Cabinet to Vote Sunday on Cutting Gush Etzion Off from Jerusalem

[G-d forbid that this should happen]

Jewish Press News Briefs

“The cabinet is set to vote on the path of the security fence which would cut off Gush Etzion from Jerusalem as well as be a major eyesore.”

Part of the Gush Etzion fence near Jerusalem
Part of the Gush Etzion fence near Jerusalem 
Photo Credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90.

PM Netanyahu’s Cabinet is set to vote on Sunday on part of the path of the Gush Etzion security barrier, according to an IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal) report on Thursday night.

For years, Arab and Jewish residents of Gush Etzion have strongly protested against this security fence, as both sides are against its construction. They managed to get the construction of the fence frozen until now.

In 2006, radical leftwing groups filed petitions to have the path of the fence moved onto the pre-67 side of the 1949 armistice line, rather than including Gush Etzion.

 

 

The entire fence, besides being an eyesore on some of the most pristine and beautiful landscapes in Israel, would cut off Gush Etzion from Jerusalem, and part of the fence would split Gush Etzion in two.

It would also potentially cut off the planned road from Gush Etzion directly to the Dead Sea, which is only 20 minutes by car.

Gush Etzion Mayor David Perl told Galei Tzahal that Netanyahu previously promised him that the fence was frozen and would not advance further.

Perl promised to continue to fight the fence construction.

Efrat activist Nadia Matar spoke with JewishPress.com and said, “We are very shocked. It is not logical that after the past war this summer, when it was proved that in no way should we ever create a PA state in our heartland, nor should we have fences – that now they are going to vote on this. It’s insanity! We call upon all the cabinet ministers to vote against it.”

It is not clear why the vote is being brought up in the cabinet at this time.

September 19, 2014 | 2 Comments »

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  1. @ SHmuel HaLevi 2:

    This may or may not be directly related but it is instructional.
    Info Kept From Security Cabinet Is The Real Scandal
    Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 16 September 2014

    Step away from the politics and the spins driven by these politics and walk
    through the facts:

    #1. Minister Naftali Bennett is a member of Israel’s Security Cabinet and
    has top security clearance.

    #2. The Security Cabinet is the elite forum for high level discussions and
    decision making on matters relating to Israel’s security in general –
    including operations in the Gaza Strip.

    #3. It is the responsibility of the members of the Security Cabinet to
    actively participate in Security Cabinet deliberations and votes – raising
    questions, proposing ideas, voting on proposals, etc.

    #4. As a member of the Security Cabinet, Bennett shares responsibility for
    any and all decisions made by the group.

    #5. Before and during Operation Protective Edge, Naftali Bennett acted with
    due diligence to be a well informed member of the Security Cabinet and he
    shared his knowledge at Security Cabinet meetings.

    So far so good.

    No big surprises here.

    Especially when one considers that during the previous Netanyahu
    Administration the Security Cabinet (then known as the Septet) included
    participants such a Bennie Begin whose participation in the Security Cabinet
    was basically a full time job.

    Now here is the bizarre twist:

    Defense Minister Yaalon is complaining that Naftali Bennett independently
    got defense related information and used that information in the policy
    discussions of the Security Cabinet.

    I want to make this clear: Yaalon isn’t claiming that Bennett leaked the
    information to the press. He’s angry that he shared it with the Security
    Cabinet.

    And Yaalon isn’t claiming that the information wasn’t accurate, just that it
    wasn’t part of the information that he, as Minister of Defense, felt like
    sharing with the Security Cabinet.

    Yes.

    You heard me right.

    Yaalon isn’t angry that Bennett was deceiving the Security Cabinet.

    Yaalon is angry that Bennett added true and accurate information to the
    Security Cabinet’s decision making process that Yaalon didn’t want to share
    with the members of the Security Cabinet.

    So setting aside political agendas, what’s the real scandal here?

    That Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon was apparently trying to filter the
    information provided to Israel’s elite forum for high level discussions and
    decision making on matters relating to the Jewish State’s security or that
    Naftali Bennett tried to bypass Yaalon’s filter?

    A hint: with all the respect in the world one may have for DM Yaalon, the
    absolute last thing that we can afford is for the Security Cabinet to be
    nothing more than a rubber stamp for whatever he and the PM decide on before
    the Security Cabinet convenes.

  2. I wonder. Who is or are the sweet person(s) that bring that barbarity to a cabinet vote?
    If the Netanyahu “promised” not to do that, count on the specimen doing it.