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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Benny B on March 13, 2011, 01:49:39 PM
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Israel approves new housing scheme after settler family killed
By News Wires the 13/03/2011
The Israeli government said Sunday that it has approved construction of several hundred new houses in the West Bank. The announcement comes a day after a deadly knife attack against an Israeli settler family.
AP - Israel has approved the construction of hundreds of settler homes, the prime minister’s office said Sunday, in a stern message to the Palestinians after three children and their parents were killed in their sleep in a West Bank settlement over the weekend.
Israeli officials suspect Palestinian militants carried out the deadly knife attack, which could cool any Israeli plans to propose a new peace initiative. Israel’s move to build more settler homes antagonized the Palestinians and further complicated badly troubled peace efforts.
The settlement construction, approved Saturday night by the Cabinet’s ministerial team on settlements, would take place in major West Bank settlement blocs that Israel expects to hold on to in any final peace deal, the prime minister’s office said in a text message to reporters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under domestic pressure to respond harshly to the killings - is a member of that team.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release this information to the media, said between 300 and 500 apartments and homes were approved for construction.
Palestinian opposition to settlement construction on lands they want for a future state has brought negotiations to a virtual standstill over the past two years, with Palestinians refusing to negotiate directly with Israel as long as it persists.
“We condemn this act of accelerated settlement construction,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said. “We urge the international community to intervene and implement the two-state solution. This is the only way out of this vicious circle of violence and counter-violence.”
Settler leader Dani Dayan called the government’s move “a very small step in the right direction.”
Although ground has been broken on as many as 500 apartments and homes since an Israeli moratorium on new West Bank settlement construction expired in late September, the government is holding up approvals on hundreds of other homes, to the settlers’ chagrin.
The attack Friday night in Itamar, home to some of Israel’s most radical settlers, was the deadliest against Israelis in years, and security forces were on alert Sunday for possible settler retaliation against Palestinians. The general security level around the country was raised, with an emphasis on the West Bank and Jerusalem, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
On Saturday, Netanyahu called on all Israelis “to act with restraint and not to take the law into their own hands.”
The military said suspects had been taken into custody in connection with the killings but would give no details.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a mostly defunct Palestinian militant group, took responsibility for the killings. But it was not clear if the group really was responsible because it frequently takes credit for attacks it didn’t commit in a bid to raise its profile.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killings and Palestinian security forces were also searching for the perpetrators, Palestinian officials said. But in Gaza, ruled by Islamic Hamas militants, officials applauded the attack and residents celebrated the killings.
Developments on the diplomatic front could depend in part on whether the violence spreads.
U.S.-backed peace talks between the two sides collapsed last year amid disputes over continued Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territory Palestinians envision as part of their future state.
Netanyahu had been expected to deliver a major policy speech soon, possibly proposing a Palestinian state within temporary borders as a way out of a longstanding negotiations impasse. Such a proposal is anathema to the Palestinians, who fear the temporary arrangement will become permanently entrenched.
With peacemaking at a standstill, the Palestinians are pushing for world recognition of an independent state - with or without a deal. Although that would not deliver them an actual state, it could isolate Israel.
The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv had no reaction to the settlement construction approval. But the Israeli government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the U.S. was aware of the Israeli decision.
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Good for them. Screw these beasts.
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Israel should adopt a new policy with these animals - every person they kill, new square mile of new housing immediately built. And if more than one person gets killed at a time, up the number by a fact of 5.
Even wild beasts in the jungle dont act like this.
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Good for them. Screw these beasts.
I know Israel's constant flouting of international law is an abomination, and their treatment of the Palestinians no better than the whites treated the Blacks during apartheid South Africa, and that we can understand how in the face of all of this madness of bulldozing and stealing more and more territory a man could lose it in grief and kill one of these terribly misguided settler families.
But for the love of God PEA BRAIN, there is no need to call the Israelis "BEASTS," despite their heinous and devilish actions. >:( Those misguided settlers did NOT deserve to die, even though you are saying "Good for them" that Israelis are dead. We must seek common ground and strive for a two-state solution for there to ever be peace in the Middle East.
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Good - "They kill - we build"
FFFFFFUUUUUBBBBOOOO
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US criticizes Israeli settlement construction plan (Obama's yapping but no one is listening)
msnbc ^ | 3/14/2011 | AMY TEIBEL/ap
The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was "deeply concerned" by Israel's plans to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank following a deadly attack on a settler family, calling Israeli settlements "illegitimate" and an obstacle to peacemaking.
In a rare interview to the Israeli media, the Palestinian president reached out to the Israeli public, decrying the weekend attack in the settlement of Itamar as "despicable, immoral and inhuman." But he rejected the Israeli suggestion that his government was indirectly to blame.
While the country was still reeling from the gruesome attack, in which two parents and three young children were fatally stabbed as they slept, the Israeli government announced Sunday that it had approved the construction of between 400 and 500 new homes in major West Bank settlement blocs.
"They murder, we build," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a condolence call to the grieving family. Palestinian militants are presumed to have carried out the assault.
The plans for new construction infuriated Palestinians, and together with the attack, drove prospects for renewed peacemaking even further out of reach. A Netanyahu aide said the Israeli government informed the U.S. — which has been toiling with little success to break the negotiations deadlock — of the decision.
"We're deeply concerned by continuing Israeli actions on settlements in the West Bank," the statement from the U.S. Embassy said. "As we said before, we view these settlements as illegitimate and as running counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
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Gaza celebrates; Fayyad condemns terror attack
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041106,00.html
Rafah residents hand out candy following murder of parents, three children in West Bank settlement of Itamar. Palestinian PM denounces act, says "we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of victims', perpetrators' identity"
Elior Levy Published: 03.12.11, 14:36 / Israel News
share
Gaza residents from the southern city of Rafah hit the streets Saturday to celebrate the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itamar where five family members were murdered in their sleep, including three children.
Residents handed out candy and sweets, one resident saying the joy "is a natural response to the harm settlers inflict on the Palestinian residents in the West Bank."
Terror Attack
Horror in Samaria: Terrorist murders family of 5 / Yair Altman
Terrorist stabs five family members to death in settlement of Itamar early Saturday; three children, including baby girl, among victims. Paramedic describes horrific sight, toys next to pools of blood
Full story
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he "clearly and firmly denounces the terror attack, just as I have denounced crimes against Palestinians.
"We are against all types of violence," Fayyad said during a tour in Bethlehem. "Our position has not changed. As we have said many times before, we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of the identity of the victims or the perpetrators."
IDF and security forces have been scouring the West Bank area since late Friday night, and have arrested 20 Palestinians from the villages of Awarta, Zababdeh, Sanur and Siliya. The IAF employed unmanned aerial vehicle in an effort to search for the suspects.
The Hamas movement accused the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus of arresting three of its activists near Qalqilya and Jenin.
"The report of five murdered Israelis is not enough to punish someone," said Hamas Spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri, adding, "However; we in Hamas completely support the resistance against settlers who murder and use crime and terror against the Palestinian people under the auspices of the Israeli occupation soldiers."
IDF forces scouring area (Photo: Reuters)
A pamphlet distributed by the Islamic group said the PA also detained activists from Nablus, who were previously imprisoned and released.
According to an unverified report, Fatah's military wing – the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades – claimed responsibility for the attack. A group spokesman told a Palestinian news agency that a terror cell infiltrated the settlement of Itamar and committed the attack.
The spokesperson stressed that the attack "came as a response to Israel's continues hostile policy toward the Palestinian people."
'Give murderers death sentences'
Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened an evaluation session at the Defense Ministry offices in Tel Aviv following the attack. The meeting was attended by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and other military and intelligence officials.
Barak called on the leaders of Jewish settlements in the West Bank to act responsibly and urged the Palestinian leadership to denounce the attack.
Ron Nachman, mayor of the city of Ariel, arrived in Itamar Saturday noon and expressed anger over the government and defense minister's conduct.
"We need to find those behind the attack and give them the death penalty. I can't recall such a horrific terror attack," he said.
Nachman refused to comment on future "price tag" operations of radical rightist, saying: "I am not responsible for violent acts from either side."
Yoav Zitun and Attila Somfalvi contributed to this report
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Sorry benny you racist little turd, animals like these dont get rewarded with a state. They should be dealt with like vermi.
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Gaza celebrates; Fayyad condemns terror attack
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041106,00.html
Rafah residents hand out candy following murder of parents, three children in West Bank settlement of Itamar. Palestinian PM denounces act, says "we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of victims', perpetrators' identity"
Elior Levy Published: 03.12.11, 14:36 / Israel News
share
Gaza residents from the southern city of Rafah hit the streets Saturday to celebrate the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itamar where five family members were murdered in their sleep, including three children.
Residents handed out candy and sweets, one resident saying the joy "is a natural response to the harm settlers inflict on the Palestinian residents in the West Bank."
Terror Attack
Horror in Samaria: Terrorist murders family of 5 / Yair Altman
Terrorist stabs five family members to death in settlement of Itamar early Saturday; three children, including baby girl, among victims. Paramedic describes horrific sight, toys next to pools of blood
Full story
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he "clearly and firmly denounces the terror attack, just as I have denounced crimes against Palestinians.
"We are against all types of violence," Fayyad said during a tour in Bethlehem. "Our position has not changed. As we have said many times before, we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of the identity of the victims or the perpetrators."
IDF and security forces have been scouring the West Bank area since late Friday night, and have arrested 20 Palestinians from the villages of Awarta, Zababdeh, Sanur and Siliya. The IAF employed unmanned aerial vehicle in an effort to search for the suspects.
The Hamas movement accused the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus of arresting three of its activists near Qalqilya and Jenin.
"The report of five murdered Israelis is not enough to punish someone," said Hamas Spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri, adding, "However; we in Hamas completely support the resistance against settlers who murder and use crime and terror against the Palestinian people under the auspices of the Israeli occupation soldiers."
IDF forces scouring area (Photo: Reuters)
A pamphlet distributed by the Islamic group said the PA also detained activists from Nablus, who were previously imprisoned and released.
According to an unverified report, Fatah's military wing – the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades – claimed responsibility for the attack. A group spokesman told a Palestinian news agency that a terror cell infiltrated the settlement of Itamar and committed the attack.
The spokesperson stressed that the attack "came as a response to Israel's continues hostile policy toward the Palestinian people."
'Give murderers death sentences'
Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened an evaluation session at the Defense Ministry offices in Tel Aviv following the attack. The meeting was attended by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and other military and intelligence officials.
Barak called on the leaders of Jewish settlements in the West Bank to act responsibly and urged the Palestinian leadership to denounce the attack.
Ron Nachman, mayor of the city of Ariel, arrived in Itamar Saturday noon and expressed anger over the government and defense minister's conduct.
"We need to find those behind the attack and give them the death penalty. I can't recall such a horrific terror attack," he said.
Nachman refused to comment on future "price tag" operations of radical rightist, saying: "I am not responsible for violent acts from either side."
Yoav Zitun and Attila Somfalvi contributed to this report
________________________ ________________________ __________
Sorry benny you racist little turd, animals like these dont get rewarded with a state. They should be dealt with like vermi.
And how do you steal something that's already yours, anyway?
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Amazing isnt?
POFS like Benny "Leni Reifanstal was a man" Blanco want the palis to be rewarded the more terrorism they commit.
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Some idiots argue that the Palestinians were there first. I want to see proof of a sovereign nation called "Palestine" that had land rights to boundaries in that area before Israel was formed in 1948.
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Some idiots argue that the Palestinians were there first. I want to see proof of a sovereign nation called "Palestine" that had land rights to boundaries in that area before Israel was formed in 1948.
Racist post reported.
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Racist post reported.
I didn't know animal was a race?
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CarolineGlick.com
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A win-win plan for Netanyahu
March 11, 2011, 10:40 AM
Comments (21)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is stuck between a diplomatic rock and a political hard place. And his chosen means of extricating himself from the double bind is only making things worse for him and for Israel.
Diplomatically, Netanyahu is beset by the Palestinian political war to delegitimize Israel and the Obama administration's escalating hostility. That hostility was most recently expressed during President Barack Obama's meeting with American Jewish leaders on March 1.
Insinuating that Israel is to blame for the absence of peace in the Middle East, Obama scolded Jewish leaders telling them to "search your souls," over Israel's seriousness about making peace.
Obama's newest threat is that through the so-called Middle East Quartet, (Russia, the UN, the EU and the US), the administration will move towards supporting the Palestinian plan to declare Palestinian statehood. That state would include all of Judea and Samaria, Gaza and eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem. Since it would not be established in the framework of a peace treaty with Israel, and since its leaders reject Israel's right to exist, "Palestine" would be born in a de facto state of war with Israel.
To credit this threat, Obama has empowered the Quartet to supplant the US as the mediator between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Buoyed by Obama, Quartet representatives and American and European officials have beaten a steady path to Netanyahu's door over the past several weeks. Their message is always the same: If Israel does not prove that it is serious about peace by giving massive unreciprocated concessions to the Palestinians then they will abandon all remaining pretense of support for Israel and throw their lot in completely with the Palestinians.
For the past year and a half Netanyahu's policy for dealing with Obama's animosity has been to try to appease him by making incremental concessions. Netanyahu's rationale for acting in this manner is twofold. First, he has tried to convince Obama that he really does want peace with the Palestinians. Second, when each of his concessions are met with further Palestinian intransigence, Netanyahu has argued that the disparity between Israeli concessions and Palestinian rejectionism and extremism demonstrates that it is Israel, not the Palestinians that should be supported by the West.
To date Netanyahu's concessions have included his acceptance of Palestinian statehood and the two-state paradigm for peace; his temporary prohibition on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria; his undeclared prohibition on Jewish building in Jerusalem; his undeclared open-ended prohibition of Jewish building in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem after his temporary building ban expired; his agreement to drastically curtail IDF counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria; his move to enact an undeclared abatement of law enforcement against illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem; and his decision to enable the deployment of the US-trained Palestinian army in Judea and Samaria.
Netanyahu's declaration of support for Palestinian statehood required his acceptance of the Palestinian narrative. That narrative blames the absence of peace on Israel's refusal to surrender all of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. Having effectively accepted the blame for the absence of peace, Netanyahu has been unable to wage a coherent political counteroffensive against the Palestinian political war.
NOW IN a bid to head off Obama's newest threat to use the Quartet to back the Palestinians' political war against Israel, Netanyahu is considering yet another set of unreciprocated concessions to the Palestinians.
For the past week and a half, Netanyahu has been considering a new "diplomatic initiative." According to media reports, he is weighing two options. First, he may end IDF counterterror operations in Palestinian cities in Judea and Samaria. Such a move would involve compromising all of the IDF's military achievements in the areas since 2002 when it first targeted the Palestinian terror factories from Hebron to Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield.
The second option he is reportedly considering involves announcing his acceptance of a Palestinian state with non-final borders. Such a move would render it difficult if not impossible for Israel to conduct counterterror operations within those temporary borders. It would also make it all but impossible for Israel to assert its sovereign rights over the areas.
Supporters of this initiative argue that not only will it stave off US pressure; it will strengthen Netanyahu's political position at home. Recent polls show that Netanyahu's approval numbers are falling while those of his two main rivals - Opposition leader Tzipi Livni and Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Leiberman are rising.
Netanyahu reportedly believes that by moving to the Left, he will be able to take support away from Livni and so regain his position as the most popular leader in the country. Given this assessment, Netanyahu's supporters argue that making further concessions to the Palestinians is a win-win prospect. It will strengthen Israel diplomatically and it will strengthen him politically.
Sadly for both Israel and Netanyahu, this analysis is completely wrong.
Since Obama came into office, he has consistently demonstrated that no Israeli concession will convince him to support Israel against the Palestinians. So too, the fact that every Israeli concession has been met by Palestinian intransigence has had no impact on either Obama or his European counterparts. Netanyahu's correct claims that the Palestinians' intransigence shows they are not interested in peace is of interest to no one.
And it is this lack of interest in Palestinian intransigence rather than Palestinian intransigence itself that is remarkable. What it shows is that Obama and his European counterparts don't care about achieving peace. Like the Palestinians, all they want is more Israeli concessions.
Since taking office, Obama has only supported Israel against the Palestinians twice. The first time was last December. After months of deliberate ambiguity, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the administration opposes the Palestinian plan to unilaterally declare independence. Then last month the administration grudgingly vetoed the Palestinian-Lebanese draft resolution condemning Israeli construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
In both cases, the administration's actions were not the result of Israeli appeasement, but of massive Congressional pressure. Congress issued bipartisan calls demanding that the administration torpedo both of these anti-Israel initiatives.
What this shows is that Netanyahu's strategy for contending with Obama is fundamentally misconstrued and misdirected. Obama will not be moved by Israeli concessions. The only way to stop Obama from moving forward on his anti-Israel policy course is to work through Congress.
And the most effective way to work through Congress is for Netanyahu to abandon his current course and tell the truth about the nature of the Palestinians, their rejection of Israel, their anti-Americanism and their support for jihadist terror.
At the same time, Netanyahu must speak unambiguously about Israel's national rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, our required security borders, and about why US national security requires a strong Israel.
The stronger the case Netanyahu makes for Israel, the more support Israel will receive from the Congress. And the more support Israel receives from the Congress, the more Obama will be compelled to temper his anti-Israel agenda.
AS FOR domestic politics, Netanyahu's attempt to appease Obama is a major cause of his falling approval numbers among voters. Likud voters do not expect him to outflank Livni from the Left. They voted for Likud and not Kadima because they recognized that Kadima's leftist policies are dangerous and doomed to failure.
Kadima's recent increase in domestic support owes more to the breakup of the Labor Party than to Netanyahu's failure to carry out Kadima's policies of territorial surrender and diplomatic kowtowing to the UN, EU and Obama. The main beneficiary of Likud's eroding support has been Leiberman.
While Netanyahu has maintained his allegiance to the false, failed, unpopular-outside-of-the-media "peace with the Palestinians" paradigm in the foolish hope of winning over Obama, Leiberman has seized control of the Right's political agenda. While Netanyahu accepts the legitimacy of the Palestinian leadership which rejects Israel's right to exist, Leiberman presents himself as the leader of the majority of Israelis who oppose the Left's agenda of land for war.
Moreover, while Netanyahu shunts aside his own party's most popular politicians like Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon in favor of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, he demoralizes his party faithful and his voters.
And not only does Barak hurt Netanyahu with voters, this week he took an ax to Israel's most important diplomatic asset - Congressional support.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Barak said that Israel may ask Congress to increase US military support for Israel by $20 billion. Given the US's economic woes, and Congress's commitment to massive budget cuts, at best Barak's statement represented a complete incomprehension about the basic facts of US domestic politics. At worst, it was a supremely unfriendly act towards Israel's friends in Congress who are trying to maintain the current level of US military aid to Israel in the face of a popular push to slash the US's foreign aid budget.
Beyond that, the plain fact is that Barak's statement was wrong. Israel's steady economic growth and its recently discovered natural gas fields should make it possible for Israel to decrease the military aid it receives from the US. This is true even though the revolutions in Egypt and throughout the Arab world will require Israel to massively increase its defense budget.
If Netanyahu is serious about surmounting his diplomatic and political challenges, his best bet is to abandon his present course altogether. The most effective way to defend Israel against Obama is to boldly assert, defend and implement a unilateral Israeli plan.
NETANYAHU HIMSELF gave the broad outlines for such a plan this week when he stated that to defend itself, Israel will need to maintain perpetual control over the Jordan Valley. If Netanyahu were to announce a plan to apply Israeli law to the Jordan Valley and the major blocs of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, he would accomplish several things at once. He would advance Israel's national interests rather than the Palestinians' interests against Israel. He would force the US and Europe to discuss issues that are grounded in strategic rationality rather than leftist-Islamist ideology. Finally, he would take back the leadership of his own political camp from Leiberman and augment his political power domestically.
So too, if Netanyahu fired Barak and replaced him with Ya'alon, he would energize his political supporters in a way he has failed to do since taking office.
Netanyahu is reportedly considering unveiling his new diplomatic initiative in a speech before Congress in May. If he were to use that venue to unveil this plan and also announce a plan to wean Israel off of US military aid within three years, not only would he blunt Obama's power to threaten Israel. He would secure popular US support for Israel for years to come.
And if he did that, he would restore the Israeli voters' support for his leadership and stabilize his government through the next elections.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
Posted on March 11, 2011 at 10:40 AM
© 2011 Caroline Glick