EDITOR: “Peace Talks” Scene 2
So now we are into the script with earnest. The Peace Talks have started – Mitchell is shuttling between camps, trying work out who wants tea and who is for coffee, and having a difficult time with it, as Israel will not agree to accept any preconditions, and no tea can be ordered until the PNA, with its unelected President, will recognise Israel as Jewish State!
Well he almost succeeded, him with Irish experience of hard bargaining, only to have, together with his Vice President who flew in to be humiliated, the unmitigated pleasure of being spat upon by the Israelis; he did not like it, but took it like a man, and said: “Hey man, isn’t it raining?’
If only Joe Biden would read this website, he will face fewer surprises. Don’t those guys ever read the script?
Now we are waiting for Scene 3…
Biden: East Jerusalem plan undermines peace talks: Haaretz
Israel’s decision to approve 1,600 new homes in an ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood is undermining Middle East peace talks, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Earlier Tuesday, the Interior Ministry approved the building of 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, with a ministry official saying the plan will expand the ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood to the east and to the south.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,” Biden said.
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The American vice president added that the “substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I?ve had here in Israel.”
“We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them,” Biden said adding that the “announcement underscores the need to get negotiations under way that can resolve all the outstanding issues of the conflict,” Biden said.
“The United States recognizes that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue for Israelis and Palestinians and for Jews, Muslims and Christians.”
Biden also said that the U.S. believed “that through good faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem and safeguards its status for people around the world.”
“Unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations on permanent status issues. As George Mitchell said in announcing the proximity talks, ‘we encourage the parties and all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks,'” Biden said.
The Palestinian Authority had also remarked on the announced plan Tuesday , saying that it ended efforts to renew negotiations with Israel.
The statement approving the 1,600 new houses, released by the Interior Ministry’s Jerusalem district planning committee, headed by Ruth Yosef, said that at least 30 percent of the units will be allocated to young couples.
Public facilities and spaces which were, the statement said, lacking in the existing parts of the neighborhood, are also to be added as part of the new plan, including a new central park.
PA:
Also Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority said that Israel’s decision to approve new East Jerusalem houses effectively prevents any peace negotiations from taking place.
Director of policy and strategy of the U.S. pro-peace organization J Street, Hadar Susskind, said in a statement that the organization joined Biden “in condemning Israel’s announcement of new East Jerusalem construction that only serves to hinder Middle East peace efforts, particularly as the Israelis and Palestinians begin proximity talks.”
“Continued construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank only diminishes the chances of achieving a viable two-state solution to the conflict,” Susskind added.
The statement also said that Israel’s approval of new East Jerusalem homes marked a “disappointing inflaming of tensions and undermining of trust – and is particularly surprising given Vice President Biden’s present visit to Israel aimed at underscoring the U.S.-Israel relationship and the American commitment to a two-state resolution of the conflict.”
“We echo Vice President Biden’s call for all parties to refrain from unilateral actions that may inflame tensions and prejudice the outcome of peace talks,” the J Street statement added, saying that “If we are to achieve a true resolution to the conflict – and secure Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic homeland – all sides must demonstrate their commitment to the diplomatic and constructive engagement needed to succeed.”
Meir Margalit, Meretz’s representative to the Jerusalem city council, claimed that the statement was meant to disrupt the Biden visit, saying that he had “no doubt that the timing isn’t coincidental,” calling the announcement Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s “answer to Netanyahu’s willingness to renew indirect peace talks with the Palestinians.”
“The fact that Eli Yishai couldn’t restrain himself for another two-three days until Biden left Israel means his intention was to slap the U.S. administration in the face,” Margalit said, adding that the announcement was “a provocation to the U.S. and to the prime minister.”
Following a request for a statement by Prime Minister’s Office, Yishai said in response that the timing of the announcement had no connection to Biden’s visit.
The Interior Ministry had announced the decision to build 1,300 new homes in Ramat Shlomo, in 2008, with the approval of the regional planning board as part of Jerusalem’s housing master plan.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat at the time called the announcement part of “a systematic policy to destroy the peace process,” urging then secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to make the issue her top priority
Joe Biden steps up pressure on Israel over E Jerusalem: BBC
Joe Biden: Israeli government’s decision “undermines trust”
US Vice-President Joe Biden has again condemned Israel over a controversial building project, saying approval had undermined trust in the peace process.
Mr Biden was speaking after meeting the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.
Mr Abbas also said the approval of 1,600 more Jewish homes in East Jerusalem threatened the peace process and called for it to be cancelled.
Israel insists the move has nothing to do with Mr Biden’s visit.
The timing of the move, shortly before Mr Biden’s visit, angered the US.
Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to hold indirect “proximity talks” in a bid to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for 17 months.
However, the Israeli settlement announcement has cast a shadow on those talks, with the Palestinian Authority saying the approval showed Israel believed US negotiation efforts had failed before they had even begun.
ANALYSIS
Senior Palestinian officials have described as catastrophic Israel’s decision to push ahead with a planning process for 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem.
This is a part of the city which the rest of the world sees as occupied territory and which the Palestinians want as a capital for their new state.
The Americans are still hoping that Israel and the Palestinians will begin a round of indirect talks, but now members of the Arab League are threatening to withdraw their grudging support for fresh negotiations.
Before the discussions have even started, accusations of bad faith abound.
Mr Biden said at a joint press conference with Mr Abbas that he would condemn all statements that inflamed the situation or prejudiced the peace process.
He said the US pledged an active and sustained role in the talks process and it was “incumbent on both sides not to complicate the process”.
“Yesterday, the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines that very trust – the trust that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations.”
Mr Biden said achieving peace would require both Israel and the Palestinians to take “historically bold” steps.
Mr Abbas said he was addressing the Israeli people in saying that the “time is right for peace based on two states – an Israeli state living in peace and security alongside a Palestinian state”.
He said there should be a “permanent, lasting and just peace” that took in all areas, including Syria and Lebanon.
But he was also highly critical of the planning decision, saying they represented “the ruining of trust and a serious blow” to peace efforts.
Mr Abbas has refused to resume direct negotiations with the Israeli government because of its refusal to put a complete stop to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israeli denial
In November, Israel announced a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank, under heavy US pressure. But it considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory and the restrictions do not apply.
Israel, deliberately or not, inflicted something close to a humiliation on the Obama administration and the words they chose in reaction reflected that, our correspondent says.
Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
During their dinner on Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Mr Biden that he had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorise the new housing units in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ramat Shlomo, officials said.
He said the plans had been submitted three years ago and had only received initial approval that day.
“The district committees approve plans weekly without informing me,” Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning.
“If I’d have known, I would have postponed the authorisation by a week or two since we had no intention of provoking anyone.”
But the US government has not accepted Israel’s explanation that the announcement was essentially part of a bureaucratic process that had no connection with Mr Biden’s visit, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Jerusalem.
The Arab League will meet in Cairo later to decide on a response.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev insisted Israel had “a very good working relationship and a very good personal relationship” with the US.
He dismissed speculation that the interior ministry’s announcement was a deliberate move by some members of Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet to scupper any chance of peace talks.
The US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is scheduled to arrive in the region next week to conduct the second round of proximity talks.
When Israelis degrade Israel by humiliating Joe Biden: Haaretz
By Bradley Burston
Why would Israeli officials degrade Israel by humiliating the vice-president of the United States?
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What conceivable advantage is there in the Interior Ministry choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a mission aimed at soothing strained relations between Israel and the Obama administration, to announce the approval of 1,600 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem?
Or to add, in insult to injury, that construction on the new homes could begin as soon as early May.
What could officials here gain from what is, in effect, an Israeli version of the incitement the government so keenly – and correctly -decries in its Palestinian incarnations?
It the same edge that Knesset Deputy Speaker Danny Danon of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud stood to gain by telling the Washington Post, “While we welcome Vice President Biden, a longtime friend and supporter of Israel, we see it as nothing short of an insult that President Obama himself is not coming.”
It is the base sentiment that Avigdor Lieberman’s Foreign Ministry has courted in trying to make Israel appear to loom large by treating dignitaries from overseas to petty indignities and frank disrespect.
The profit, for the hard right, is political. It mines an emotional vein along a relatively small but potent segment of the Israeli electorate, which holds that to insult Israel’s indispensible ally is to assert the Jewish state’s independence.
In their drive to expunge any trace of hitrapsut – groveling to the colonial master – there are those among the ostensible super-patriots of the right who revel in shots across the bow of the American ship of state.
On the whole, the farther right one goes in Israel, the more pronounced the sentiment. Avowedly pro-Kahane extremists, now strong enough to have placed their own representative in the Knesset, have gained shock cred by lining highway underpasses with posters of the “Jew-hater Obama” photoshopped into wearing a Palestinian kaffieh.
Harder to fathom was the Defense Ministry’s Monday announcement that work would resume on 112 homes in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit, units whose construction had been suspended under a White House-spurred settlement freeze.
Chalk it up, if you like, to the powerful pro-settler presence in certain strata of Israel’s bureaucracy. Or credit the mercurial, not to say, erratic, policy style of Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak. Or accept the official explanation that the timing of the decision was coincidence, entirely unconnected with the vice-presidential visit.
In the anarchic swirl of current Israeli governance, the correct answer may well be: all three.
EDITOR: The untold Hollywood story
So, while Ajami, an excellent film, never stood a chance in Hollywood, this story is valuable not for the lack of a coveted prize, but for highlighting the feelings of Palestinian citizens of Israel, the so called ‘Israeli Arabs’, towards the Jewish State which occupied their land and divided its people. The Haaretz editorial takes this on rather interestingly.
A troubling warning in Hollywood: Haaretz Editorial
Scandar Copti, co-director of the film “Ajami” that was nominated for an Oscar, declared in Los Angeles that he does not represent Israel. “I cannot represent a country that does not represent me,” Copti said, sparking a predictable chorus of shallow responses from the right. Culture Minister Limor Livnat accused him of being an ingrate because his film received financing from the state. Other politicians demanded that from now on, government support be conditioned on a declaration of loyalty.
But the director’s words deserve a more serious response: They ought to prompt deep soul-searching among all Israelis who care about the future of the state. Copti is not a devotee of the Islamic Movement, raised in some isolated village on the country’s periphery, or an elderly Palestinian refugee for whom the “Nakba” is still a searing memory. He is 35 years old, born in Jaffa – not far from downtown Tel Aviv – and educated in Israel, where he has received opportunities that brought him to that red carpet in Los Angeles.
It would seem that no one is better suited to represent the state’s declared desire to integrate its Arab citizens. If even he feels that Israel does not represent him, then the country has utterly failed to fulfill the promise of equality inscribed in its Declaration of Independence.
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Integrating Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up a fifth of its population, is not merely a moral imperative necessitated by the country’s democratic values; it is also a social and economic necessity. The special reports being published by TheMarker this week and last expose the discrimination, barriers and closed-mindedness that Arabs encounter when they seek to benefit from the plethora of opportunities that Israel offers. High-tech industries are closed to them, as are most other top-quality jobs. There is no greater stupidity. Because of its prejudices, Israel is forfeiting the economic boost that its Arabs citizens could give it and is instead reaping poverty, crime and feelings of alienation.
Despite some worthy initiatives by Jewish and Arab entrepreneurs aimed at changing the situation, it is hard to imagine a turnabout in Jewish-Arab relations in this country while a right-wing government, with the racist Avigdor Lieberman at its heart, is in power. This is utterly unacceptable. Instead of dismissing Copti’s warning in a rage, his words should cause every Jew in Israel to ask himself, “What can I do to draw my Arab neighbor closer?”
Joe Biden attacks Israeli plan for East Jerusalem homes: BBC
Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since 1967
US Vice-President Joe Biden has condemned Israel’s approval of 1,600 new homes for ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem.
Mr Biden, in Israel as part of US attempts to kick-start the peace process, said it was “the kind of step that undermines the trust we need”.
Palestinian leaders also condemned the controversial move.
Israel insisted it was a procedural step with no connection to Mr Biden’s visit.
The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory. Building on occupied land is illegal under international law, but Israel regards East Jerusalem – which it annexed in 1967 – as its territory.
In a strongly worded statement, Mr Biden said: “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem.
It’s very rare for the White House to actually condemn Israel for anything, but Israel’s action must have been perceived as a snub in Washington.
Just as Joe Biden was talking about a moment of opportunity for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Israel was taking steps that would infuriate the Palestinians and possibly undermine that moment of opportunity.
Mr Biden reminded all parties to refrain from any statements or action that would inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks.
On this occasion his message seemed to be directed mostly at the Israelis.
“The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”
He said the Israelis and Palestinians needed to build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them, adding: “This announcement underscores the need to get negotiations under way that can resolve all the outstanding issues of the conflict.”
Mr Biden said the US recognised that Jerusalem was a deeply important issue for Israelis and Palestinians, and for Jews, Muslims and Christians.
“We believe that through good faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realises the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem and safeguards its status for people around the world,” he said.
Palestinian leaders have only recently agreed to resume indirect contacts with Israel, at Mr Biden’s urging.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP news agency: “This is a dangerous decision and will hinder the negotiations.
“We consider the decision to build in East Jerusalem to be a judgment that the American efforts have failed before the negotiations have even begun.”
A spokesman for the Israeli interior ministry said: “The Jerusalem District Planning Committee today approved a plan which has been in the works for over three years.
“This is a procedural stage in the framework of a long process that will yet continue for some time. The committee meeting was determined in advance and there is no connection to US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel.”
There are still various planning hurdles for the East Jerusalem project to clear, and work is not thought likely to start for at least two years.
Under US pressure, Israel has agreed a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank. But the moratorium excludes East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want their capital.
‘Moment of opportunity’
Mr Biden is the most senior member of President Barack Obama’s administration to visit Jerusalem.
Earlier, at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said there was a “moment of real opportunity” for peace between the Palestinians and Israel.
The Palestinians refuse to hold face-to-face negotiations with the Israelis unless they halt all settlement building in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians want their future state.
Speaking earlier, Joe Biden said Washington had a total commitment to Israel’s security
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to shuttle between the Palestinians in Ramallah and the Israelis in Jerusalem.
Mr Biden also said the US was committed to Israeli security and determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
He added that the best long-term guarantee for Israel’s security was a comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbours.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel would continue to support the US push for stronger sanctions against Iran, and that he was pleased its efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were “beginning to bear fruit”.
He said the goal of negotiations was a peace deal that included Palestinian recognition of the “permanence and legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel”.
Correspondents say there is little optimism in the region about what the indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks might achieve.
Periods of direct negotiations over the last two decades have failed to reach agreement.
Mr Netanyahu’s right-leaning government has taken a harder line stance on final status issues than that of the previous administration.
He has ruled out dividing Jerusalem, wants the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, and said he intends to maintain a presence along the eastern border of a future Palestinian state.
On Wednesday, Mr Biden will meet Palestinian leaders in the West Bank before travelling to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah.
Israeli go-ahead for new settlement homes casts cloud over Biden visit: The Guardian
• 1,600 new homes to be built in East Jerusalem settlement
• Approval comes hours after US VP backed government
Palestinian construction workers at a new housing development in the Jewish neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Isreal has announced 1,600 new homes in the area. Photograph: Dan Balilty/AP
Israel’s interior ministry tonight announced approval for 1,600 new homes in an East Jerusalem settlement, casting a cloud over a visit by US vice-president, Joe Biden, just hours after he pledged his strong support for the Israeli government.
The new approvals, for homes in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox settlement near Shuafat, came just a day after the Israeli defence ministry announced 112 new apartments would be built in Beitar Illit, a settlement on the occupied West Bank.
The new building comes at a delicate moment in the long-stalled peace process when Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to start indirect negotiations. The latest approvals were announced by the interior ministry, which said they had been passed by the Jerusalem district planning committee. A spokeswoman said there were 60 days to appeal against the decision.
Ramat Shlomo, built 15 years ago, is on land captured in the West Bank in 1967 and then annexed to Israel in a move not recognised by the international community.
Two years ago, when the Israeli government approved 1,300 new homes in the same settlement, the then US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, criticised the move as having a “negative effect” on peace talks. Tonight there was no immediate reaction from Biden.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the announcements were “destroying our efforts” on peace negotiations. “With such an announcement, how can you build trust?” he said. “It’s a really disastrous situation.”
Earlier in the day, Biden said Israel and the Palestinians needed to “take risks for peace”. But his talk of a “moment of opportunity” obscures a reality in which the two sides are a long way apart. Although the peace process has been under way for nearly two decades, there have been no direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since Israel’s war in Gaza a year ago.
Palestinian officials refused to hold direct talks unless Israel halted all settlement construction, in line with the demands of the US administration and of the US road map. However, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, agreed only to a temporary, partial curb to settlement building – it did not include East Jerusalem, or public buildings, or around 3,000 homes where construction had already started.
In talks with Netanyahu, Biden appeared to focus not on the struggling peace process but on Iran, saying Washington was committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. “There is no space between the US and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security,” Biden said after their meeting.
“We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Biden said. In private he is also believed to have cautioned the Israeli government against any unilateral military strike on Iran, and to have tried to win Israeli support for the US administration’s policy, which is moving towards sanctions against Iran.
Netanyahu made clear the Israeli government hoped for a tougher sanction regime against Iran. “The stronger those sanctions are, the more likely it will be that the Iranian regime will have to chose between advancing its nuclear programme and advancing the future of its own permanence,” he said.
Netanyahu frequently cites the need to address Iran’s nuclear ambitions as his priority in government and Israeli leaders have pointedly not ruled out a military option.
As Biden Visits, Israel Unveils Plan for New Settlements: NY Times
JERUSALEM — Hours after Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. vowed unyielding American support for Israel’s security here on Tuesday, Israel’s interior ministry announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem, prompting Mr. Biden to condemn the move as “precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clearly embarrassed at the move by his interior minister, Eli Yishai, head of the right-wing Shas party who has made Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem one of his central causes.
A statement issued in the name of the Interior Ministry but distributed by the prime minister’s office said the housing plan was three years in the making and that its announcement was procedural and unrelated to Mr. Biden’s visit. It added that Mr. Netanyahu had just been informed of it himself.
Mr. Netanyahu supports Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem yet wants to get new talks with the Palestinians going and to maintain strong relations with Washington. But when he formed his coalition a year ago he joined forces with several right-wing parties, and has since found it hard to keep them in line.
Mr. Biden came to Jerusalem largely to assure the Israelis of Washington’s commitment to its security and to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.
He began the day on a note of support, asserting the Obama administration’s “absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security.”
But by the end of the day, Mr. Biden’s tone had a very different quality. He issued a statement condemning “the substance and timing of the announcement” of the housing, and adding: “Unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations on permanent status issues.” He said the announcement “runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”
On Monday, George J. Mitchell, the administration’s Middle East envoy announced that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to four months of indirect peace talks, the first such negotiations in more than a year.
Nabil Abu-Rudeina, spokesman for the Palestinian government, called the new housing announcement “a dangerous decision that will torpedo the negotiations and sentence the American efforts to complete failure.” He added that “it is now clear that the Israeli government is not interested in negotiating nor is it interested in peace. The American administration must respond to this provocation with actual measures, as it is no longer possible to just turn the other cheek, and massive American pressure is required in order to compel Israel to abandon its peace destroying behavior.”
Last spring, the Obama administration tried to get Israel to stop all settlement building in order to get peace talks going again and hoped Arab states would promise confidence building measures in exchange. No such measures were forthcoming and the Israelis rejected the freeze.
After much haggling, in November the Israelis announced a 10-month partial freeze on new settlement building in the West Bank. But they specifically exempted Jerusalem from the moratorium, becayuse Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and considers it part of its united capital, something the rest of the world rejects.
The new housing announced on Tuesday was for the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo. The Interior Ministry statement said the step on Tuesday was part of a long process that would continue for quite some time before the units were actually built.
It followed a day in which Mr. Biden who will stay in the region through Friday, had made a concerted and highly public show of American support for Israel.
“Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel,” he said standing next to Mr. Netanyahu at the prime minister’s residence. “There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security.”
Mr. Biden also said that, like Israel, the Obama administration was determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and from supporting groups that threaten Israel. The United States is trying to build a consensus for international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Israel has threatened to use military force but is going along with the American approach for now. Part of the purpose of this trip is to cement that cooperation.
Mr. Biden expressed satisfaction at the agreement over the new talks with the Palestinians. They are being billed as “proximity talks,” because Mr. Mitchell is expected to shuttle between the Israeli government in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, West Bank to bring the two sides toward direct negotiations.
In his public comments with Mr. Biden, Mr. Netanyahu focused on the need “to be persistent and purposeful in making sure we get to those direct negotiations that will enable us to resolve this conflict.”
The announcement on the housing expansion was not the first time that Mr. Netanyahu has been blindsided by one of his more nationalist or conservative ministers or their aides. Earlier this year, for example, Daniel Ayalon, the deputy to the nationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, increased tensions with Turkey when he humiliated its ambassador to Israel in front of television cameras.
Mr. Biden is to spend Wednesday in the West Bank meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, then give a speech in Tel Aviv on Thursday before heading to Jordan.
After his morning meetings with President Peres and Mr. Netanyahu on Tuesday, Mr. Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, visited the Rabin gravesite. Mr. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist opposed to reconciliation with the Palestinians.
Mr. Biden then toured Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum and center. After signing its guest book, he said, “The phrase ‘never again’ is used so often it almost has lost its meaning. But then again all you have to do is walk through Yad Vashem to understand how incredible the journey has been for world Jewry and why Israel is such a central part of its existence.”
EDITOR: The Comedy show continues in Jerusalem
Now what is Biden to do now, as he has booked for five days in Israel? A little embarassing… maybe he could go to the Dead Sea (one day) Yad Vashem (Half day) Wailing Wall (half an hour) coffee with Mitchell (one hour)… well, it doesn’t add up, does it?
US reassures Israel over security: Al Jazeera TC
Joe Biden, the US vice-president, and Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, have held talks over the perceived threat posed by Iran and on reviving the Middle East peace process.
After the meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Biden reassured Israel that the US stood alongside them in terms of security.
“Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows that there is simply no space between the United States and Israel,” he said.
“The is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security. And for that reason, and many others, addressing Iran’s nuclear programme has been one of our administration’s priorities.
Netanyahu thanked the US administration for attempting to limit Iran’s nuclear programme, which they claim is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, contrary to Iran’s pronouncements that it is solely for civilian purposes, via sanctions.
Iran priority
He also reaffirmed that one of Israel’s security priorities is to ensure that Iran does not build a nuclear arsenal.
“The is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security. And for that reason, and many others, addressing Iran’s nuclear programme has been one of our administration’s priorities”
“The Iranian regime will have to chose between advancing its nuclear programme and advancing the future of its own permanence,” Netanyahu said.
Shadi Hamid, the deputy director of the Brookings Institute, told Al Jazeera that the point of Biden’s visit was to show Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security and resistance to Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“That was something that Netanyahu and the Israeli public really wanted to hear from Biden in unequivocal terms. And Biden succeeded in getting across that message,” Hamid said.
Hamid said that the talks should calm recent Israeli portentousness concerning Iran.
“It would be very difficult now for Israel to talk about a pre-emptive strike so soon after Biden’s visit. There would be quite a bit of dissonance there if Israel did that.”
Palestinian perspective
Dr Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian politician and activist, also said she believed the meetings with Israeli officials was more about discussing policy toward Iran, rather than peace with Palestinians.
“The peace effort seems to me is not a primary issue on the agenda”, she told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
However, in a as far as the Palestinian situation was going to be discussed, Ashrawi said: “The real issue is whether the US is willing to take serious steps, whether it is going to curb Israeli behaviour or continue to give Israel a pat on the back instead of a slap on the wrist.
“In order to ensure that settlement activity stop, the annexation and transformation of Jerusalem stops … it is not a question of negotiation per se. It is a question of substance and the ability to influence realities on the ground.”
But Biden said he had called for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and that the US will stand by those who will “take risks for peace”.
“The goal is obviously to resolve the final status issues and achieve a two-state solution,” he said.
Indirect talks
He said that he welcomed the move this week by Netanyahu to start US-mediated indirect talks with the Palestinians and that he hoped that it would lead to direct dialogue.
Netanyahu said that establishing peace with its Palestinian and Arab neighbours was another top security priority for Israel.
The Palestinians have said they will not resume peace talks until Israel ends its settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
But on the eve of Biden’s visit, plans to build 1,600 new Jewish homes in East Jerusalem were announced.
A spokesman for Netanyahu said the prime minister did not know about the announcement.
But Biden condemned the plan to build more illegal settlements, saying the decision “undermines the trust we need right now”.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units”, he said.
Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Jerusalem, said the decision to push through with the latest construction despite Biden’s visit came from the ministry for the interior.
“The interior ministry is currently held by the religious Shas party, a right-wing party that isn’t particularly inclined to talk about settlement freezing.
“One could interpret it as an effort of the right-wing in Netanyahu’s coalition government to really throw a spanner in the works, to embarrass Netanyahu, to insult the American vice-president and to further throw the Palestinians into dismay and disgruntlement.
“If in fact prime minister Netanyahu didn’t know anything about this announcement, it really would suggest that there isn’t much communication at all inside his government.”
Five-day tour
Biden, who is not expected to take part in any indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks, was on the second day of a five-day tour of the Middle East.
Earlier on Tuesday he met Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, and is due to meet Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Wednesday.
Biden’s visit coincides with that of George Mitchell, Washington’s special envoy to the Middle East, who is spearheading efforts to get the Israelis and Palestinians back on the negotiating table.
Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip in December 2008, despite US efforts to relaunch the peace process.
Palestinians tell Biden Israeli housing plan is hurdle to peace talks: The Guardian
Israel sorry for timing of announcement after US vice-president criticises plan to build Jewish homes on occupied land
Palestinian officials told the US vice-president, Joe Biden, today that Israel’s plan to build 1,600 homes on occupied Palestinian land had damaged the prospects of restarting the stalled peace process.
Biden has already condemned the planned East Jerusalem settlement, prompting Israel to apologise for the timing of the announcement.
“This is a moment of great challenge to the effort by the United States to get the political process going again,” the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, said at a meeting with Biden.
Fayyad said Israel’s action was “damaging for sure” and “definitely undermines confidence in the prospects for peace”.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, would ask Biden in a meeting later today to press Israel to revoke the decision.
An Israeli cabinet minister apologised for the timing of the announcement but not for its substance. “This should not have happened during a visit by the US vice-president,” the welfare minister, Isaac Herzog, told Army Radio. “This is a real embarrassment and now we have to express our apologies for this serious blunder.”
Aides to the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu said he had been blindsided by the project’s announcement by the interior ministry, run by Shas, an ultra-orthodox, nationalist party that is a key member of his governing coalition.
The approval of the plan cast a cloud over Biden’s visit, just hours after he pledged strong support for the Israeli government.
In a statement issued after he arrived 90 minutes late for a dinner with Netanyahu, Biden said: “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units.”
He said the blueprint for Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem, “undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions I’ve had in Israel”.
The approvals came just a day after the Israeli defence ministry announced that 112 apartments would be built in Beitar Illit, a settlement on the occupied West Bank. The new building comes at a delicate moment in the long-stalled peace process after Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to start indirect negotiations.
Ramat Shlomo, built 15 years ago, is on land captured in the West Bank in 1967 and annexed to Israel in a move not recognised by the international community.
Israel’s interior minister, Eli Yishai, who heads the Shas, said the timing of the plan’s approval was coincidental. “There was certainly no intention to provoke anyone and certainly not to come along and hurt the vice-president of the United States,” Yishai told Israel’s Channel One television.
“Final approval [for the project] will take another few months. I agree that the timing [of the announcement] should have been in another two or three weeks.”
Biden’s talk of a “moment of opportunity” obscures a reality in which the two sides are a long way apart. Although the peace process has been under way for nearly two decades, there have been no direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since Israel’s war in Gaza a year ago.
Palestinian officials refused to hold direct talks unless Israel halted all settlement construction, in line with the demands of the US administration and of the US road map. But Netanyahu agreed only to a temporary, partial curb to settlement building. It did not include East Jerusalem, or public buildings, or homes where construction had already started.
UN joins international condemnation of East Jerusalem building: Haaretz
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes in an ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood, echoing comments made earlier by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
“The secretary-general condemns the approval of plans for the building of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Ministry of Interior earlier today,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
“[Ban] reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law,” he said. “Furthermore, he underscores that settlement activity is contrary to Israel’s obligations under the Roadmap, and undermines any movement towards a viable peace process.”
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to alleviate new tensions with the United States, after the announcement that Israel will build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem drew strong condemnation from the White House, and visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The prime minister reportedly promised Biden “No one was seeking to embarrass you or undermine your visit – on the contrary, you are a true friend to Israel.”
Biden arrived in Israel on Monday in an attempt to kick-start long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which had been expected to resume in the coming days, but looked in danger Tuesday after a furious response from the Palestinians to the construction plan.
Netanyahu told Biden during their meeting in Jerusalem earlier in the day that he had had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorize the additional construction, and added that the program had been drafted three years ago and only received initial authorization that day. It could take several months, Netanyahu assured him, before the program is granted final approval.
Netanyahu told his guest that the regional councils are not under the political leadership’s direct authority, and that his administration tries not to interfere with their work.
A high-ranking official in Jerusalem, however, said Netanyahu has “no problem” with construction in Jerusalem and has no intention of apologizing for building there. The official acknowledged, however, that the announcement’s timing was harmful to Israel’s diplomatic interests.
“We didn’t want to humiliate Biden or sow division while he is in Israel,” the official said.
Israel’s Interior Ministry announced that approval had been granted to build new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox community of 20,000 north of downtown Jerusalem, which borders the Palestinian village of Shuafat.
The program, authorized by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, is one of the largest construction projects Israel has launched in Jerusalem in recent years. The development would spread over an area of 580 dunams (approximately 145 acres) and include a new road leading to the neighborhood, public facilities and a park. The ministry said the plan is intended to ease the ultra-Orthodox community’s housing shortage, and 30 percent of the units will be relatively small and inexpensive, aimed at young couples.
Interior Ministry officials rejected claims that the plan’s authorization was intended to scuttle efforts to renew proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or to otherwise compromise Biden’s visit.
Jerusalem city council member Meir Margalit (Meretz) said of the plan, “The timing is not coincidental – it is a response from Eli Yishai to Netanyahu’s declaration of renewed talks with the Palestinian Authority.” Yishai, the interior minister and deputy prime minister, is chair of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
“The fact that Yishai can’t wait a few more days until Biden leaves the country proves his goal was to give the American administration a slap in the face,” Margalit said.
Ramallah sees provocation
The Palestinian Authority issued a strong rebuke of the Israeli announcement, with Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, warning the move would derail negotiations before they had even begun.
“It is apparent that the Israeli government does not want negotiations, nor does it want peace,” Abu Rudeineh said, according to the Ma’an news agency. “The American administration must respond to this provocation with effective measures.”
Abbas contacted Arab League chief Amr Moussa by phone and urged him to speak with the heads of Arab states over forming a concerted response to the building program.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, told Haaretz that Israel’s declaration shows “the Israeli government does not want peace, it does not want a solution ? There is no clearer message; there is a no more provocative measure.”
Biden will meet with Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday, and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is expected to arrive in the region next week to conduct the second round of proximity talks between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
The U.S. administration hopes it can return to direct discussions between junior-level Israeli and Palestinian officials within a few weeks.
The talks are expected to deal with all of the so-called core issues: borders, water refugees, security arrangements, settlements and the status of Jerusalem. Although the Arab League had set aside four months to allow the talks to progress, Mitchell said his administration is not operating according to a certain fixed date, and that negotiations will proceed as long as necessary.
Still, Mitchell said, he hopes Israel will take steps to build goodwill towards the Palestinians in an effort to push to direct talks. Possible gestures include the release of prisoners, removing certain West Bank checkpoints, easing the blockade of the Gaza Strip, reducing Israel’s military presence in Palestinian cities and transferring certain areas of the West Bank to Palestinian security control.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units,” Biden said in a written statement. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.”
Moments earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama’s top spokesman, Robert Gibbs, condemned Jerusalem’s announcement from the White House.
Netanyahu and Biden also discussed the Iranian nuclear threat, and both leaders agreed on the need to pursue further sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
A senior U.S. official said both Washington and Jerusalem “are working on the assumption that we will reach a fourth round of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations Security Council by late March or early April.”
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that he hopes indirect talks quickly lead to more comprehensive negotiations that could produce a final-status agreement. Tuesday’s announcement, he said, does not represent a new development.
“This is an ultra-Orthodox city very close to the Green Line, and these are housing units for people who are struggling and cannot buy elsewhere,” he said.
Israeli court to hear civil case over death of Rachel Corrie in Gaza: The Guardian
Parents of American activist killed by Israeli bulldozer seven years ago take fight for justice to Haifa courtroom
Court begins hearing civil suit brought against Israeli government over death of US activist killed by Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza Link to this video
A court today began hearing a civil suit brought against the Israeli government over the death of Rachel Corrie, the US activist who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago.
The case, brought before a Haifa court by Corrie’s family, challenges the official Israeli version of events in which the military said its troops were not to blame. The family hopes the hearing will be a chance to put on public record the events that led to their daughter’s death in March 2003. If the Israeli state is found responsible, the family will press for at least $300,000 (£201,000) in damages.
Before the hearing began, Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, said the family had been on a “seven-year search for justice in Rachel’s name”.
“I think when the truth comes out about Rachel, the truth will not wound Israel, the truth is the start of making us heal,” he said.
Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, said the family was still waiting for the credible, transparent investigation Israel first promised into her daughter’s death.
“I just want to say to Rachel that our family is here today trying to just do right by her and I hope that she will be very proud of the effort we are making,” she said.
The family’s lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, will argue that witness evidence shows the soldiers saw Corrie at the scene, with other activists, well before the incident and could have arrested her or removed her from the area before there was any risk of her being killed.
He will argue her death was either due to gross negligence by the Israeli authorities or was intentional.
Four key witnesses – three Britons and an American – who were at the scene in Rafah when Corrie was killed are to give evidence.
The first witness to give evidence was Richard Purssell, a Briton who was an ISM volunteer along with Corrie. He described how he had gone to Gaza to see the situation for himself and to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing Palestinian houses.
He said the ISM told him it was a strictly non-violent organisation. “Our role was to support Palestinian non-violent resistance.”
He briefly described the moment Corrie was killed. “Rachel disappeared inside the earth and the bulldozer continued for 4 metres and then reversed,” he told the court.
Corrie, who was born in Olympia, Washington, travelled to Gaza to act as a human shield at a moment of intense conflict between the Israeli military and the Palestinians.
On the day she died, when she was just 23, she was dressed in a fluorescent orange vest and was trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah. She was crushed under a military Caterpillar D9R bulldozer and died shortly afterwards.
A month after her death the Israeli military said an investigation had determined its troops were not to blame and said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen her and did not intentionally run her over.
Instead, it accused her and the group she was with, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), of behaviour that was “illegal, irresponsible and dangerous.”
The army report, obtained by the Guardian in April 2003, said she “was struck as she stood behind a mound of earth that was created by an engineering vehicle operating in the area and she was hidden from the view of the vehicle’s operator who continued with his work. Corrie was struck by dirt and a slab of concrete resulting in her death.”
But several witnesses offered a different version of events, saying the driver had seen her but continued anyway, hitting her with the bulldozer blade. She was severely injured and died shortly afterwards in an ambulance.
While Corrie was in the Palestinian territories, she wrote vividly about her experiences. Her diaries were later turned into a play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, which has toured internationally, including in Israel and the West Bank.
Bibi’s snub to Biden may backfire: The Guardian CiF
Intentional or not, the announcement of new settlements in East Jerusalem may push the US into a tougher stance towards Israel
It’s not the first time that Israel has stiffed Barack Obama over his attempts to kick-start Middle East peace negotiations. But the sudden, highly inflammatory announcement of plans to build an additional 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem, in the midst of a visit to Israel of US vice-president Joe Biden, was certainly the most brutally contemptuous rebuff so far to American peacemaking.
It may be that Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s rightwing prime minister, was unaware in advance of the provisional decision by a Jerusalem district planning committee, as he claims. But the announcement was promulgated by his interior ministry, which thereby gave it an official stamp of approval. If Netanyahu did not know, then why not?
Despite the evident embarrassment and considerable political damage caused by the decision, Netanyahu has so far made no move to repudiate it. Lesser figures, such as welfare minister Isaac Herzog and Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev were deployed on firefighting duties on Wednesday, dutifully uttering conditional words of contrition. “We have to express our apologies for this serious blunder,” Herzog said.
But protestations of innocence by interior minister Eli Yishai, head of the Shas religious party in Netanyahu’s coalition and no great advocate of American attempts to forge a two-state peace settlement with the Palestinians, are hard to credit.
“There was certainly no intention to provoke anyone, and certainly not to come along and hurt the vice-president of the United States,” Yishai said.
These are weasel words. Is it to be believed that Yishai, like Netanyahu, was unaware of what his own ministry was doing? Did he have no idea the planning decision was pending? Did he, as an experienced politician, not foresee the destructive political implications of this ambush? Like Netanyahu, Yishai presumably regards Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal and indivisible capital. Another day on, it seems he was determined to rub Biden’s nose in that insupportable idea.
The Americans, until now, have been too polite, or too weak, to say it, but Netanyahu spent most last year deliberately frustrating Obama’s pledge to mediate a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict and with it, an end to the Israel-Arab confrontation that has scarred the region for generations. Netanyahu resisted direct talks, rejected a full settlement freeze, flaunted his uncompromising views on Jerusalem, pooh-poohed a Syria opening, and, at the same time, endlessly reiterated his supposed willingness to talk to the Palestinians “without conditions”.
Simultaneously, Israel’s leader tried, with some success, to shift the US conversation on to Iran, which he says poses an existential threat to his country and the region. All in all, it was an Oscar-standard performance in obfuscation, prevarication and disingenuousness. To the achingly smart, but politically less pugnacious Obama, Netanyahu’s behaviour was intellectually insulting. The fact he has put up with it until now may be a measure of Israel’s clout in Washington, especially on Capitol Hill.
This could change. Obama’s problem, and not just in the Middle East, is that he is liked but not feared. After a first year in office devoid of substantive achievement, Washington insiders say the president must show he is ready to fight, to get down and dirty, to drop his professorial aloofness and get publicly passionate and angry about the things he believes in. At home, this could apply to healthcare reform. Abroad, the new approach may single out Israel-Palestine.
Biden’s visit, though reassuring and conciliatory on the surface until the east Jerusalem bombshell dropped, may mark the start of this tougher approach. Many Obama supporters in the US and Europe, and in the post-Cairo Muslim world, will wish it so. The vice-president, whose attack dog qualities were unleashed on the subjects of Russia and Ukraine last year, certainly did not mince his words, once he realised the extent of the insult.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem,” Biden said. “The announcement … is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.” In the last part of this sentence Biden seems to be suggesting that Netanyahu told him one thing to his face and did another behind his back. Little wonder he kept Israel’s first couple waiting for dinner.
It doesn’t seem to realise it, but Israel cannot afford to keep on behaving in this disobliging manner towards its friends. Whether it is blatant disregard for international rules concerning the protection of civilian life, as in Gaza; whether it is calculated insults aimed at neighbours, as with Turkey; or whether it is the theft of passports and identities from friendly countries and the lawless assassination of its enemies, as in Dubai, it goes too far.
Now, Netanyahu has deeply angered his country’s best and most powerful friend – again. The coming message to Bibi: don’t over-reach.
Israel policy allows settlers to rampage unchecked: Haaretz
By Avi Issacharoff
From a Palestinian perspective, it’s hard to imagine better timing for U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas won’t have speak at great length nor lay on the charm to persuade Biden, White House staff or the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem that Netanyahu government is not serious when it says it wants peace. One must admit that the current diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians is not about reaching a peace deal – each side is convinced that the other is either not serious or incapable.
he PA and Israel, in agreeing to proximity talks, are ultimately trying to placate the Obama administration, and prove how much the other side is thwarting the peace process. And thus with a game of one-upmanship, the timing of the decision by the Jerusalem District Planning Committee to build another 1,600 housing units over the Green Line, plays right into the hands of the Palestinians.
Even so, it is not as though anyone in the Palestinian Authority really believed Netanyahu, Lieberman, Barak et al wanted peace, even before this latest stunt. The Israeli government is doing all it can to prove that it is not interested in a final status agreement based on the 1967 borders (as demanded by the U.S. and the Palestinians). Defense Ministry sources have criticized the timing of the decision to build the homes in East Jerusalem, on the grounds that it is damaging. They seem to have forgotten, however, that a day before Defense Minister Ehud Barak had approved the construction of 110 housing units in Beitar Illit, a settlement for the ultra-Orthodox sandwiched between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
So what is Israel actually trying to achieve? Basically, nothing. There is a superficial peace process which is going nowhere but eases international pressure on Israel to reach a deal with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu prides himself on his decades-long relationship with Biden, but managed to destroy it Tuesday night when Israel spat in the vice president’s face. Barak and Netanyahu’s grave explanations, that they “didn’t know,” “didn’t hear,” didn’t see” each time a new plan is approved for construction, (or on the flip side, demolition) in East Jerusalem – see Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and more – are dwarfed by the current embarrassment caused to the American administration.
In essence, Israel continues to prove Henry Kissinger’s pithy dictum: “Israel has no foreign policy, it has only a domestic policy.” On Tuesday, it was Interior Minister Eli Yishai who used the construction decision as a means of bolstering his own standing within Shas, coming as it did several days after Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat sought to prove that he is the boss and came close to destroying dozens of Palestinian homes in Silwan.
In general, the decision-making body in Israel regarding building over the Green Line has become deliberately destructive, and adopted a policy of “ya’ani” (Arabic slang for something which only gives an appearance of reality, a kind of “as if”). Former minister and current Kadima MK Avi Dichter likes to say that the Palestinian culture is a “ya’ani” culture, and tells tales of his time as head of the Shin Bet security service, when it was “as if” the PA was working to fight terror, and “as if” it were arresting suspects in terror attacks. Sadly, however, the Israeli government has “ya’ani” decided to freeze settlement construction, and “ya’ani” is seeking a permanent status agreement. The government has separately approved construction over the Green Line for schools, public buildings, 3,600 housing units, 110 housing units, 1,600 housing units, a synagogue and more.
In everything connected to the settlers and settlements, the government has a “ya’ani” policy. Enforcement of the law in the territories is “ya’ani,” except when it comes to transforming the West Bank into a Garden of Eden for settler law-breakers. The hilltop youth can set fire to mosques, fields, homes and cars, beat up Palestinian farmers and damage property and people, all thanks to the “ya’ani” policy of the Israeli government.
EDITOR: While not sweeping victory to supporters of Palestinian rights, it is still an amazing success in the current political configuration in Europe, when most of the East Europeans, and some of the others, would support whatever Israel did, wherever.
European Parliament votes in favor of implementing Goldstone report: Haaretz
The European Parliament on Wednesday supported the implementation of the Goldstone report and said it was “concerned” about “pressure placed on NGOs involved in the document’s preparation.”
Jewish leaders said they were “deeply disappointed” and puzzled by the motion.
The clause referring to NGO is very puzzling,” Arie Zuckerman, a senior executive of the European Jewish Congress, said, adding it was “an apparent reference” to a recent Israeli publicity campaign targeting the New Israel Fund for its role in the preparation the controversial report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza last year.
“Europe, which preaches to Israel and to the whole world about freedom of expression, is now calling to stifle criticism ensured by freedom of expression because it’s directed at the Goldstone report.” He also said: “How is the campaign the business of the EP?”
Contacted by Haaretz, Professor Naomi Chazan, the president of the New Israel fund, which describes itself as a nongovernmental organization championing human rights in Israel, said she was not available for comment on this.
The campaign against the fund was launched by the Im Tirtzu movement, which describes itself as centrist Zionist. It cited a study which calculates that 92 percent of footnotes sourcing negative information to Israeli sources in the Goldstone report come from NIF grantees.
The European Parliament’s resolution was a softened version of an earlier draft which called for implementing the Goldstone report. The draft was scrapped after European Jewish Congress Moshe Kantor warned party leaders that the resolution would damage EU-Israel relations.
The final resolution, which passed through a majority of 335 supporters versus 287 opponents and 43 abstentions, said EU member states should “demand the implementation of the Goldstone report’s recommendations and accountability for all violations of international law.”
Kantor told Haaretz last week that if the European Parliament adopts the Goldstone report, it will be the “strongest endorsement the document has received so far.”
Zuckerman said the European Parliament “gave indirect endorsement to Hamas” by passing Wednesday’s resolution on the Goldstone report, and added it “damaged the peace process with the Palestinians.”
But the passed resolution did not contain references to the need to “lift the blockade” on Gaza, as proposed in the scrapped draft.
“The fact that over 45 percent of MEPs voted against the resolution is cause for some satisfaction,” Kantor said. “The resolution passed by only a narrow margin, and not the consensus that was expected.
EDITOR: A glitch or a plan?
This provocation, carefully planned to remind the US what position they need to back, and to make sure the talks about talks never become more than that, is now presented as a glitch in timing. Something like: “If only we would have done it next week, it would be fine, because everyone knows we mean to continue building…”, but of course, this is double-bluffing: the provocation was planned to exactly spike Biden as he was arriving.
Yishai: Sorry for distress over East Jerusalem plan: Haaretz
Interior Minister Eli Yishai apologized on Wednesday for causing domestic and international distress as a result of Israel’s recent decision to approve 1,600 more homes in East Jerusalem.
Yishai was responding to the recent wave of condemnations, particularly on the part of the United States and visiting Vice President Joe Biden, surrounding the recent plan to build 1,600 more housing units in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
The Interior Minister said that he was uninformed of the district committee’s plan, because the matter was simply a routine, technical authorization.
“The district committees approve plans weekly without informing me,” Yishai told Israel Radio. He further said that the committee could not have predicted that the approval would spur such a political storm.
“A few days ago, hundreds of new housing units were approved in Beitar Illit, which is much more problematic,” said Yishai. “So if the committee members saw that those houses were approved without a problem, they didn’t think a technical authorization in Jerusalem, which isn’t part of the settlement freeze, would require the minister’s knowledge.”
Yishai emphasized that even though he doesn’t see a problem with the actual authorization of the East Jerusalem homes, if he knew about it, he would have delayed the move by a few weeks.
“If I’d have known, I would have postponed the authorization by a week or two since we had no intention of provoking anyone,” Yishai said. “It is definitely unpleasant that this happened during Biden’s visit. If the committee members would have known that the approval would have escalated to such a situation, they would have informed me,” Yishai emphasized.
“I apologize for the distress this matter caused,” he added.
On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel’s plan to build 1,600 in East Jerusalem, echoing comments made earlier by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
“The secretary-general condemns the approval of plans for the building of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Ministry of Interior earlier today,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
“[Ban] reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law,” he said. “Furthermore, he underscores that settlement activity is contrary to Israel’s obligations under the Roadmap, and undermines any movement towards a viable peace process.”
The announcement also drew condemnation from European Union’s foreign-policy director, Catherine Ashton, who on Wednesday said, “May I join Vice-President Biden in condemning the decision to build 1,600 new houses.”
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to alleviate new tensions with the United States, after the announcement that Israel will build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem drew strong condemnation from the White House, and visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The prime minister reportedly promised Biden “No one was seeking to embarrass you or undermine your visit – on the contrary, you are a true friend to Israel.”
Biden arrived in Israel on Monday in an attempt to kick-start long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which had been expected to resume in the coming days, but looked in danger Tuesday after a furious response from the Palestinians to the construction plan.
Netanyahu told Biden during their meeting in Jerusalem earlier in the day that he had had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorize the additional construction, and added that the program had been drafted three years ago and only received initial authorization that day. It could take several months, Netanyahu assured him, before the program is granted final approval.
Netanyahu told his guest that the regional councils are not under the political leadership’s direct authority, and that his administration tries not to interfere with their work.
A high-ranking official in Jerusalem, however, said Netanyahu has “no problem” with construction in Jerusalem and has no intention of apologizing for building there. The official acknowledged, however, that the announcement’s timing was harmful to Israel’s diplomatic interests.
“We didn’t want to humiliate Biden or sow division while he is in Israel,” the official said.
Israel’s Interior Ministry announced that approval had been granted to build new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox community of 20,000 north of downtown Jerusalem, which borders the Palestinian village of Shuafat.
The program, authorized by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, is one of the largest construction projects Israel has launched in Jerusalem in recent years. The development would spread over an area of 580 dunams (approximately 145 acres) and include a new road leading to the neighborhood, public facilities and a park. The ministry said the plan is intended to ease the ultra-Orthodox community’s housing shortage, and 30 percent of the units will be relatively small and inexpensive, aimed at young couples.
Interior Ministry officials rejected claims that the plan’s authorization was intended to scuttle efforts to renew proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or to otherwise compromise Biden’s visit.
Jerusalem city council member Meir Margalit (Meretz) said of the plan, “The timing is not coincidental – it is a response from Eli Yishai to Netanyahu’s declaration of renewed talks with the Palestinian Authority.” Yishai, the interior minister and deputy prime minister, is chair of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
“The fact that Yishai can’t wait a few more days until Biden leaves the country proves his goal was to give the American administration a slap in the face,” Margalit said.
Ramallah sees provocation
The Palestinian Authority issued a strong rebuke of the Israeli announcement, with Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, warning the move would derail negotiations before they had even begun.
“It is apparent that the Israeli government does not want negotiations, nor does it want peace,” Abu Rudeineh said, according to the Ma’an news agency. “The American administration must respond to this provocation with effective measures.”
Abbas contacted Arab League chief Amr Moussa by phone and urged him to speak with the heads of Arab states over forming a concerted response to the building program.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, told Haaretz that Israel’s declaration shows “the Israeli government does not want peace, it does not want a solution ? There is no clearer message; there is a no more provocative measure.”
Biden will meet with Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday, and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is expected to arrive in the region next week to conduct the second round of proximity talks between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
The U.S. administration hopes it can return to direct discussions between junior-level Israeli and Palestinian officials within a few weeks.
The talks are expected to deal with all of the so-called core issues: borders, water refugees, security arrangements, settlements and the status of Jerusalem. Although the Arab League had set aside four months to allow the talks to progress, Mitchell said his administration is not operating according to a certain fixed date, and that negotiations will proceed as long as necessary.
Still, Mitchell said, he hopes Israel will take steps to build goodwill towards the Palestinians in an effort to push to direct talks. Possible gestures include the release of prisoners, removing certain West Bank checkpoints, easing the blockade of the Gaza Strip, reducing Israel’s military presence in Palestinian cities and transferring certain areas of the West Bank to Palestinian security control.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units,” Biden said in a written statement. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.”
Moments earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama’s top spokesman, Robert Gibbs, condemned Jerusalem’s announcement from the White House.
Netanyahu and Biden also discussed the Iranian nuclear threat, and both leaders agreed on the need to pursue further sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
A senior U.S. official said both Washington and Jerusalem “are working on the assumption that we will reach a fourth round of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations Security Council by late March or early April.”
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that he hopes indirect talks quickly lead to more comprehensive negotiations that could produce a final-status agreement. Tuesday’s announcement, he said, does not represent a new development.
“This is an ultra-Orthodox city very close to the Green Line, and these are housing units for people who are struggling and cannot buy elsewhere,” he said.