PM reportedly willing to expel roughly 90,000 Jews from the region.
By Maayana Miskin, INN
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has offered to give the Palestinian Authority full control over 90% of Judea and Samaria,Walla! news reports. The report is based on testimony from sourcesclose to the secret Israel-PA talks.
Netanyahu’s reported offer still falls short of the PA’s demand to receive at least 97% of territory in the region.
Netanyahu is apparently seeking to minimize the need to expel Israeli citizens from their homes in Judea and Samaria. The region is home to roughly 360,000 Israeli Jews, but most are concentrated in around 2% of the area’s actual landmass.
His latest offer would mean expelling 20-30% of them – or between 72,000 and 108,000 people. That seems like a fairly tall order, given that the government is still struggling to rehouse the roughly 10,000 Israelis expelled from Gaza and northern Samaria, nearly a decade after the 2005 “Disengagement”.
Israel would keep the major “settlement bloc” areas with a majority-Israeli population, including the Ariel bloc, Gush Etzion, Maaleh Adumim, and the towns of Beit El and Karnei Shomron along with surrounding communities.
Netanyahu’s reported offer also calls for Israeli communities adjacent to the 1949 armistice line, but outside “settlement blocs,” to remain under Israeli control, and for an Israeli presence to continue in the city of Hevron.
PA leaders continue to demand at least 97% of territory in Judea and Samaria, full control over eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, the release of all terrorist prisoners, the ability to arm the PA police, and implementation of the so-called “right of return,” which would give millions of descendantsof Arabs who left pre-state Israel during the War of Independence the freedom to “return” to Israel.
@ yamit82:
I would suggest that Israel rather then expel the thousands of Jews that Netanyahu would that they simply expel one. His name is Netanyahu. To me it’s a wonder that he’s still around. It’s insanity to be talking about expelling one Jew much less thousands.
@ Ted Belman:
@ rongrand:
I LOVE MATT LEE OF AP!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gL3fn2BMrs
Jen Psaki Loves Klingons
BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
February 5, 2014 4:12 pm
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki revealed she “loves Klingons,” the humanoid extraterrestrials from the Star Trek universe, during her press briefing Wednesday.
The subject arose during questioning about a spoof video mocking Secretary of State John Kerry’s Middle East peace efforts, portraying Kerry as an oaf who thought Jerusalem was a holy city for people of different religions like “Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Klingons and Hobbits.” The latter two, of course, are fictional races from The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, respectively.
Full exchange:
MATT LEE: I mean, clearly, the secretary does not believe that Jerusalem is the holy city for hobbits and klingons, right?
JEN PSAKI: Well, I have not seen the video, Matt. So perhaps –
LEE: Well, that’s one of the things that’s in there, so, you know –
PSAKI: Perhaps — now you’ve sold it very well. I will watch the video. I’m making a broad point about all the different reports that are out there.
LEE: So, I mean, this is just — I mean, it’s a parody. Although it may have, you know, a serious point, you know, it is in itself ridiculous.He does not believe that Jerusalem is a holy city to fictional –
PSAKI: To hobbits?
LEE: To fictional–
PSAKI: I think that’s fair to run as an AP headline.
LEE: Klingons?
PSAKI: Mmm?
LEE: They’re affectionate too.
Klingons.
PSAKI: I love klingons but–
Q: So it could be it.
PSAKI: But nothing having to do with the peace process.
@ Ted Belman:
@ rongrand:
John Kerry Solutions Inc. Israel Tour, February 2014
Kerry: ‘Why fight over an old wall? I’ll build you a brand new wall, close to the beach!’
US Secretary of State John FN Kerry is suggesting building a new Western Wall so that the ‘Palestinians’ can have the real one.
On Feb 1, 2014 John Kerry threatened Israel with an economic boycott, if Israel does not accept his proposals for a Palestinian state. Take the behind the scenes view Kerry’s recent tour of Israel where he shares many of his unique and original solutions at stops in Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and Tel Aviv.
@ Bill Narvey:
@ Bear Klein:
Sometimes what you see is what it is without looking for hidden reasons and or excuses.
Let’s say that BB has always wanted to divest from most of the territories and the only thing preventing him from doing what he wants is internal politics meaning he does not have enough support within his own party. If he could he would and probably collect a Nobel for the effort. Which is probably his overriding motivation.
I challenge anyone to give a single instance since BB became PM in 1996 where he stood firm against any pressure foreign or internal and not caved. One instance?
Divesting from the territories and sticking it to tens of thousands of good Jews will make him the darling of all Jew haters round the world and earn him 6 figure fees on the International VIP speakers tour equal to what Clinton gets. His post PM worth goes up commensurate to how well he sticks it to Israel and the Jews.
BB is a pathological megalomaniac who cares only about BB and money.
@ Bill Narvey:
I think this point is totally irrelevant.
It is akin to his criminal bar Iran speech with the TSS.
He has actually VOICED the fact , that Judea and Samaria are on the table to be given away ‘for the right price’
Zero ideology!
If this report is true, Netanyahu has made an offer he knows will not be accepted. It will likely however, be just enough to satisfy Obama/Kerry that Netanyahu is trying to negotiate in good faith.
Perhaps Netanyahu’s proposal is a really a move to set up a public relations initiative to counter the invariable blame Palestinians, joined by many others in the international community, will try to heap on Israel for the inevitable failure of negotiations.
Contrast this offer, if real with PM Ehud Barak’s 1997 offer to Arafat that included an Israeli withdrawal from 97 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, dismantling 63 isolated settlements, in exchange for the 5 percent annexation of the West Bank, Israel would increase the size of the Gaza territory by roughly a third, that Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would become the capital of the new state and Palestinians would maintain control over their holy places and have “religious sovereignty” over the Temple Mount.
http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=101041
@ rongrand:Nice to have you back.
WHY??
Judea, Samaria is part of the Sovereign Jewish Nation of Israel.
Time for the Jews not to recognize the Palestinians.
Give nothing away.
The current talks with the Palestinians are unlikely to go anywhere because of both sides’ terms, Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel predicted Wednesday.
“Everyone in the coalition agrees, including [Justice Minister Tzipi] Livni and [Finance Minister Yair] Lapid, that the major settlement blocs will remain intact, the Jordan Valley will remain part of Israel, there cannot be a right of return and Jerusalem will remain united. The other side wants the right of return, won’t recognize Israel as Jewish and doesn’t want any Jews on their land,” Ariel pointed out.
This is going to go nowhere because the Palestinian Arabs wantr 100% – not just of Judea and Samaria – but ALL of Israel.
And they will never allow Israel to keep even 10% of the land. Nothing will ever satisfy them.