Israel is free to subsidize, build and expropriate in Judea and Samaria

Ted Belman, The heading of the article below, is wrong on many accounts. Firstly, what the government is doing in Efrat, is to offer cheaper land to the builders in exchange for the builder’s commitment to pass the savings on to the consumer by way of cheaper housing. i.e subsidized housing. Its done all over Israel and all over the world. Secondly, with Obama disavowing the letter from Bush as a binding agreement, Israel is released from any commitments given to get it. Haaretz and the left ignore this. In addition, this isn’t a “reprisal”, its an exercise of our right. It needs no excuse.

Finally these agreements by Israel would not have an value had Israel not had the right to do such things previous to the agreement. With the disavowing of the Bush letter, Israel is no longer restricted from doing what it did previously.

Israel subsidizes West Bank housing, breaking promise to U.S.

Revelation comes as PM Netanyahu announces plan to build 277 housing units in Efrat settlement as part of series of reprisals for the PA’s admission to UNESCO in October.

By Chaim Levinson, HAARETZ

Despite the government’s promise to Washington to stop giving financial incentives for construction in West Bank settlements, the Housing Ministry recently published a tender for 213 new housing units in Efrat under a program that offers substantial discounts on the land.

In 2004, then-U.S. President George W. Bush gave then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a letter offering various assurances regarding a final-status solution with the Palestinians. Over the preceding year, Sharon envoy Dov Weissglas met numerous times with Bush’s envoys, Stephen Hadley and Elliott Abrams, to negotiate the document. The letter was given primarily as recompense for Israel’s planned disengagement from Gaza. But in addition, Israel promised four other things: not to expropriate Palestinian land for the benefit of the settlements, not to establish new settlements, to confine new settlement construction to within the settlements’ existing boundaries, and not to give financial incentives that would encourage people to move to the territories. In line with this promise, the government canceled all the grants and other benefits that residents of the territories had enjoyed for years. But the new tender includes a financial incentive that could encourage people to move to Efrat.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to build 277 new housing units in Efrat as part of a series of reprisals for the Palestinian Authority’s admission to UNESCO in October. The tender was published at the end of last month and is due to close at the end of February.

But it turns out that of these 277 units, 213 are being offered under the “Mechir Lamishtaken” program, under which the government sells the land to contractors for less than its full market value. In normal tenders, the land goes to the contractor who offers the highest price for it. This is the system being used for the remaining 64 units in Efrat. Under Mechir Lamishtaken, however, the Housing Ministry sets a fixed price for the land that is well below market value – often as much as 50 percent lower. The tender is then won by the contractor who pledges to sell the houses for the lowest price. Consequently, Mechir Lamishtaken tenders usually result in consumers paying less than the market rate for new housing. And while houses of up to 100 square meters are reserved for people eligible for public housing, anything larger than that can be sold on the open market, as long as the price doesn’t exceed the contractor’s bid price.

The Prime Minister’s Office responded that “Mechir Lamishtaken tenders are published in many cities throughout the country. Therefore, issuing a tender of this type in Efrat doesn’t entail granting any kind of special benefit to this city.”

The Efrat Local Council said that “Mechir Lamishtaken isn’t a government subsidy. The government isn’t giving a present, but selling the land to contractors for the equivalent of the land’s real value. What the government does via the Mechir Lamishtaken system is give the contractors specifications for the construction and base the tender on the contractors’ construction costs, so that the contractor with the lowest price [to the consumer] wins the tender.”

Nevertheless, in an announcement to Efrat residents, the council said the new tender was expected to result in “significantly lower apartment prices than are the norm in the town today.”

January 11, 2012 | 3 Comments »

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  1. Haaretz is so treasonous. The antisemites — such as the author of the racist Ron Paul newsletters, Lew Rockwell — use it all of the time.

    Under Obama and most other presidents, the U.S. word is no good. The difference is that Obama truly hates Israel and works for its destruction, leading from behind in having Iran do it.

  2. Most importantly peace cannot be made with those who seek dead jews and any agreements made under duress are not legally binding. Israel is like a victim of abuse and kidnapping as she still identifies with the psyche of her tormentors rather than rise up to destroy them all.

  3. This author wants to focus on the subject of broken promises, however let us not forget that the Arabs (PA) and Hamas have been at continual war with Israel, both diplomatically and through a continual war of attrition (rockets, mortars, shootings, stabbings, bus bombings). They also illegally build and cause damage to Jewish property in Judea. President Obama has stoked the fires, by supporting the PA and pressuring Israel to negotiate an agreement with Fatah, PA, who do not hide their desire to obliterate the Jewish nation whole.

    Obama, while denouncing the Bush letter, has wholeheartedly turned against Israel, and has endorsed and financially backed Fayaad’s illegal boycotts in Judea and Samaria. He has not been a honest broker for peace.

    Under Bush, security would have to be achieved first, as a prerequisite for peace. Given the current threats Israel still faces from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, MB in Egypt, the approach taken in the Bush letter represented a significant improvement for Israel and for the prospects of a lasting peace. That is now a moot point.