Reports Friday morning indicated that Netanyahu told senior officials of his intention not to sign any framework deal that would divide Jerusalem.
Meanwhile a new poll released Friday by Maariv showed 80% of Israelis believe the US backed peace talks will not succeed. 507 Jewish and Arab citizens were polled in the survey.
A further 73% rejected a total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Judea and Samaria under the framework of any peace deal, an Israeli withdrawal Kerry’s proposals reportedly include.
Another opinion poll, this time conducted among 500 Jewish citizens by Israel Hayom, found 70% of Israelis reject a withdrawal from the Jordan Valley, while 53% said Kerry was not “honest” and sincere in pushing peace talks.
Those concerns seem founded given recent revelations indicating Kerry has been secretly manipulating European boycotts as tool to pressure Israel, and may even have initiated the boycott drives himself.
New Wave Poll: 53.5%:19.8% Do not rely on Kerry as honest broker
Maagar Poll: 73%:20% Refuse to waive IDF presence in Jordan Valley
Israelis are not so stupid. & Illogical Kerry
Former US Envoy Favors ‘Trading Pollard for PA State’
The very thought of an American diplomat saying that Pollard is a traitor but should be freed in return for Israel’s agreeing to Palestinian Authority terms reaches the most obscene depth of hypocrisy.
New Dig in Hebron Aimed at Uncovering King David’s Palace
“All the elders of Israel came to the king [David] to Hebron, and King David made a convenient with them in Hebron… In Hebron, he was king over Judea for seven years and six months…. (Samuel 2, Ch. 5).”
Mr. Kerry, Dig for the Truth!
Given the overabundance of evidence of Jewish life in the Holy Land, and especially in Yerushalayim, Arab claims regarding the history of the area are all the more absurd. Possibly most unbelievable of all is that PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas actually issued a holiday greeting last month declaring that “Jesus was a Palestinian messenger.” Is it not incredible not only that he could make such a claim, but that he knew in advance that the international community – well aware that Jesus was Jewish – would accept such an illogical pronouncement with equanimity? Not even the Vatican protested. Even if we were to assume that Abbas was merely referring to the geographical area in which Jesus lived, he still lied – for the term “Palestine” was first used to denote an official Roman Empire province 100 years after Jesus died. In this light, let us consider Secretary of State John Kerry’s frenzied drive to reach some kind of agreement; any agreement in the world will do, from his standpoint, as long as he can avoid the label “failure.” The diplomatic fight for Jerusalem is thus in high gear, and as such, Abbas realizes that the more he denies the facts of Jewish history, the more he might be able to squeeze out of these negotiations. He and other PA spokesmen are clearly being driven to the extremes of rationality, as can be ascertained from the following quotes: * The mufti of Jerusalem says Israel has no historical, religious, or any other rights to Jerusalem, and that the city “has been the historical, religious, cultural, and scientific capital of the Palestinians from time immemorial, the center of the Islamic world, and the focus of world civilization” (courtesy of Dr. David Bukai). * Dr. Marwan Abu-Khalaf, director of the Archaeological Institute at Al-Quds University, argues shamelessly that “Jerusalem’s archaeological treasures emphasize the depth of the city’s heritage and history; they emphasize its Arabness and refute the Israeli claims that it is a Jewish city…. It is known that perhaps under every stone and in every corner, on every street and at every turn in Jerusalem there are relics. These relics say, ‘We are Arab, we are Muslim, we are Christian.’ ” * Abbas has accused Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem while obliterating and robbing its “historical and religious Palestinian character” (Qatar, Feb. 2012). * Dr. Bukai has collected a list of similarly foolish PA claims: “Abraham was not a Jew; the Jews never lived in ancient Israel; the Jews never had any connection to Jerusalem; Jerusalem was never a Jewish city; there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem; the Western Wall is not a Jewish holy site; the Tombs of Rachel and Joseph are actually Muslim sites.” Let us address Secretary Kerry directly: As we have written before, the following two facts must always be remembered. First is that the only three national, politically independent entities in the history of the Land of Israel have been Jewish: the First Jewish Kingdom (Judges and Kings), from the times of Yehoshua bin Nun up until the destruction of the First Temple; the Second Jewish Kingdom, otherwise known as the Second Temple Period; and the modern State of Israel, since 1948. The second fact is that Jerusalem was never the capital city of any independent regime or nation other than the above three Jewish states. PA or Arab claims to Jerusalem of any type are groundless, historically unjust, and can only have catastrophic ramifications for regional peace. The Hebrew name Jerusalem includes within it the word shalom; without Jewish Jerusalem, there can be no peace.
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/keeping-jerusalem/mr-kerry-dig-for-the-truth/2014/01/09/
A huge relief to learn that other than the demented left, a dieing breed, thank G-d!,and the majority of the leadership, Israelis have not lost their minds. Let’s hope that whatever the outcome that the GOI respects the wishes of its constituents.