‘There’s no blank check from Trump for construction in the settlements and that was known from the first minute he entered the White House,’ says Israeli official.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expects to reach understandings with the United States within a few weeks on curbing construction in the settlements, according to an Israeli official.
Although the understandings with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are likely to include Israeli willingness to impose significant restrictions on construction in West Bank settlements, the Prime Minister’s Bureau believes that this will not weaken the coalition.
“There’s no blank check from Trump for construction in the settlements and that was known from the first minute he entered the White House,” said the official, who is involved in contacts between Israel and the United States on the subject. “We are looking for the common denominator with the Americans that will allow construction on the one hand, and on the other promote with the Trump administration diplomatic moves in many areas.”
Netanyahu met on Monday evening for more than five hours with American envoy Jason Greenblatt. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, was present for most of the meeting and the most significant part of the conversation dealt with the attempt to formulate understandings on construction in the settlements.
Netanyahu and Greenblatt are expected to meet again this week before the envoy leaves the country.
Speaking at a Tuesday press conference at his office, Netanyahu described his conversations with Greenblatt as “good and thorough.” Netanyahu added: “I can’t say that we finished or summed things up; we are in a process, but a process of true and sincere dialogue in the positive meaning of the word. It is not yet open to the press.”
The official said Washington and Jerusalem were on the way to an agreement regarding settlement construction. “It won’t take long,” he said. “In a few weeks we’ll reach understandings as to the boundaries regarding construction in the settlements. What can be done and what can’t be done and especially how to act in coordination and not unilaterally. We want to reach a series of agreed-on principles so as not to return to the Obama period during which there was conflict over every balcony in the territories,” the official added.
At the end of the Netanyahu-Greenblatt meeting, a joint statement was released that included one of the principles regarding settlement construction that had already been agreed on. According to the statement, the two sides discussed construction in the settlements “in the hope of working out an approach that is consistent with the goal of advancing peace and security.”
Netanyahu used a more detailed version of this convoluted sentence in the past during talks with Zionist Union chairman MK Isaac Herzog on promoting a regional peace initiative and establishing a unity government. This principle means that if there is construction in the settlements, it will take place in a manner that does not contradict the two-state solution and will not preclude the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in the future.
An Israeli official who has been involved in Israel-U.S. contacts on the settlements said the Trump administration had proposed to Netanyahu that he renew the understandings that had been in place between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. According to those understandings, settlement construction would not be frozen, but would be restricted to the built-up areas of each settlement, so that even if the number of residents increased, the area the settlements take up in the West Bank would not expand.
The official said Netanyahu had rejected that proposal for both political reasons and practical ones involving the difficulty in implementing such a policy on the ground. Trump then proposed that Netanyahu formulate a proposal of his own on principles governing construction in the settlements and present them as a basis for discussion.
One of Netanyahu’s ideas was for construction in the settlements to be restricted to the jurisdiction areas of the settlements, which is much bigger than their built-up areas. The official said the Americans objected to this formulation because it would allow significant expansion of the settlements’ built area beyond the current boundaries.
Another formula discussed in the Prime Minister’s Bureau was unlimited construction in the large settlement blocs such as Ma’aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel, together with a quiet, unofficial freeze on construction in isolated settlements. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is in favor of that idea and believes it serves long-term Israeli interests. However, Netanyahu is concerned that moving ahead on it will lead Habayit Hayehudi to bolt the coalition and cause the government to fall.
The Prime Minister’s Bureau said Netanyahu is not examining any freeze on construction in the settlements and proposed no such freeze to the U.S. administration.
Even if understandings are reached with the Trump administration on settlement construction, Netanyahu does not want to bring them to a vote in the security cabinet and turn them into an official government decision. In that way, Netanyahu intends to avoid a political crisis with Habayit Hayehudi over construction in the settlements.
However, an Israeli official said the Prime Minister’s Bureau believes any understanding achieved with the Trump administration would not lead to a political crisis, at least not in the coming months.
One of the most sensitive coalition issues that Netanyahu has been trying to resolve with the U.S. administration involves his pledge to establish a new settlement for the evacuees from the illegal outpost of Amona. Habayit Hayehudi has already threatened that if the new settlement is delayed, Habayit Hayehudi will not support legislation that Netanyahu is trying to advance.
An official in Jerusalem said he believed a solution would be found that would satisfy all sides involved. Netanyahu, who is trying to persuade the Americans not to oppose construction of the new settlement, raised the matter in his meeting with Greenblatt. “The prime minister is standing by his promise to establish the new settlement,” the official said.
That’s it. Increase the population density.
An entire settlement, indeed a small city, could be confined to a small-footprint high rise.
Netanyahu Tower.
xx
It was “walk softly but carry a big stick”. Excusable typo. Similar in it’s way to “respect but suspect” and others with the same intent. But Roosevelt’s was plain speaking….. like….I’m keeping my hands in my pockets, but you should know that I’m wearing a pair of spiked knuckledusters.
I was looking for the quote from TR about walking softly and carrying a big peace by googling TR and peace since I believe that aiming for peace and security are opposite goals. In international relations, war is just reality, and there are winners and losers (I almost wrote whiners.) And I accidentally found this, which really seems like Trump who seems un-Republican to some Repubicans.
“Imperialist and Peace Arbitrator
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the USA, received the Peace Prize for having negotiated peace in the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-5. He also resolved a dispute with Mexico by resorting to arbitration as recommended by the peace movement.
Roosevelt was the first statesman to be awarded the Peace Prize, and for the first time the award was controversial. The Norwegian Left argued that Roosevelt was a “military mad” imperialist who completed the American conquest of the Philippines. Swedish newspapers wrote that Alfred Nobel was turning in his grave, and that Norway awarded the Peace Prize to Roosevelt in order to win powerful friends after the dramatic dissolution of the union with Sweden the previous year.
In domestic policy, Roosevelt was a radical within the Republican Party. He went in for social reforms and for state control of big capital. Roosevelt’s term as President ended in 1908. During World War I he tried in vain to be allowed to serve as an officer, and in 1919 he opposed US membership of the new League of Nations.”
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1906/roosevelt-facts.html
While I’m no prophet, what I’m reading tells me that we might have blown our chance for a one state Israeli solution. I’ve been pleading with the Israeli government to seize the moment as soon as Trump was elected to formally declare that Judea and Samaria are part of the Jewish State of Israel. I told Netanyahu that it’s up to him and his colleagues to move forward on this quickly. This was a limited window of opportunity to change the shape of the ever growing nightmare on what to do with the ‘West Bank’. I told him that Trump certainly won’t do it for them. He can’t be seen to be more of a Zionist than they.
It was high time for us to inform the world that this area is and has always been Israel’s. For thousands of years it belonged to Israel. For a very short period of time Jordan occupied it and made it Jew free. They destroyed the Jewish holy sites. They made the holy Western Wall into a toilet. In the 1967 6 day war when Israel was attacked on all sides for no reason other than most Muslims hate Jews, G-d was on Israel’s side and Israel reclaimed Judea and Samaria. It was another modern day miracle. The rules of war are simple: In a defensive war any land obtained by the country being attacked is legally theirs. So even if you don’t believe in history, the Mandate for Palestine, the holy Torah which brought light to the entire world, according to modern rules of engagement in international law, Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) belongs to Israel. All of it. Not just Area A or B or C.
For far too many years, especially the last 8 when Obama was in charge, it could have been lethal for Israel to formally annex her land. But when revolutions occur, these are the moments when changes can successfully be made. And Trump’s win was no doubt another miraculous revolution. We had a chance right then to make our move. But months later we are discussing what sort of limits we can put on ‘settlement’ construction?
I’m sorry but this looks bad. Netanyahu should have told Trump directly to his face early on exactly what I wrote above instead of pussy footing around and using the same old language of settlements, etc.. Trump would have respected Netanyahu and Jews even more had they done so. We knew at the beginning that Trump was no historian. He needed a 5 minute history lesson to probably get him on side. But instead our timid approach got us this.
We blew it!