April 22, 2010
The WSJ reports Israel Rebuffs U.S. on Building and that “Prime Minister Netanyahu Says He Won’t Freeze Home Construction in East Jerusalem”.But the content of the article says otherwise. Bibi continues to give a piece here and a piece there. He even agreed to freeze construction in Ramat Shlomo for two years. WTF is that.
The U.S. position remains
- Still, Mr. Jones pressed the theme that establishing an independent Palestinian state is a vital step in addressing other security challenges in the Middle East, such as Iran’s growing regional ambitions. “This is in the United States’ interest. It is in Israel’s interest. It is in the Palestinians’ interest. It is in the interest of the Arab countries, and, indeed, the world.” Mr. Jones said. “Advancing this peace would also help prevent Iran from cynically shifting attention away from its failures to meet its obligations.”
Rather than take the wind out of the radicals sails, it will puff them up. By pushing for this peace Obama is shifting attention away from Iran. I hate it when Obama or his minions mouth very debatable notions as though they were axiomatic.
Mark Regev is quoted as saying “We have said that in the framework of confidence-building measures we are willing to consider these gestures,” I hate this. Why are we expected to give “confidence-building measures”? Confidence in what? That we are willing to accept the division of Jerusalem or ‘49 borders. They know we would like to reach an agreement.
Time for the Arabs to give us confidence building measures that they will compromise their demands.
Note: The following comments from Israpundit are well worth reading, to grasp a sense of what others are thinking in relation to Obama's pressure-cooker demands on Israel, while the Arabs all sit quietly by and watch Obama work his black magic. Bee Sting
COMMENTS ON ISRAPUNDIT
Obama’s strategy:
Obama and his advisors (the “jew in name only” david axelrod) are very clever. After all, they figured out how to bamboozle the American people to get Obama elected in the first place.
And once elected, Obama declared himself to be a muslim-lover determined to weaken and shrink Jewish Israel down to size.
But how to do it if he is not quite strong enough for a frontal assault?
Well, indirectly, of course. His current strategy is really clever. It is based on vicious frontal overkill, followed by “reasonable compromise” which ends up with Obama getting Israel to voluntarily agree to weaken itself.
So obama and hilary clinton unexpectedly attack Israel viciously over trivial matters, making impossible demand with lots of veiled threats. The Jewish Israelis are scared shitless. The Israeli left starts clamoring for Netanyahu’s blood, saying he is leading Jewish Israel to doom.
Netanyahu and his seven right-wing cabinet ministers, who keep Netanyahu in power, then agree on concessions to appease Obama.
But we have seen how Jew-haters work. They are happy to accept every concession which weakens you, until they feel they are ready to destroy you once and for all.
Comment by Samuel Fistel — April 22, 2010 @ 4:00 pm
Obama and Netanyahu are finally on the same page.
They are both lying to the Jews while working to insure Israeli territorial surrender.
Nice to see a couple of guys who don’t particularly like each other are working towards a common goal.
Comment by ayn reagan — April 22, 2010 @ 5:24 pm
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 and made Jerusalem whole. No nation has recognized that annexation. No nation has established its embassy in Jerusalem. The West, fearing an Arab backlash against them that would hurt their own self interests, have refused to foreclose the issue of East Jerusalem and thus keep the issue alive for a negotiated agreement.
Israeli governments since 1967, while they have taken some action to assert their sovereignty over east Jerusalem, they have also failed to take significant action to show full committment to the annexation and foreclose the issue to keep the issue of East Jerusalem off the peace table altogether.
Former Israeli PM’s therefore expressly or implicitly took the position that Jerusalem would be left to final status negotiations. That is the gist of his own words in an interview with George Stepanolpolis where he said:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/transcript-george-stephanopoulos-interviews-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin/story?id=10409599
From this and other interviews, it seems likely that where Netanyahu is going is that if East Jerusalem were to ever be ceded to the Palestinians, it would be a city where Jews would still be free to live and to live in freedom.
Obama has not fundamentally changed American policy on East Jerusalem. He has however, brought the status issue of East Jerusalem forward. If the article is correct that Netanyahu has made some concessions regarding limiting construction, limiting asserting sovereign authority or both in East Jerusalem, without knowing exactly what, it is possible that Netanyahu merely offered Obama a committment to do or not do things that he and former Israeli PM’s were not already quietly doing or not doing all on their own.
We have to await details on what if anything Netanyahu offered Obama before drawing any adverse conclusions that Netanyahu has cut out another little piece of Israel’s heart.
Comment by Bill Narvey — April 22, 2010 @ 6:11 pm
Ceding Jerusalem to a foreign enemy is not a little piece of Israel’s heart. It is her heart.
Dispose of the Arab residents and the problem is easily solved.
The old city is surrounded by Jewish buildings on the eastern side and a quarter million Jews so don’t say that Israel has not done much to assert her sovereignty. All municipal services sewage, water and electricity are on the same grid now. The city has unified services. Currency is the Shekel, food products are Israeli, fuel and gas is Israeli. They couldn’t exist 10 min. without Israeli support.
Stop paying the Arab resident bribes to be quiet and enforce all building codes and regulations and watch the Arabs run for the sand dunes. Bar them from entering west Jerusalem and the rest of Israel and they will feel really hemmed in and start to disappear.
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 6:41 pm
If you’ll look closer you’ll see it’s not a page, it’s a piece of toilet paper.
Comment by RandyTexas — April 22, 2010 @ 7:03 pm
BB the liar used the word peace some 70 times within a 10 min interview. He has devalued the term so that it is now a meaningless sop given out like the Palis distribute sweets after they kill Jews.
We have see and even posted an agreement where BB agreed to give 92 % and all of Jerusalem except the kotel to the Arabs. Olmert lite so far.
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 7:08 pm
Not all opinions created equal
A BBC poll showed that the US is the only country where more people support Israel than oppose her, by a margin of 40% to 31%.
But this positive outlook is mistaken. Negative views are stronger and more actionable than nice views. Radical changes in public policy are always effected by a negligible percentage of the population. In terms of political activity, the third of Americans who dislike Israel outweigh the larger supportive group.
As usual, Israel did very well in Russia: 29% pro versus 30% contra. Despite their anti-Semitic traditions, a lot of Russians respect Israel for her strength and anti-Islamic stance.
In Egypt, which has been at peace with Israel for 31 years, 97% of the population hate us
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 7:09 pm
East Jerusalem freeze: dozen measures instead of two dozen apartments
Netanyahu rejected Obama’s demand for a construction freeze in East Jerusalem—which is, in essence, limited to a few apartments in Sheikh Jarrah.
Instead, the PM offered Abbas a dozen other concessions, including the release of small-time Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails and the removal of still more roadblocks. The trade-off clearly goes against Israeli interests and only serves Netanyahu’s PR needs.
Despite his sickening rhetoric about “unshakable ties” with Israel, Obama pressures us to stop building a couple of houses in East Jerusalem while ignoring massive construction there by Arabs.
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 7:11 pm
Israel attacked from Jordan
Two rockets fired from Jordan narrowly missed Israeli territory.
Certainly, the attack was carried out by local Muslim extremists rather than the government, but what would be the US response to Mexican gangs firing rockets across the border?
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 7:13 pm
Netanyahu declared, “We will pursue relentlessly the murderers of our children.”
Yeah, really, by allowing hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo into Gaza, making tax transfers to the PA (and by extension, to the Al Aqsa Martyrs), and by keeping those murderers in resort-like jails with satellite TV, cellular phones, and pocket cash allowances.
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
Netanyahu has become like Geraldo Rivera to me.
His words are meaningless, just ambient noise.
Comment by ayn reagan — April 22, 2010 @ 7:20 pm
So do the other three percent.
Comment by ayn reagan — April 22, 2010 @ 7:22 pm
The other 3% are not of this world
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 8:01 pm
The other 3% are not of this world
Comment by ayn reagan — April 22, 2010 @ 8:23 pm
the word Change got Husein the top job in the USA
maybe BB thinks the word peace will keep him in the top spot here?
BB is a classic example of intelligence without wisdom and no political guts: a very toxic mix.
Comment by yamit82 — April 22, 2010 @ 8:35 pm
intelligence without wisdom
Comment by ayn reagan — April 22, 2010 @ 8:45 pm
Peace and check mate share some characteristics but they are not the same. Once the board is reset it will be a whole new game.
Comment by RandyTexas — April 22, 2010 @ 9:21 pm