...happy trails...
November 23rd 2010 1400hrs
Aug.3/11
I've unlocked the Board, in case a passerby want to have a look or perhaps drop a comment in..
I can reached at: locarno84@gmx.com
| Israel OKs 1,600 New Homes in East Jerusalem | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 10 2010, 09:31 AM (50 Views) | |
| xray | Mar 10 2010, 09:31 AM Post #1 |
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Israel OKs 1,600 New Homes in East Jerusalem Tuesday , March 09, 2010 AP JERUSALEM — Israel approved the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem on Tuesday — a move that immediately clouded a visit by Vice President Joe Biden aimed at repairing strained ties and kickstarting Mideast peace talks. The Interior Ministry announced the construction plans just as Biden was wrapping up a series of warm meetings with Israeli leaders. There was no immediate reaction from the vice president. Relations between Israel and the Obama administration have been chilly precisely because of the settlement issue. The U.S., like the Palestinians and the rest of the international community, believes that Israeli settlements built on lands claimed by the Palestinians, including east Jerusalem, undermine peace prospects. President Obama has been more outspoken on the issue than his predecessors. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed calls from the White House to halt all settlement activity, agreeing only to a limited freeze that does not include east Jerusalem. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed east Jerusalem. Israel considers its east Jerusalem neighborhoods to be part of its undivided capital, but the annexation has never been internationally recognized and the neighborhoods are widely seen as settlements. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said the new homes would be built in Ramat Shlomo, an existing neighborhood for ultra-Orthodox Jews. She noted that there is a 60-day appeals period, indicating that the decision could yet be changed. But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the move was destroying trust needed to go forward with the new round of indirect peace talks, which the two sides agreed this week would take place under the mediation of U.S. envoy George Mitchell. Peace efforts have been stalled for 14 months, in large part because of Palestinian anger over settlement activity. "With such an announcement, how can you build trust? This is destroying our efforts to work with Mr. Mitchell," Erekat said. "It's a really disastrous situation. I hope that this will be an eye-opener for all in the international community about the need to have the Israeli government stop such futile exercises." The announcement threatened to embarrass Biden, whose visit is aimed largely at repairing the relationship with Israel. Biden's public comments throughout the day had clearly been meant to calm Israeli concerns that Obama has been less friendly to the country than past U.S. leaders. The move also may have been the result of internal politics. A spokesman for Netanyahu said he was unaware of the announcement, raising the possibility that the Interior Ministry — run by a hardline religious party — had not coordinated the news with the Israeli leader or had even tried to embarrass him. Interior Minister Eli Yishai's office issued a statement saying Tuesday's decision was a procedural step in a long process. "The timing ... has no connection to the U.S. vice president's visit to Israel," it said. Earlier in the day, Biden made no mention of the settlement dispute as he assured Israelis they can count on strong U.S. backing as peace efforts finally resume. The resumption of talks, albeit indirect, is the first concrete achievement for Obama in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. The relationship between the two allies, Biden told reporters as he stood beside Netanyahu, has always been a "centerpiece of American policy." "Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel," Biden said. "The United States will always stand with those who take risks for peace," Biden said, telling Netanyahu, "you're prepared to do that." Obama began his term with a push for Mideast peace, prodding Israel to freeze its construction of West Bank settlements that swallow up land the Palestinians want for a future state. The insistence on a total settlement freeze is seen by many in the region to have backfired. Polls show that Israelis have largely come to see Obama as overly sympathetic to Israel's enemies, making it difficult for the administration to get Israeli public opinion behind any difficult peace moves. Biden offered assurances that the U.S. remained committed to Israel's security. Iran appeared to loom large in Biden's discussions with Netanyahu. "We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," he said. Israel has been pushing for stricter international sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program, and has refused to rule out a military strike if sanctions fail. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ >Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed east Jerusalem. Israel considers its east Jerusalem neighborhoods to be part of its undivided capital This whole thing is getting rather tiring. I've always been against Israel setting in the lands it conquered in the 1967 war, but they won the war and they have decided to keep it. It's time for the Arabs to accept the fact that they are not getting the land back. Move on and try and work with the Israelis and form a new nation. Maybe Jordon and Egypt can donate some land. Just musing.... |
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| Beancounter | Mar 10 2010, 04:48 PM Post #2 |
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As they say: Possession is 9/10 of the law. We know something about disputed land in Canada, ask residents of Brantford or Caledonia Ontarrio. No doubt in other provicses as well. |
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| xray | Mar 11 2010, 10:16 AM Post #3 |
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Administrator
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A further article........ ______________________________________________________________________________ Analysis: US hamstrung on Israeli settlements AP ![]() AP – U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, left, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer Steven R. Hurst, Associated Press Writer – Thu Mar 11, 7:04 am ET WASHINGTON – A year ago, President Barack Obama boldly, unequivocally demanded that Israel stop building settlements on the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Today he's left with little choice but to swallow a stinging and very public rebuke from America's closest Mideast ally. Why? Too much is at stake. The administration has invested too much time, credibility and political capital to throw up its hands and walk away from its hard-fought efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians back to peace talks. An open fight with Israel is the last thing Obama needs in the midst of domestic political turmoil that has snarled signature efforts like health care reform. But the White House has signaled deep anger and probably won't forgive or forget Israel's boorish behavior. Vice President Joe Biden had gone to Israel and the Palestinian territories to reassure the Jewish state of unstinting American support and to praise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for agreeing to resume peace talks. Biden's was the highest-level visit to Israel since Obama took office — a fence-mending journey after a very difficult year in U.S.-Israeli relations. The vice president was virtually in mid-blandishment when the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the rug from beneath him. It announced plans to build 1,600 new homes in an east Jerusalem neighborhood. After then showing up very late for dinner with Netanyahu, Biden issued a statement condemning the new Israeli move and declaring that it undermined trust just as U.S.-brokered talks were about to resume after a 14-month hiatus. The Obama administration decided to use the word condemn — the strongest kind of diplomatic language — after a 90-minute debate among the Biden party in Israel, the National Security Council and the State Department. A day later, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley expressed bafflement at the Israeli action. "It would be unusual for an Israeli government to take this kind of action while the vice president is standing next to the prime minister. We are talking to the government and trying to understand what happened and why," he said. Given Israel's powerful rebuke during a visit by the vice president, the question arises: Why did Obama choose the policy he did from the outset of his term in office? Through a year of ragged relations, the Obama administration had moved from stark demands that Israeli end all settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, to praise for the Netanyahu government for agreeing to a temporary suspension of settlement activity — except in east Jerusalem. In moving from one point to the next, Obama became just the latest American president to crash against the impenetrable stone walls, the unbending positions that have time and again blocked Mideast peacemaking. The goal Obama set out to reach was not only a formal, lasting peace after decades of war and antagonism, but the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. To get there, Israel and the Palestinians had to overcome deep disputes over who controlled what territory — understandable in a tiny piece of real estate where nearly every turn in a road marks a place sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians. But the knottiest problem remains Jerusalem. The Palestinians demand that the West Bank along with Gaza constitute their state, with east Jerusalem as capital. The Israelis have shown no flexibility on Jerusalem and have not since they annexed the eastern part of the holy city at the end of the 1967 war. By initially demanding Israel change tactics on settlements, there was the assumption that Obama had also told Netanyahu that there was an "or else." That "or else" — some form of withholding aid or arms or just a diplomatic cold shoulder — would, however, have ensured a political explosion among Israel's supporters in the United States, particularly among the powerful Jewish lobby. Perhaps Obama, in taking his tough initial tack, had not foreseen the deep political divisions he would face a little more than a year into his presidency. "He can't win on Jerusalem right now. No matter how humiliating, he has to swallow it," said Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He served for two decades as a State Department senior Mideast policy adviser. Working with Israel, said Miller, "is like dancing with a bear. Once you start, you can't let go." |
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| Beancounter | Mar 11 2010, 10:56 PM Post #4 |
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I am 100% behind Netanyahu. Jerusalem has always been closely identified with the nation of Israel. The Bible is FULL of references tying Israel and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not mentioned even ONCE in the Koran. Go figure! |
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| Bruce | Mar 12 2010, 12:25 PM Post #5 |
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Israel moves to change law after Biden "mishap" By MATTI FRIEDMAN (AP) – 5 hours ago JERUSALEM — Israel is moving to amend the country's planning procedures on sensitive political decisions following an embarrassing diplomatic flap during a visit this week by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Cabinet minister said Friday. The change endorsed by a parliamentary legislation committee Thursday will require a representative of the prime minister to be present when development plans are approved. The change aims to ensure the country's leader is not caught off guard by politically charged decisions, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was by the approval of 1,600 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem during Biden's visit. Both Biden and the Palestinians sharply condemned the Israeli settlement decision. Netanyahu apologized for the timing, though not the substance, of the announcement. Biden's trip this week, aimed at renewing Mideast peace efforts as well as repairing Israel-U.S. ties strained precisely by disagreements over Israeli settlement construction, was overshadowed by the Israeli move. Netanyahu said he was not aware of the decision — announced by Israel's Interior Ministry — before it was made public, and released a statement saying he had reprimanded the Cabinet minister responsible. There has been no indication he took further action against those involved. |
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2:10 PM Jul 11