Knesset Conference Calls to Expand Greater Jerusalem

by Elad Benari, INN

A conference regarding the area known as Greater Jerusalem was held on Tuesday in the Knesset. The conference, which was initiated by MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), was attended by Knesset members as well as heads of cities and communities. Its main purpose was to promote the status of Jerusalem through the “Greater Jerusalem bill” which was initiated by Knesset members from both the coalition and opposition: Tzipi Hotovely, Avi Dichter (Kadima), David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu), Avraham Michaeli (Shas), Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) and Yitzhak Vaknin (Shas).

“The main problem today is housing,” said Hotovely. “The younger generation cannot purchase apartments in Jerusalem because of the lack of land reserves for construction in the city. The Greater Jerusalem bill reflects a broad consensus that sees communities such as Betar Illit, Maale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Mevasseret Zion, Gush Etzion and Efrat, as part of the State of Israel.”

Hotovely noted that there is a potential to reverse the negative migration from Jerusalem and turn it into a positive migration. “The major arteries which provide access to the city from all directions are at a very low quality and this severely hurts the industrial zones in Greater Jerusalem,” she said.

MK Avi Dichter said that “Everyone knows the data on Jerusalem, and what is disturbing is the fact that this city sets a global precedent, where no country recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. This bill is a first step in the common effort of all Knesset parties to make Jerusalem the official Israeli capital. We will ensure that the bill does not harm the independence of other authorities in Greater Jerusalem.”

Aryeh Hess, chairman of the Movement for the Strengthening of Greater Jerusalem, said: “As a resident of Jerusalem whose children left the city due to employment and housing problems, it is important for me to say unequivocally that within the current boundaries of Jerusalem there is no solution for the demands of younger people to live in the city. This is a need of Israel’s capital so that it can continue to grow and not continue to fade.”

Maale Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel said that “now is the time to promote the trend of the development of Jerusalem and the communities surrounding it. Already in 1992, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin coined the term Greater Jerusalem. There is no desire here to change the unique nature of each of the localities but rather to create a perception of a spatial region.”

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Yoram Ettinger, noted that “Anyone who studies the history of Jerusalem from 1948 to this day always sees development as a precondition for Jerusalem to leap forward. An airport in the city of Jerusalem is essential because lacking an airport detracts from its status worldwide. Upgrading the transportation infrastructure in the city and developing the land east of the city will bring an additional 20,000 residents to Jerusalem each year.”

February 16, 2011 | 11 Comments »

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11 Comments / 11 Comments

  1. This Sunday, 20 February, the Ministerial Legislative Committee (vaada) will be voting on whether or not to apply Israeli law to the Jewish communities in Yehuda and Shomron.

    Kindly SMS the ministers above and urge them to vote for this important bill.
    Example SMS: On Sunday pls come to Vaada & vote YES to Israeli law in Yehuda&Shomron! Thank u!

    It is ok to SMS ministers on Friday but only until Shabat, and on Saturday night till 11 pm but only AFTER Shabat goes out. Sunday from 7 AM till 1 PM is also ok. Thank you!

    Yuli Edelstein 050-3334298
    Gideon Saar 050-6343111
    Yossi Peled 0506202282
    Gilad Erdan 050-5936500 *
    Yuval Steinitz 052-3853280
    0506234538 Benny Begin *
    Sofa Landver 050-4357060
    0544622045 Daniel Hershkowitz
    Meshulam Nahary 0507440120
    0504963737 Yakov Margi *
    Limor Livnat 0505-200-050
    Stas Miszanikov 0503833776 *
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    M. Cachlon 050-6845584
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  2. yamit82 says:
    February 17, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    There can be no compromise on this. It is only a peace that comes with Arabs submitting to the yoke of the heavenly kingdom that will be a permanent one and the Jew who gives up part of his land as a compromise, violates the entire purpose of the rise of the Jewish State and the demand of the All Mighty that the nations acknowledge Him as King. There can be no retreat from land because that is in essence a retreat also from the Kingship of the L-rd.

    Bottom line you are right.

    There can be no compromise, it has been stated all along, Israel cannot be and will not be denied the G-d given rights to the Holy Land.

    There was once an old commercial “Don’t mess with mother nature”, better said would be “Don’t mess with G-d”, a lesson of those who engaged in a war against Israel will attest to.

  3. The irrational and fanatic hatred of the goyim for Jewish Israel reminds me of HaShem “hardening pharaoh’s heart”. It is like HaShem is trying to rouse the innate stubbornness of us Jews to stand up to the goyim (and is succeeding).

    Then Pharaoh had no free will and therefore no choice how he responded to Moses’s demands? Why?

    Pesach: Divrei Torah
    by rabbi kahane HY”D

    “And Pharaoh called to Moses, saying: Go and worship the L-rd. Only your sheep and cattle will remain – your children will also go with you. And Moses said: You will also give us offerings and sacrifices for the L-rd our G-d, and our flocks will go with us…” (Shmot 10:24-26)

    The ninth plague-darkness – has struck Egypt with a vengeance and Pharaoh breaks. Step by step he has retreated and after the eighth plague – locusts – he was prepared to allow the Jews to leave except for their children. Now he surrenders almost entirely as he agrees that all the Jews can leave. He only asks one thing, one compromise, one small victory for himself, that the Jewish cattle remain behind.

    Consider; the Jews have been slaves for 210 years. They have lived in misery and persecution. They suffered decrees such as the one casting their male children into the sea. They cried out unto the L-rd for freedom and salvation. Now, apparently the great moment has arrived! Pharaoh agrees that they shall go free! What does it matter that he asks for their cattle? Give it to him! The main thing is peace and salvation and we are willing to give up cattle for peace!

    But Moses knows that this is not the purpose of the freedom of the Jewish people and of the story of the slavery and exodus. He is not prepared to compromise one inch because he knows what the purpose of G-d is. When Moses first entered the presence of Pharaoh and said: “The L-rd, G-d of the Hebrews, has said: Let my people go!” Pharaoh contemptuously answered: “Who is the L-rd? I know not the L-rd and will not let Israel go!” Here is where the battle was joined. Here is the purpose and aim of creation – to have the world recognize the dominion and kingship of the L-rd being challenged. Pharaoh must be made to recognize and totally acknowledge the sovereignty of the L-rd over him and his people. He cannot make compromises; he cannot strike bargains. He must submit totally!

    “And I shall be glorified through (the defeat of) Pharaoh and his army and Egypt shall know that I am the L-rd.” Only the total defeat of the wicked can raise and honor the name of the L-rd, says the Biblical commentator Rashi. This is why there will be no compromise with Pharaoh. He must totally submit, he must totally surrender.

    And even when he apparently does this, after the plague of the first born, when he runs to Moses and says: “Get out, take your flocks with you, just leave and ask the L-rd to bless me!” Moses refuses and in the words of the Mechilta; “And he called unto Moses and Aaron in the middle of the night and said: get up and leave! Said Moses unto him: No, we have been ordered not to leave our houses until morning. What are we, thieves that we should slink out in the night? No, we will leave only in the morning with an upraised arm before the eyes of all the Egyptians!”

    Not one inch of retreat here. The lesson of the L-rd being the Omnipotent, king of the universe must be seen and acknowledged.

    The lesson is an eternal one and must be learned in our time, too. The question of peace in the Middle East is a question of the Arabs and the world acknowledging the total sovereignty of the Allmighty. There can be no compromise on this. It is only a peace that comes with Arabs submitting to the yoke of the heavenly kingdom that will be a permanent one and the Jew who gives up part of his land as a compromise, violates the entire purpose of the rise of the Jewish State and the demand of the All Mighty that the nations acknowledge Him as King. There can be no retreat from land because that is in essence a retreat also from the Kingship of the L-rd.

    Fistel the answer to all your statements re; Goyim and the nations against the Jewish people and Israel I think are answered in the above lesson.

  4. Mer says:
    February 17, 2011 at 7:40 pm

    Too much money is in the wrong hands and SHOULD BE in the hands of people like you and me.

    /takes out Tommy gun from violin case, puts on Fedora, hops into Studebaker and heads for the First National

  5. Mer, here in Israel, there are numerous groups and websites calling on “saving” Jerusalem, whose agenda is not saving Israel in toto. Their membership ranges in people like you and me who are not only thinking about Jerusalem, yet often the ones managing the group never gave it a thought or are intentionally exclusionary, just like this legislation being proposed.

    I see no difference between giving up an inch in Abu Dis versus an Inch in the Gilboa.

  6. Shy Guy. Who said anything about agreeing that Jeruselem would be at the expense of anything. We cant sit back and say G-d willing. We ARE the WILL of G-d. G-d gave the earth to US to guard over. We have dominion over the birds land and sea. Oh ye of little faith?

  7. no country recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    They may publicly say they don’t recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but we all know better. If not the capital of Israel then what?

    This so called lack of recognition should not hold up the continued expansion and migration of young Jews to the city and if fact it should be used as a spark to put the program in high gear.

    Governments may not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but people of the world believe otherwise.

  8. Mer says:
    February 17, 2011 at 7:26 am

    This is a type of project I would LOVE to contribute to.

    This project is at the expense of the rest of Yehuda, Shomron and the Jordan Valley. Be careful what you wish for.

    In any case, G-d willing, even the stupid Israelis will be forced not to relinquish even one additional centimeter of Israel due to the Arabs continuing to let slip their Final Solution goals. G-d willing.

  9. Israel is becoming more Jewish:

    A poll cited in IMRA (Feb 16) says that Jewish Israelis now vote 60% right and 40% left. Jewish Israel is thus heading towards a permanent right wing majority, which over time will become more religious (a third of Jewish children born in Israel last year were ultra-orthodox).

    Most Jewish Israelis want Jewish Israel to end up a little bigger, at the expense of the palestinians, and a lot stronger, with Jerusalem firmly Jewish.

    This puts Jewish Israel at loggerheads with the Jew-hating goyim, who want Jewish Israel to end up small, weak, and vulnerable.

    The hatred which the six million Jews in Israel engenders among the goyim is simply incredible. The christian europeans, who killed six million Jews because they “didn’t belong anywhere in europe”, originally said that Jews could not escape to Israel, either, and the “post-christian” EU, having successfully slaughtered its own six million Jews, is now the strongest supporter of the arab attempts to destroy Jewish Israel.

    The original Labor Zionists wanted to establish Jewish Israel as a “nation just like all the others”. But the Torah tells us that HaShem chose Jewish Israel to be a nation which must live alone, and we are seeing that more and more every day.

    The irrational and fanatic hatred of the goyim for Jewish Israel reminds me of HaShem “hardening pharaoh’s heart”. It is like HaShem is trying to rouse the innate stubbornness of us Jews to stand up to the goyim (and is succeeding).

    L’shana haba b’Yerushalayim hab’nuya.