Israel's response to the U.N.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

White House: U.S. calls on Israel to reconsider settlement plan in E-1

U.S. says Netanyahu's plan to build 3,000 new homes in East Jerusalem and West Bank is 'especially damaging' to efforts to secure two-state solution.

The White House called on Israel on Monday to reconsider plans to advance settlement construction in area E-1, connecting between Maa'leh Adumim and Jerusalem.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that the United States stressed to Israel that the advancement of the plan in the E-1 area and the wave of settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank opposes U.S. policies and harms the two-state solution.

“We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these actions," Carney added.

State Department deputy press secretary Mark Toner said the plans are 'especially damaging' to efforts to achieve a two-state solution. "We have made clear to the Israeli government that such action is contrary to U.S. policy."

Toner added that the U.S. opposes unilateral actions, such as construction in settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "[These actions] complicate efforts to resume direct, bilateral negotiations, and risk prejudging the outcome of those negotiations," he said.

"Weurge the parties to cease unilateral actions and take concrete steps to return to direct negotiations," Toner added.

Netanyahu’s decision Friday to move ahead on planning in E1 and to build 3,000 housing units in the settlement blocs and in East Jerusalem, has apparently shocked the foreign ministries and the leaders in London and Paris. Not only do Britain and France view construction in E1 as a “red line,” they are reportedly angry because they view Israel as having responded ungratefully to the support the two countries gave it during the recent Gaza operation.

“London is furious about the E1 decision,” a European diplomat told Haaretz.

According to three senior diplomats from various EU countries, Britain and France were coordinating their moves against Israel, which they will reportedly implement over the next few days, and have discussed the extraordinary step of recalling their ambassadors from Tel Aviv for consultations. This step has never been taken before by these countries toward Israel. It would be so extreme that Britain and France may not take such action at this point but, rather, could invoke it in the case of further escalation of Israeli actions against the Palestinians. A final decision in the matter will be made today by the British and the French foreign ministers.

A source in the Prime Minister’s Bureau said Israel was planning more steps against the Palestinian Authority. “The Palestinians will soon realize they made a mistake in taking unilateral steps that breached agreements with Israel,” the source said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/white-house-u-s-calls-on-israel-to-reconsider-settlement-plan-in-e-1.premium-1.482171#

[^_^ 5,021]

Yeah, Israel will say ok we'll think about it..............

...........................

...........................

ok, we thought about it. we're still doing it.

and the united states will thank israel for giving its objections due consideration and announce the next huge influx of cash for iron dome.

the palestinians still lose.

[Karee 4,190]

[quote name=' timestamp='1354563380' post='5852796]

Yeah, Israel will say ok we'll think about it..............

...........................

...........................

ok, we thought about it. we're still doing it.

and the united states will thank israel for giving its objections due consideration and announce the next huge influx of cash for iron dome.

the palestinians still lose.

I think they even stopped saying "we'll think about it" now.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Karee

[mawilson 2,133]

Wow! Something we agree on. I'm not voting for Bibi either.

Are you going to Israel to vote?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/britain-considers-recalling-israel-envoy-source-072852303.html

Israel says will stick with settlement plan despite condemnation

By Jeffrey Heller | Reuters – 53 mins ago

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel rejected concerted criticism from the United States and Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Washington urged Israel to reconsider its plan to erect 3,000 more homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying the move hindered peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their capitals to give similar messages.

An official in Netanyahu's office said Israel would not bend. "Israel will continue to stand by its vital interests, even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision that was made," the official said.

Angered by the U.N. General Assembly's upgrading on Thursday of the Palestinians' status in the world body from "observer entity" to "non-member state", Israel said the next day it would build the new dwellings for settlers.

Such projects, on land Israel captured in a 1967 war, are considered illegal by most world powers and have routinely drawn condemnation from them. Approximately 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the two areas.

In a shift that raised the alarm among Palestinians and in world capitals, Netanyahu's pro-settler government also ordered "preliminary zoning and planning work" for thousands of housing units in areas including the "E1" zone east of Jerusalem.

Such construction in the barren hills of E1 has never been put into motion in the face of opposition from Israel's main ally, the United States. Building in the area could bisect the West Bank, cut off Palestinians from Jerusalem and further dim their hopes for a contiguous state.

Israeli television stations reported Jerusalem's district planning commission would soon approve plans for several thousand more housing units, including more than 1,000 Israel had shelved two years ago after angering Washington by publishing the plans before a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

The settlement plan, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, would deal "an almost fatal blow" to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

French President Francois Hollande said he was "extremely concerned" and Washington made clear it would not back such Israeli retaliation over the U.N. vote, sought by Palestinians after peace talks collapsed in 2010 over settlement building.

"We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these unilateral decisions and exercise restraint as these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations to achieve a two state solution," White House spokesman Jay Carney told a briefing.

Ahead of a Netanyahu visit this week, Germany, considered Israel's closest ally in Europe, urged it to refrain from expanding settlements, and Russia said it viewed the Israeli moves with serious concern.

RETALIATION

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel could not have remained indifferent to the Palestinians' unilateral move at the United Nations.

"I want to tell you that those same Europeans and Americans who are now telling us 'naughty, naughty' over our response, understand full-well that we have to respond, and they themselves warned the Palestinian Authority," he said.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said building in E1 "destroys the two-state solution, (establishing) East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and practically ends the peace process and any opportunity to talk about negotiations in the future".

The United States, one of the eight countries to vote alongside Israel against the Palestinian resolution at the General Assembly, has said both were counterproductive to the resumption of direct peace talks.

In Europe, only the Czech Republic voted against the status upgrade while many countries, including France, backed it. Netanyahu plans to visit Prague this week to express his thanks.

In the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, spokesman for the governing Hamas Islamist movement, called the settlements "an insult to the international community, which should bear responsibility for Israeli violations and attacks on Palestinians".

Israeli police arrested three Jewish settlers on Monday whom they suspect of arson and other crimes against Palestinian property in the West Bank, including the torching of a car.

Attackers have often proclaimed they are exacting a "price tag" for steps taken against the settler movement by Palestinians, or by the Israeli government.

Alongside the settlement plans, Israel announced it would withhold about $100 million in Palestinian tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, saying Palestinians owed $200 million to Israeli firms.

"These are not steps towards peace, these are steps towards the extension of the conflict," Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said.

Only three weeks ago, Netanyahu won strong European and U.S. support for a Gaza offensive that Israel said was aimed at curbing persistent cross-border rocket fire.

Favoured by opinion polls to win a January 22 national election, he brushed off the condemnation and complaints at home that he is deepening Israel's diplomatic isolation.

Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that his government "will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places on the map of Israel's strategic interests".

But while his housing minister has said the government would soon invite bids from contractors to build 1,000 homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem and more than 1,000 in West Bank settlement blocs, the E1 plan is still in its planning stages.

"No one will build until it is clear what will be done there," the minister, Ariel Attias, said on Sunday.

Israel froze much of its activities in E1 under pressure from former U.S. President George W. Bush, and the area has been under the scrutiny of his successor, Barack Obama.

Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem and regards all of the holy city as its capital, a claim that is not recognised internationally.

[^_^ 5,021]

yeah. of course they are.

facts on the ground always trump everything else.

palestine may very well end up being the first "country" (as recognized by the UN) to not actually exist on the ground.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

[quote name=' timestamp='1354566885' post='5852924]

yeah. of course they are.

facts on the ground always trump everything else.

palestine may very well end up being the first "country" (as recognized by the UN) to not actually exist on the ground.

The road Netanyahu is on eventually leads to one state with equal rights for all :dance:

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

'U.S. angered by claim that new building at E-1 aimed at Obama, not Palestinians'

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer says Washington miffed by background briefing by Israeli official that tied E-1 announcement to Obama’s refusal to confirm 2004 Bush-Sharon letter.

The U.S. Administration intensified its criticism of Israel’s decision to proceed with construction at the E-1 site near Ma'ale Adumim in response to indications that the move was meant to “retaliate” against U.S. President Barack Obama for his refusal to endorse the 2004 Sharon-Bush letter on settlement blocs.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer told Haaretz on Monday that the Administration was angered by a background briefing in which an Israeli official was quoted as saying that since the Obama Administration refused to reaffirm Bush’s 2004 letter “we no longer feel that we are bound by any commitment on E-1.”

“What that suggests to Washington is that Jerusalem was waiting for an opportunity to do this, that it was designed to provoke anger in the Administration, and that they picked what they thought was a convenient moment,” Kurtzer said. “It was a low blow."

Kurtzer, now a Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University and editor of a new book entitled “Pathways to Peace: America and The Arab-Israeli Public” published by Palgrave Macmillan, said “Israel could have explained that E-1 was just in the planning stages but this background briefing indicated that it was a twofer as far as Israel was concerned: We will take $100 million from the Palestinians to pay the electricity bill and we will get back at you because you didn’t reaffirm the letter.

“So this was something they had wanted to do for four years. It wasn’t just retribution at the UN, it was retribution at the U.S. as well,” Kurtzer said.

The April 14, 2004 letter from then President Bush to then Prime Minister Sharon, part of an exchange of letters between the two in advance of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, contained a clause that Israel views as U.S. support for its demand to hold on to the “settlement blocs” in the West Bank.

“In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities,” Bush’s letter noted.

Israel failed in its efforts to convince the incoming Obama Administration to reaffirm the letter and to have it serve as a basis for the American position on the delineation of borders in any final status Israeli-Palestinian agreement. This lingering point of friction between the two countries developed into open confrontation in the wake of Obama’s May 19, 2011 speech in which he said that “The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-angered-by-claim-that-new-building-at-e-1-aimed-at-obama-not-palestinians.premium-1.482197#

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

The road Netanyahu is on eventually leads to one state with equal rights for all :dance:

[decocker 7,198]

is it the rainbow or the phallic shaped horn that draws you to post this picture repeatedly?

what does it have to do with bibi and his pigheadedness? you need to scout a picture from charlotte's web or babe..

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

More gay porn?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

You can hardly contain your excitement over the the hopes of more ethnic cleansing, B D ?

[himher 634]

Why would beliefs like this have anything to do with terrorism? Oh well you said it dude I didnt LOL

I was just sharing some fundamental religious beliefs. Terrorism didnt come up but now that you mention it they do sound a hell of a lot like the things radical islamic terrorists say and believe in........

Let me guess. You found that info on a "Terrorism 101" site. Israel is sewing up some loose ends so get over it.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Are you going to Israel to vote?

Yep.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

The road Netanyahu is on eventually leads to one state with equal rights for all :dance:

Yes, it does. Maybe I should vote for him lol