Monday, April 26, 2010

Bibi Caves

So what exactly is the point of having a right wing government in Israel if they do crap like freezing construction in Jerusalem, Capital of the Jews for 3,000 years? This will not end well. It's pretty clear that any time you cave to demands from an anti-semite, be he American or Palestinian, more demands will simply follow:

The government has imposed a de facto freeze on new Jewish construction in east Jerusalem despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's public insistence it would not be stopped in the face of US pressure, Jerusalem municipal officials said Monday.

The apparent freeze would likely reflect Netanyahu's need to mend a serious rift with the US over Israeli construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, and to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

However, it remained unclear if the slowdown actually constituted a moratorium or how long it would last.

A government official claimed a weeks-long delay in reviewing plans for new construction was a bureaucratic issue and not evidence of a freeze. But the fact that new plans are not going ahead dovetails with signs that the Palestinians might ease their demand that the contentious construction stop before they resume peace talks.

Jerusalem councilman Meir Margalit of Meretz said top Jerusalem officials intimately involved with construction projects told him Netanyahu's office ordered a freeze after Israel infuriated Washington last month by announcing plans for more housing in eastJerusalem's Ramat Shlomo during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.

After word of the project got out, Palestinians called off indirect peace talks that the US was about to start brokering. Palestinian leaders will seek backing this week from the Arab League to participate in those talks.

"The government ordered the Interior Ministry immediately after the Biden incident to not even talk about new construction for Jewish homes in east Jerusalem," Margalit said. "It's not just that building has stopped: The committees that deal with this are not even meeting anymore."

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