Obama administration reportedly meets to discuss tougher stance on Israel’s West Bank construction policies
Senior officials at the White House and the US State Department held a confidential meeting to discuss the possibility of leveling sanctions against Israel to deter the Israeli government from launching new construction projects in settlements across the West Bank and in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, Israeli officials were quoted as saying on Thursday.
According to Israeli daily Haaretz, the Obama administration discussion took place following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s October meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington and against the backdrop of the subsequent public spat over Israeli building plans in East Jerusalem’s Givat Hamatos area.
The White House has not yet decided how or when to implemented any such sanctions against Israel, the report said, quoting senior Israeli officials. US officials had no comment on the report.
The imposition of sanctions on Israel over its policies in the West Bank would mark a significant diplomatic shift for the US, which over the past years has consistently condemned building over the pre-1967 lines but has not taken concrete steps to curb such activity.
US-Israel relations were plunged into crisis in October, after news that a Jerusalem planning committee had signed off on the final stage of approval for construction of some 2,500 homes for Jews and Arabs in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood prompted the Obama administration to issue some of the strongest language it had ever employed to criticize Israel. The condemnation included a warning that Israel was endangering its relations with “even its closest allies.”
Nearly identical, stridently critical comments on the Givat Hamatos building plans were issued by the spokespeople of the State Department and the White House, only hours after Netanyahu and Obama held their session at the White House.
The US statements, which also came shortly after an ultra-nationalist Jewish group said dozens of settlers would move into six apartment buildings purchased in the heart of the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, suggested that Washington felt deeply embittered and blindsided by Israel’s moves, viewing Netanyahu as disingenuous when he said he wanted the US to help him win over Arab states to warm their ties with Israel and advance a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu, for his part, rejected the American statements, stressing to reporters upon his return from the White House that he did not accept the Obama administration’s position on the issues of both Silwan and Givat Hamatos. He said the US had been informed of developments in Silwan, but not updated about the Givat Hamatos approval process, which he said was merely a “statutory formality that does not require publicizing.” He said discussion of the settlement issue in the White House meeting was not heated.
The Israeli leader later said he does not accept restrictions on where Jews could live, adding that he was “baffled” by the American condemnation.
“It’s against the American values. And it doesn’t bode well for peace,” he said during an interview with CBS.
“The idea that we’d have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace, I think it’s anti-peace.”
News agencies contributed to this report.
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
Making her Minister of Justice is an ideal position for her.
Surely she would perform brilliantly as a Minister of Justice.
Who will then do the effective job she is doing of making the hypocritical left pay for their misdeeds? Do you have any suggestions? I love yours and yamit82 line of thinking.
BTW how is the barbecue project coming alone? I have some recipes you might be interested (at least your wife) you can ask Ted for my email and let me know. I’ll be going to visit
my grandchildren the 17th of December. Be back on the 29th.
woolymammoth Said:
looking forward to your report
bernard ross Said:
so after reading this comment, I opened the j journal, which I normally avoid reading, hoping to find just one item of value and i found it,a small ad caught my eye, by chance as I raced to breeze through it..! may i quote:
Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center
“Bankrupting Terrorism, One Lawsuit At A Time”
The Public is Invited to Hear Israel’s leading Activist Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
10 minute drive. very soon…thanks much
mar55 Said:
I believe there is a “donate” button
mar55 Said:
I think you got our roles reversed but I agree with both.
The US administration and SD promote and condone antisemitism and Judenrein despite claiming the opposite. This is the Muslim MO in action for more than a century.
@ mar55:
It is not the time for half way, if well intention talk right now. A most deviant “campaign” is under way and the people cannot wait to see which flotsam item “wins”.
Israel badly needs new leadership from top to bottom.
Mrs. Nitsana Darshan Leitner makes the best candidate ever for Minister of Justice for us. She would first clean up the cesspools there and re order the election process for judicial functions. Much as Caroline Glick would be as Minister Foreign Relations if not PM. Sarah Honig for Education. and so on.
Would not Professor Aumman, a terrific human being, Nobel Prize Laureate make a President far better than Peres or the newfangled Rivlin?
Why not Mr. Bennett as Minister of Defense?
I love reading our very versatile comment line up. Everyone has something to contribute.
Lets transform that into a functional core for true change.
There are very good and well rounded people capable to lead for the people and that is top priority.
@ bernard ross:
Thank you for the link. Done. I sent a donation to the Center. If each of us sends something. All together will keep the Center going. She is extremely competent and clever.
@ bernard ross:
Bernard, I have been watching for awhile the doings of Nitsana
Darshan Leitner and she is doing everything possible and all based in the law. She is very clever and effective. Does the site you provided accepts contributions? I think she deserve our support.
I agree with woolymammoth Israel should give her a budget. I also agree with you about Mahler’s Second Symphony. I love the third and fourth also. My approval in your choice of music.
@ woolymammoth:
well put … If only the Israeli leadership could operate as effectively and competently as she does. she is an inspiration allowing us to imagine what could be accomplished if the gov woke up, especially the FM. I read that Israels percentage of diplomatic expenditure is lower than most.
bernard ross Said:
Thank you for the reply, Mr. Ross. When I read about her work, I get goosebumps, like hearing a new great performance of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony. I cannot agree with you more. I will have to make a donation then…
I would not worry about anything the occupation of the white house is planning at this point. obama has bad karma, is deeply hated by US allies and enemies alike, kind of like JFK and is about to see precious funding from Jewish sources slow to a trickle. Israel will be just fine. It now has time to plan and implement a wide variety of new programs with sympathetic power brokers and the like,in the strangest of places.
@ woolymammoth:
I think it is donations
http://israellawcenter.org/
bernard ross Said:
What, she does not receive support from the goi for her law center and legal actions supporting victims of terrorism, really???
yamit82 Said:
If BB and Bennett have any sense they can use Obamas support as the poison pill for the left. to start I would keep repeating Lapids disengagement mantra that “disengagement will bring normal lives to Israelis” It would be difficult to be more wrong than that. Now that Israel has experienced prior meddling of US in elections and toppling popular leaders the Israeli public can be shown to view these meddlings and foreign interference in Israel democracy and paing the left as foreign agents. furthermore I suspect they can get a conversation or two on tape to incriminate these stooges of Obamas CIA. Obama can be made to tread lightly by showing the dems how they can lose the next election with scandals from Obama. Obama has blundered on everything so it should not take much to catch his adolescent minions in a scandal. they should take to opportunity to show how the left parrots everything obama wants like lapdogs(ooops I mean Lapids 😛 )
with the mistakes of the Israeli left clearly shown anyone should be able to ridicule them into fooldom as clueless buffoons. Ridicule is the key. Simply juxtapose their past statements and actions with subsequent failures, followed by laughter.
I find amusing that Livni and other leftists are touting themselves as zionists, proving that selling themselves as they are wont work.
yamit82 Said:
this is the true part, at the end. Iran, Irans proxies, shiites. they are NOT fighting IS
yamit82 Said:
????
yamit82 Said:
😛 😛 😛 😛
add to the laughter that Bahrains concern is SHIITES!!!
@ yamit82:
really, are you serious? I think you forgot to add this:
😛 😛 😛 😛
a bit of disinformational fluff, read closely and compare with current and past facts regarding their “attacks” against IS.
Obama Empowers Enemies and Imperils Friends
First Delta Force Commander, Former US Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, CIA officer and former Congressman discuss current US foreign policy. The American Jewish community needs to wake up and acknowledge Obama’s view of Israel.
Obama set on obstructing Netanyahu’s re-election
@ bernard ross:
http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=728258&news_type=Top&lang=en
Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries are planning to launch a joint military
command based in the Kingdom to counter threats from Iran and terrorist organizations including Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Al-Khalifa was quoted as saying that the joint GCC force, which analysts say would eventually have several hundred thousand soldiers, would begin military operations after the GCC summit in Qatar this month.
The new command would focus on defensive operations and coordinate plans with the GCC’s naval command based in Bahrain and its air command in SaudiArabia.
The establishment of the new joint command comes amid concern in the Gulf states about the rise of IS, which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria and has support in Gulf countries.
“Look at the fragmentation in Iraq and the abominable situation in Syria,” Sheikh Khalid told a leading British newspaper in an interview. “If
Afghanistan was a primary school for terrorists, then Syria and Iraq is a university for them — these are serious threats and lots of people from our country have gone and joined them.”
Bahrain believes around 25 of its nationals have joined the group. Of even greater concern, said the minister, are IS sympathizers in Bahraiandelsewhere in the Gulf.
Sheikh Khalid said the new GCC military force, first mooted two years ago, would start “working from now” to coordinate against what he said was a
growing threat from Iran and unrest in Yemen.
Nitsana is my heroine…. no talker…a doer…Israel should give her a budget to fight defamation.
News source Haaretz take with great deal of skeptism.
Obama should stop lying about Jewish illegitimacy in any part of israel and he should demand the restoration of the city of david(Sylwan) to the expelled Jews; but then again the GOI should do the same. Will the new bennett BB coalition say the taboo words?
say it out loud, dont be shy
Right. American values as expressed on 428 “Indian” Reservations?
The real test for Netanyahu will be to see a stern action plan expanding population return to Y & S in every Jewish town and or village.
Should any action contrary to existing agreements or plans take place, we must set up Jewish Law in the whole of Y & S and expel all terrorist hamulas.
Netanyahu must also sack Weinstein. That plus all Livni appointees to the so called “justice” aggregate.
All out assaults, including physical violence against Jews from the Peresite branchas must be expected.
I don’t believe Congress will go along with it.
Its no secret however this Administration is pro-Arab and pro-Muslim and has put daylight between itself and Israel.
And if it imposes sanctions on Israel, its only punishing itself, not hurting the Jewish State.