The settlement enterprise is progressing

By Ted Belman

In Sept,
Government okays 1,100 apartments in Gilo.

Clinton: Gilo construction counter-productive to peace

    “We believe that this morning’s announcement by the government of Israel approving the construction of (1,100) housing units in east Jerusalem is counter-productive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties,” “As you know, we have long urged both sides to avoid any kind of action which could undermine trust, including, and perhaps most particularly, in Jerusalem, any action that could be viewed as provocative by either side,”

Four Knesset factions ramp up effort to annex territories

    The Land of Israel Caucus called for a gradual annexation of settled areas in Judea and Samaria, as well as increased building and development of the region. The letter also demanded that any Palestinian construction in Area C (under full Israeli control) be prevented, and that tax and customs monies no longer be transferred to the PA.

    “The Palestinian commitment to avoid unilateral steps is the only thing Israel got in return for all it has given up since the Oslo Accords,” the MKs wrote.

    “The PA’s unilateral bid for recognition of statehood in the UN is a clear violation of the agreements, which for the past 18 years cost us a high price.”

    The letter also says that any country that cooperates with the PA in its statehood bid may no longer serve as a mediator in peace talks.

    If the prime minister fails to take such steps, the MKs wrote, he will “encourage the Palestinians to continue acting against [Israel] in the international arena.”

    “The international damage to Israel from the UN vote is much smaller than the damage Israel may inflict on itself if we do not follow the principle of ‘if they give, they will get, if they don’t give, they will not get,’” the letter reads, referring to a wellknown campaign promise from Netanyahu. “This principle has saved Israel from deteriorating into the abyss opened by the engineers of the Oslo Accords.”

    MK Danny Danon (Likud) plans to bring his annexation bill to a preliminary vote in the Knesset when the summer recess ends next month.

    Danon’s bill calls to “cancel all of the commitments the State of Israel made in agreements with the Palestinian Authority, and act to apply sovereignty to areas with a concentration of Jewish people in Judea and Samaria.”

    In the bill’s text, the Likud MK explains that the Oslo Accords forbid “any step that will change the status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip until the end of negotiations on a permanent status.”

    The PA “defied this important rule by acting to unilaterally establish a Palestinian state,” and therefore “the diplomatic agreements between Israel and the PA should be canceled,” the lawmaker said.

    Danon said 15 Likud MKs had expressed support for the bill, including Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein and Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan. Israel Beiteinu, National Union and Habayit Hayehudi are also in favor of the proposal, Danon said.

    The Likud MK has conducted an online poll of 500 Jewish Israeli adults, and found that, should the Palestinians unilaterally establish a state, 54.5 percent would support the annexation of settlements in Judea and Samaria.

A few days ago, 797 new housing units in Gilo were approved. Then

EU, Britain slam Gilo neighborhood expansion plans

But Ayalon defends Gilo plan despite Quartet condemnation

    Gilo is not a settlement but an “integral part of Jerusalem,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon stressed during a tour of the capital’s third-largest neighborhood for 50 members of the foreign media on Sunday.

    Ayalon delicately denounced the Quartet’s condemnation of a new building project in Gilo, which was approved by an Interior Ministry committee last week.

    “Jerusalem cannot be divided and will not be divided, and it’s very unfortunate that from faraway places people are trying to judge Jerusalem by standards that are completely unrealistic,” he said.

    Ayalon quickly corrected himself to clarify that the comments were aimed at the Palestinian Authority, not at the Quartet or Germany. He added that the government has the “highest admiration” for Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last week that the Gilo approval “raised doubts over whether the Israeli government was interested in the resumption of serious negotiations.”

    “It’s hard for us to understand why every little building, every little neighborhood extension which is within the natural growth of a vibrant city has to become an international issue and has to be raised by the Palestinians as a precondition to peace talks,” Ayalon said.

    He called on the PA to accept the Quartet’s new peace initiative, as Israel has done. “It is time for the Palestinians to stop making excuses,” he said.

    Ayalon also dismissed the claim that the Gilo housing announcement was “bad timing,” saying that building takes place in Jerusalem every day.

    “You can say there is never a good time, but no, this is a thriving city that has needs,” he said.

    Two projects in Gilo recently received approvals from the Interior Ministry, the Southern and the Western Slopes of Gilo.

    Both projects are for 900 housing units, with the southern project given the option of up to 1,100 units pending the resolution of land ownership issues. Each project will have about 35 buildings of eight floors, which will be located toward the bottom of a wadi.

    The western project has received final approval, and the southern project has received initial approval, pending a 60- day period for the public to file objections.

    Gilo community council director Yaffa Shitrit said the neighborhood would file objections to both projects because there were no plans for additional roads to alleviate the already-congested roads there.

    “I feel like there’s just a lack of understanding,” said Shitrit, a 30-year resident of the neighborhood.

    “If they came here and saw for themselves, they would understand that shouting about this is totally unnecessary and irrelevant,” she told The Jerusalem Post.

    Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur, who holds the planning and environmental portfolios, said Gilo was one of the “most flourishing and developing parts of Jerusalem.” She said the city has a policy of building more densely in its ring neighborhoods, including the Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramot and Ramat Shlomo in the capital’s north, rather than letting the city sprawl toward the west. “It was a political and environmental decision to strengthen the inner neighborhoods,” she said.

    “The idea of ‘east’ and ‘west’ Jerusalem is not geographically simple, because Arab and Jewish neighborhoods are interspersed,” she said. “We’re a really mixed bag, and if we can’t be divided we need to learn to share.”

    Tsur echoed Ayalon’s statements that the neighborhood was an integral part of Jerusalem. “[Gilo] is not a settlement or a separate part of the city, it’s part of a thriving urban organism which can’t stand still and stop its building and wait for the sides to get to talking, which they were supposed to do 30 years ago,” Tsur said.

    Hagit Ofran, who heads Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Team, said that though Gilo will probably be part of Israel in a final-status agreement, there should be no building there until an agreement is reached.

    “If we don’t want the Palestinians to do things unilaterally, we also can’t do things unilaterally,” she said. If Gilo is part of Israel, it should be done in a way that is officially recognized by both sides, she said. “Make peace and then build in Gilo.”

    Gilo resident Moran Cohen, a 24-year-old accounting student, said she had trouble understanding why the entire world was making a big fuss. “I don’t feel like a settler,” she said. “A settlement is some lonely faraway place with security concerns, but we’re part of the city.”

    Ayalon and Tsur addressed the media on Sunday as they stood in front of a construction site for a Gilo project called C Jerusalem that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned when it was approved during her visit in November 2009. Clinton’s 2009 condemnation was one of the first times approval of construction in Gilo made international headlines. Four months later, the announcement of initial approval for 1,600 units in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit in March 2010 brought a terrible strain to relations with the White House.

    Since then, nearly every approval of housing projects over the Green Line has made international headlines. Gilo is one of the five ring neighborhoods in the capital that were developed immediately after the Six Day War. In a final-status agreement, such as one based on the 2000 Clinton Parameters that calls for predominantly Jewish areas to stay part of Israel, Gilo and the other ring neighborhoods are almost certain to stay part of Jerusalem.

October 20, 2012 | 19 Comments »

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19 Comments / 19 Comments

  1. yamit82 Said:

    Judea, not bad…Normal country for normal Jews…Poor Jews are not poor at all

    I find the site interesting and unique. I agree with some

    Cleansing the land of sworn enemies is confused with cleansing it of an undesirable ethnic group,

    and disagree with some

    Or take the related argument for Jewish “historical connection” to this land. Arabs, too, have a historical connection to it. Not all of them; some are relatively recent migrants—though even a century-long stay in Palestine makes them more native then the Russian Jews who came in the 1990s. But what is the historical connection of the perfectly proper Jews of Khazar descent to Palestine? Their ancestors never lived here. What is the historical connection of Ethiopian converts to Judaism to Palestine? What warped atheistic reasoning allocates them more rights to the land than the local Arabs? Jews demonstrably have a stronger historical connection to Europe than to Palestine: we spent 1,900 years of our history in Europe, much longer than in the Middle East.

    dont agree, One may say that Jews have an historic connection with being slaughtered, deported, enslaved,etc but that wold not be an argument for its continuation same with the 1900 years in europe. Its kind of weird to think that by virtue of being enslaved and exiled that you now have a stronger connection to your new “homeland”. Although truth is there, nowadays it is called Stockholm syndrome. Those who deny the connection of diaspora “european” jews to the land of Israel do not ask the simple question: Why were these people learning hebrew through generations of 2000 years, even the secular jews? What people without this connection would undertake this millenial task? Certainly from time to time a strange and foreign behavior arises among a group or cult but 2000 years of consistent behavior is difficult to dismiss except among the disingenuous whose arguments are a cover for their agenda.

  2. yamit82 Said:

    They can blame it on those other nasty, crazy and irrational Jews who could care less what they think and are mostly immune from their threats etc.

    I think both the euros and the arabs prefer to blame all Jews and Israel, zionism is a front for jew killing. Jews ins sweden are being blamed by govt for not being anti israel enough. The Jews of the diaspora, Israel and Judea will be blamed for each other because the blame is necessary to rationalize the jew killing. However, it does not matter because in all cases the jews will be blamed so why not get something for the blame and wars rather than constantly paying for nothing.
    yamit82 Said:

    we are here putting the cart before the horse, first you need to establish such a second Jewish state.

    As you know I am endlessly beating the unexpired horse of the unexpired, unrescinded legal right of global Jewry to settle west of the Jordan River. I also repeatedly suggest that these rights of settlement are separate from the state of Israels claims, or non claims, of sovereignty west of the Jordan River. A class action suit against the state of Israel by an organization or collection of Jews(as opposed to Israelis) could go forward that might strengthen the possibilities of Jewish settlement and a separate state in the west bank. The suits can be in the state of Israel and in the International court as follows:
    1-Sue Israel to compel its fulfillment of mandate in area of occupation and/or administration in the territory between the green line and Jordan river. This territory is still subject to the unexpired Palestine mandate’s prime directive to “encourage the settlement of Jews west of the Jordan River”. The mandate has not expired nor been fulfilled and is still in force because Israel has not become sovereign over the entire territory and therefore the mandate cannot be considered terminated until the beneficiary(global jewish people) attains sovereignty over the territory delineated in the mandate. The mandate does not necessitate there being one sovereign entity in order to achieve fulfillment. The achievement of sovereignty by some jews west of green line cannot cancel the rights of jewish settlement east of green line by other jews, it merely demonstrates an abandonment of those rights by the state of Israel, not the global Jewish people. Whether Israel desires sovereignty or not, as administrator it is obliged to fulfill the mandate unless it withdraws. GOI should be compelled to both “encourage” the settlement of any individual Jew but also to restore justice denied those Jews by successive govts of UK, Jordan and Israel all of whom illegally denied Jewish settlement in breach of mandate. Demand an affirmative action program of massive and speedy Jewish settlement by inviting Jews to free grants of land with a US style Homestead act.
    2- Sue Israel to forego any claims to represent world Jewry as successor agent to the Jewish agency due to its continuing failure to pursue the only right and interest of the Jewish people in the mandate, that of settlement. Succeeding Israeli govts have clearly demonstrated a conflict of interest by refusing to enforce the mandate obligations and simultaneously blocking Jews from pursuing their rights and interests as delineated in International law. They have acted to the detriment of the beneficiary of the trust. Israel can terminate the agency and mandate in the area of its sovereignty but should relinquish the agency in YS where it merely is administrator and therefore continuing mandate trustee.
    One can always say that the suits wouldnt stand a chance but the pals are always pursuing their rights in court. The pals are smart enough to even use Israelis to pursue their rights in court no matter how absurd. They appeal to higher law and international law in Israeli courts and get heard. I have never heard Jews pursuing these specific, clear and simple rights, internationally guaranteed and as a legal obligation of the GOI, in Israeli court. The state of Israel has damaged this legal right almost as much as the UK and Jordan. If jewish rights are ignored in courts of Israel and world then it will demonstrate to the Jewish people the continuing futility and hypocrisy of observing law. This opens a path for jewish support from jews who need to feel law abiding.

  3. yamit82 Said:

    This is not helpful Israeli policy. It’s damn stupid.

    I agree, if it gets better they will want to stay. Economic magnets need to be created elsewhere or the militia money cut off. However, they probably need to employ half the population as militia to keep the other half from rebelling and gobbling up the leaders or to send them to die in war (against Israel). Armies sent to die in wars are generally one time investments in population reduction, gleaning out the threatening non productive consumers.

  4. @ yamit82:

    But we are here putting the cart before the horse, first you need to establish such a second Jewish state.

    ‘yim tirzu, eyin zo agadah’

  5. @ Bernard Ross:

    I dont think they would leave Israel in peace or that they would distinguish between the 2 jews but 2 jewish nations would free zionists of Israeli abdication pf jewish settlement rights. YS can seek to be the successor agent for jewish world immigration to populate YS. I think it is important for jews to settle now or they will lose to the european swindlers.

    Maybe not but it would destroy their narrative of blaming Israel for settlement expansion. Europe and the Wests basis for pressuring Israel etc. They can blame it on those other nasty, crazy and irrational Jews who could care less what they think and are mostly immune from their threats etc.

    But we are here putting the cart before the horse, first you need to establish such a second Jewish state.

  7. yamit82 Said:

    Creating Judea would let Israelis shift the blame from the Jewish nation to a Jewish state which pays no attention to gentile opinion. Israel, which would have almost no problems with Palestinians, would become a good neighbor of Muslims.

    I dont think they would leave Israel in peace or that they would distinguish between the 2 jews but 2 jewish nations would free zionists of Israeli abdication pf jewish settlement rights. YS can seek to be the successor agent for jewish world immigration to populate YS. I think it is important for jews to settle now or they will lose to the european swindlers.

  9. @ the phoenix:

    @ Bernard Ross:

    Israel’s only alternative to a Palestinian state is to expel the Palestinians. Morality aside, that solution is more reliable for Israel, more certain, cheaper, and more effective than Israel trying to make Arabs loyal Israelis or good neighbors. Any other Israeli policy will cost Israel dearly in Jewish lives, materiel, money, and public support of Israel. Any firm policy is better for Israel than none.

    Two Jewish States Israel and Judea, from Samson Blinded. Some excerpts: http://samsonblinded.org/blog/judea

    “In ancient times, two Jewish entities, Israel and later Galilee, formed an economically viable, cosmopolitan Jewish state. Judea, centered in the barren hills, was content with a subsistence economy, jealously guarded Jewish religion, and Jewish national consciousness. In our time, Jewish history repeats itself. Israeli zealots flock to kibbutzim and other Jewish settlements, where the priority is not economic development but preserving certain ideological goals and values—which many Jews do not share. Jews’ military and fiscal obligations to Israel are also different. Everything is in place for a split of Israel into two Jewish States.

    Judea would encompass the contested Palestinian territories, with the aim of eventual Jewish expansion into Sinai and all of Eretz Israel. Although Judea would not be economically self-sustaining in industry as Israel, Judea would get the lion’s share of material support that pours into Israel from Jewish people around the world. Jews of Judea could defend themselves against Arabs without great expense and depend on Israel and the West for last-resort protection against major Arab aggression.

    Being a profoundly religious Jewish state offers Judea advantages in confrontation with Arabs which secular Israeli nation does not possess. Judea would be free to clear out Arab indigenous inhabitants. Following Jewish biblical guidelines, Judea could use military measures otherwise unacceptable in the modern world. Judea can forget the notion of civil rights and obey Jewish religious law. Unlike Israel, Judea can afford to stop non-Jewish immigration, directly or through inter-marriage of Jews with gentiles, and limit non-Jewish Orthodox conversions and other Jewish Reform practices, which, though compatible with modern secular values, significantly water down the Jewish religious identity.

    Israel could withdraw from the contested Palestinian territories, enjoy peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors, and concentrate on rapid economic development of the Jewish state. That would win Jews some international respect. Israel could become the dominant Middle Eastern economy, replacing Switzerland, the United States, and Russia as the source of financial, technological, and military commodities and services to Muslims. Western powers will not compete with Israel for hegemony in a Middle East plunged in incessant wars between Arabs after Muslims lose the common Jewish enemy.

    Dividing Israel into two states, Israel and Judea, would not cause enmity among Jews, rather would eliminate the enmity currently brewing in Israel where whatever policy Israeli government chooses displeases about half the Jewish population. The division of Israel would let both Israel and Judea “specialize” and limit their liability. Israel would not be responsible for Judea’s expansionism, while Judea, financed by Israeli Jews, might disregard the economic consequences of its decisions.

    Throughout history, anti-Semites have used the actions of a few Jews, from Zealots to tavern-keepers, to incriminate all Jews. Today all Jews are accused of maltreating Palestinians. Creating Judea would let Israelis shift the blame from the Jewish nation to a Jewish state which pays no attention to gentile opinion. Israel, which would have almost no problems with Palestinians, would become a good neighbor of Muslims.

    Relieving Israel of her war expenditures will let Israel work to recapture Jewish prominence in banking and trade, fundamental research and technology, and the arts.”

  10. yamit82 Said:

    If Israel acted illegally and ruthlessly—but quickly and effectively—in a few years, most nations would accept the de facto situation,

    I agree, this quick fait accomplis is the best solution, but will enough Israelis support this approach or can it be done unilaterally by the leadership?

  11. yamit82 Said:

    The only solution I can see is the biblical models of “Israel and Judea”

    are you saying a 2nd jewish state on YS? If the mandate had continued according to the declaration the jews were supposed to have been encouraged to settle west of the jordan river. The state of Israel illegally spoke for world jewry in giving up a right it had no authority to give up. It seems to me thata new liberation movement for YS would be in accordance with international law in fulfilling the mandate. Perhaps they can find wealthy jews to fund them to separate and form their own state. Any one administrating the west bank is obligated in law to encourage jewish settlement there. Israel and Judea also fulfills 2 states for 2 peoples(why not, the pals have 2 states)

  12. @ yamit82:

    The only solution I can see is the biblical models of “Israel and Judea”.

    I am in complete agreement with your last two comments.
    A question, if I may.
    Should such a ‘Israel & Judea scenario occur, do you see Judea coming to the aid of Israel? (as inevitably they will be attacked by their ‘Muslim friends’ from within AND outside their territory)
    I would go even as far as saying that those latte sippers reading ha’aretz would find a way to backstab their Jewish saviours nonetheless…

  13. The Land of Israel Caucus called for a gradual annexation of settled areas in Judea and Samaria, as well as increased building and development of the region. The letter also demanded that any Palestinian construction in Area C (under full Israeli control) be prevented, and that tax and customs monies no longer be transferred to the PA.

    Machiavelli affirmed that two ways lead most directly to peace: destroy a people’s will to fight by either utter goodness or by utter cruelty, usually expressed as extermination. We have already tried being benevolent (“goodness”) when we agreed to partition. It failed.

    If the Israel intends to keep Y & S, She should do it the only effective way, by occupying the Whole of Y&S, annexing it, driving the Arabs out, (killing those who resist) fencing it off, and facing the international consequences. In all probability, friends and foes alike would let it pass after a brief period of ostentatious antagonism to satisfy their liberals and fundamentalists. Nobody cares about the Palestinians. Everyone wants the issue to go away. If Israel acted illegally and ruthlessly—but quickly and effectively—in a few years, most nations would accept the de facto situation, just as they agreed to Israel’s acquisition of Jerusalem contrary to the U.N. resolution. All modern borders were established by violence.

    Those who would compare (my suggested) Israeli policy with the Nazis; They might first imagine the Germans moving the Jews to Switzerland forcibly but also compensating them fairly for their real estate. Knowing the German intentions how many Jews would have objected being deported as such to Switzerland?

  14. @ Roelf-Jan Wentholt:

    Sure.. And if they won’t, Then What?

    Since 67 Israeli governments have been schizophrenic re: Territories. One Israeli government builds a tremendously expensive Bar-Lev line to protect Israeli Sinai forever; another Israeli government gives up the land, Biblically and strategically important for the Jews, for paper guarantees of Egyptian-Israeli peace. One Israeli government encourages and finances Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories; the next Israeli government dismantles the Jewish settlements. Such wild swings of Israeli policy indicate the relative balance between two Jewish visions in Israel.

    Israel, however, cannot have two mutually exclusive policies. Under pro-expansion Israeli governments, even the Jews who do not want more territory for the Jewish state have to fight and die for it, as well as suffer economically from Israeli taxes that finance Arab-Israeli war. Under conciliatory governments, Jewish Land of Israel loyalists watch helplessly as Israeli governments give Eretz Israel away. In the long run, no Jews are happy with any Israeli government. Everyone, both Israeli groups, want coherent Jewish leadership that shares their vision of Jewish destiny.

    The only solution I can see is the biblical models of “Israel and Judea”.

  15. HILLARious! 🙂 🙂
    Clinton: “Gilo construction counterproductive to peace” LOL! LOL! ROFL! 🙂

    US foreign policy is wreaking havoc everywhere: Muslim Brotherhood takes over governments, Syria burns, Lebanon blows up, BenghaziGATE is barely contained, Iran goes nuclear, thereby unleashing a nuclear arms race among people with severe anger management issues. ~~~ And in the middle of all this, Mrs Clinton takes time to blame Israeli home construction for lack of peace in the region! OMG! You couldn’t make this up! ~~~ And you treat these MEDDLERS with such undeserved deference!… Time to tell the US that it is precisely its confused foreign policy and its chronic meddling that precipitates more chaos and wars and Islamic dictatorships all over the Middle East.

  16. Ayalon quickly corrected himself to clarify that the comments were aimed at the Palestinian Authority, not at the Quartet or Germany. He added that the government has the “highest admiration” for Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel,

    The comments were obviously aimed at the Europeans, and very deservedly so. Why backtrack? The Europeans have no problem openly condemning Israel, so Israeli officials should not feel the need to walk on eggshells when dealing with the EU.

  17. Israel should develop the outraged stance that banning Jews from YS is synonymous with nazi ethnic cleansing tactics and apartheid and that Jews will not observe such directives from the 2000 year serial, chronic jew killers of europe who are the greatest facilitators of the current agenda to eradicate jews from their homeland and Europe. The europeans should be a focus of disgust and hatred for the positions they are taking, repeating their dirty old habits under a transparent disguise. Appeasing their local muslim populations is in direct sync with their millennial practice of jew killing. However, the crocodile will eat them and their fate will be well deserved.

  18. Even if one accepts the premise that the land is disputed there is absolutely no reason that unpopulated areas like area c should be given to the pals. If Israel does not want to annex the highly populous arab areas it should at the least populate and annex area C as per san remo LON and UN charter re jewish settlement rights west of Jordan river. What possible justification is there for giving area C to the pals. It was an underpopulated area conquered from Jordan. Israel wants the EU and UN to keep funding the pals but it is meanwhile giving up its rights by allowing the EU and UN to have a say in the west bank and Jerusalem. Unless there is a strategy to erode the EU and UN positions it appears that it is jewish rights that are being eroded. Happily there are some jews in Israel who believe that the west bank belongs to Israel and hopefully their numbers will increase. The more Israeli Jews that come to accept Jewish sovereignty over the west bank the more that others will. This is why educating the Jews is the most important strategy. Another good approach is that of Jewish settlement in the west bank which, if successful will automatically bring Israeli sovereignty. concentrating on all strategies that further Jewish settlement and refusing to accept its illegality is the best first approach. After getting Israeli acceptance of Jewish settlement rights then one can increase the pace.