Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis criticizes EU and U.S. for condemning Israel’s designation of areas in Gush Etzion as state land.
Ofir AkunisDeputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) sharply criticized the European Union (EU) and the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, after both issued condemnations of Israel’s plans to declare 4,000 dunams of land in Judea, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land.
“Israel will continue to work to promote settlement on its land – just as every other country in the world does,” declared Akunis.
“It is strange at this time, when terrorist groups of Islamic extremists slaughter innocents, behad journalists in front of the cameras and continue their journey of madness targeting the free world, what concerns foreign ministries around the world is the decision to build and develop the Gush Etzion region, which was and will remain the homeland of the Jewish people,” he added.
In its statement earlier Tuesday, the EU said that “settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to render the two-state solution impossible.”
“The EU reiterates that it will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties,” the statement continued.
In Washington, meanwhile, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemned the decision as well and urged Israel to reverse it.
“We are deeply concerned about the declaration of a large area as ‘state land’ to be used for expanded settlement building,” she said in a statement quoted by Reuters, echoing comments by an unnamed U.S. official on Sunday.
“We call on the Government of Israel to reverse this decision,” she added.
Sunday’s decision by Israel, which opens the possibility of further construction in the region, is one of Israel’s responses to the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel, and Gilad Sha’ar. The three were kidnapped in Gush Etzion and their bodies were found several weeks later in a field near Hevron.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas issued a condemnation of Israel’s decision, with his spokesman Nabil Abu-Rudeineh saying that the decision would “bring about a further deterioration” in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the decision as well, saying he is “alarmed” by it.
yamit82 Said:
Bennett is not the appointed foreign Minister; it is Libermans duty to summon ambassadors, to protect Israels diplomatic interests, to tell them the truth, to cease the hemorrhaging of Israels blood resulting from International libels and breaches of agreements. I do not remember what Benetts ministry is, perhaps his performance in his ministry is not memorable.
@ yamit82:
Gauchos have our story told as well…
Martin Fierro is our main representative.
Yet to correlate to what Israel has turned into I suggest to you to visit Internet keying CAMBALACHE.
It is the Title of a TANGO by Enrique Santos Discepolo.
Cambalache is more or less a monumental mishmash, bardak. Use the translation option offered in Internet to understand the lyrics. Israel is precisely that.
There are no credible camps or leaders, none.
There are no steady position papers or personal steadfast profiles. Basically there is no right or left. There are Jews and unJews. And even that is not ironclad.
Basically. “Israeli demokratiahhhh”.
bernard ross Said:
Naftali Bennett, not Netanyahu is the leader of Israel’s Right,
Naftali Bennett, not Netanyahu is the leader of Israel’s Right, poll finds
39 percent of respondents said the Bayit Yehudi leader best represents views
of the Right versus 28 percent who selected Netanyahu.
By GIL HOFFMAN The Jerusalem Post 02/09/2014 13:47
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Naftali-Bennett-not-Netanyahu-is-the-leader-of-Israels-Right-poll-finds-374202
The leader of the Israeli Right is not Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu but
Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett, according to a Panels Politics poll taken
Monday for the Knesset Channel.
The poll asked who best represents the views of the Right, giving Netanyahu,
Bennett and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman as choices.
bernard ross Said:
Naftali Bennett, not Netanyahu is the leader of Israel’s Right,
Naftali Bennett, not Netanyahu is the leader of Israel’s Right, poll finds
39 percent of respondents said the Bayit Yehudi leader best represents views
of the Right versus 28 percent who selected Netanyahu.
By GIL HOFFMAN The Jerusalem Post 02/09/2014 13:47
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Naftali-Bennett-not-Netanyahu-is-the-leader-of-Israels-Right-poll-finds-374202
The leader of the Israeli Right is not Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu but
Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett, according to a Panels Politics poll taken
Monday for the Knesset Channel.
The poll asked who best represents the views of the Right, giving Netanyahu,
Bennett and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman as choices.
Akunis is a BB flunky who owes his seat in the Knesset to BB. He will never oppose BB on any issue in public or in a vote in the party or the Knesset. To get a safe slot in the next election Likud list he must sound like a right winger. ( Yamit )
Apparently the government of the state of Israel gets nauseous when contemplating the possibility of stating that Jewish settlement in all of Israel is NOT illegal but to be encouraged. It appears that the big mouths get butterflies in their stomachs at the thought of uttering the un-utterable.
They quake in their boots and search for every other reason for building a single house except for the only reason that applies:
Jewish settlement in ALL the land of israel is an historic and legal right.
The source of all the problems emanate from the nausea caused by this apparently horrible fact.
shame on the GOI, shame on BB. Livni,Peres,Liberman, et al
Their nausea is catching like a disease, the whole world has contracted this horrible disease……they all agree, that heaven forbid that the Jews should live in Israel.
Mr. Liberman, summon the ambassadors, open your big mouth and tell the truth, demand that they honor their agreements with the Jewish people, set an example for all Jews.
If not, then dont whine when the world reflects your own shame and echos back your own lies.
so why doesn’t the GOI issue a statement saying the euros are mistaken or disingenuous as they have signed and guaranteed agreements, whose derived rights are unexpired to the Jewish people, that they are obligated under those agreements to “facilitate and encourage the immigration and close settlement of the Jewish people on the mandate lands”?
Why doesn’t the Foreign Ministry summon the ambassadors of those countries to explain why they do not honor their legally binding agreements with the Jewish people? Ask the ambassadors to cease and desist from obstructing that which they committed to with the Jewish people. Why is the foreign ministry have such a big mouth on nothing but on this important issue says not even the most obvious: The EU and US are breaching their legally binding agreements with the Jewish people.
Where is the big mouthed Liberman on this simple issue?…Mr. Liberman, summon the ambassadors!
his is what come of being cowards. And cowardice is what it is all really about.
Lots of reasons for concession and delays just mask being afraid to offend and of the cowardly hope that by conceding your rights, you gain something.
The only thing that gains you dignity and respect, is claiming what is yours without any reservations, Every Time. Call the demand for what it is, a continuous attempt to destroy the Jewish people. My mother taught me, “To be a doormat, you have to lay down first.”
Also, If I am correct, there is in the Torah, that if a doctor misdiagnoses you, you must not return to that doctor. So, how many times does N lie to the people, before he has lost the right to govern.
Also, each time a concession is made, it sends the following messages.
You can be pushed around, coward and naive stupid Remember, IT IS NOT THE LIE, IT IS TO WHOM YOU LIE.
Your demand was illegitimate in the first place, or you would not have made that concession.
3) Each demand will then become a legitimized truth; and thus a basis for the next set of demands, and the next, and the next, until there is nothing left of you.
Then, the WORLD rhetoric will be, that if you did not defend your rights, your nation, anything dear to you; then you had no right to it. THUS, Israel has no right to maintain its land as it does not have what is needed to defend it. End of story.
Great! When will that happen Mr. Akunis? Did Netanyahu send you you to pipe sweet nothings while he freezes all construction?
We are setting up a research group that will report precisely all the true activities regarding Land and construction.
Stand by!