are not particularly strong. They voted twice against annexation in the past three years or so, when the National Union presented annexation bills to the Knesset. So this matter must be handled firmly but leaving them enough room so that they can defend themselves against charges of apartheid. A conditional access to citizenship would not be a denial, but would give the country enough time to find other options, such as facilitating Arab emigration. And it would gather support for annexation among Jews afraid of more Arabs with the power to vote.
@ Canadian Otter:
Canadian Otter – I agree that Hotovely should not offer the Palestinians citizenship leaving them instead in the status of being resident aliens. But not because Israel faces a demographic threat – Israel doesn’t face a demographic threat. Citizenship should not be given to a population that is hostile to the state due to religious/ideological beliefs and exposure to a multi-generation indoctrination campaign. Israel faces an ongoing threat of insurgency, hostile neighbors and most importantly the threat of politicians and citizens giving in to the lure of appeasement. Annex the land and settle it as quickly as possible – with landownership being transferred to true Jewish individual ownership. Land owned & managed by the state is much more politically susceptible to being given away for appeasement than is privately owned land.
MK Hotovely’s renewed call for annexation with wholesale citizenship for all Yesha Arabs is sending a mixed message. It says, let’s establish sovereignty over Yesha – although we may lose the country to demographics. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169233
It’s great that MK Hotovely is pro-annexation, but since she presents it as tied to automatic citizenship for Arabs, it’s bound to fail. ~~~ The Jewish majority is not as strong as it appears to be, with so many non-Jews and traitors counted along with the real Jews. Youth demographics may also give an edge to the Arabs. ~~~ While it’s OK to offer citizenship as a general concept, it should have enough caveats to prevent the wholesale gift of citizenship to terrorists and subversives. Arabs could be required to apply individually, have a clean security record, and swear an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state. ~~~ If MK Hotovely and other pro-Annexation leaders manage to clarify this, maybe people would be more inclined to support annexation. When there is another war, insurgents can be more easily repatriated to Jordan if they don’t hold Israeli citizenship.
There is NO peace process to pursue! Netanyahu is trying to keep Obama happy but is finding out the price he’s paying for it is losing his coalition. They simply don’t agree with him its worth the effort.
Building in E1 is of vital importance. It solidifies our hold on an important strategic piece of geography keeping Maaleh Adumin and Jerusalem connected.
It also shows we are in charge of our destiny not the EU, PA, Obama or the people who would put another terror state in our midst.