The defiant persistence to keep building in the West Bank coupled with announcements of new construction in east Jerusalem has left Israel all alone in the world.\u00a0 The Jewish State is taking shots from every angle and can\u2019t find a friend, even in Washington.<\/p>\n
Arab leaders, of course, hate every brick laid because each one represents, at best, the weakened bargaining position of Palestinians before they even take the, seemingly futile, step of 3 party proximity talks. \u00a0At worst, they represent the gobbling up of land Palestinians believe to be theirs and the diminished possibility of a viable Palestinian state.\u00a0 So, it would be a waste of your time for me to quote Arab anger in this forum.<\/p>\n
It is more significant when you note the top diplomat of Israel\u2019s best friend took a jab at the Jewish state. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, \u201cNew construction in east Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines that mutual trust and endangers proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides say they want and need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then General David Petraeus, took a rare diplomatic jab while still in his capacity as commander of US Central command. He said the lack of progress toward a resolution in the Israel\/Palestinian conflict troubles the US position in the Middle East. \u201cIsraeli-Palestinian tensions often flare into violence and large scale confrontations. The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of US favoritism for Israel.\u00a0 Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one was ever under the perception that the UN coddled Israel, but Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon got in his jabs as well. \u201cI made it clear that all this settlement activity is illegal and inserting settlers into Palestinian communities in Jerusalem is particularly troubling. This leads to tensions and undermines the prospects for addressing the final status of Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n
The status of Jerusalem is centerpiece in the most recent troubles. Hawks in Netanyahu\u2019s government like interior minister Eli Yishai keep announcing new construction there and leave Netanyahu the burden of answering to the US leaders who would have asked for the bricklaying to stop.<\/p>\n
Their position has long been that East Jerusalem is not up for negotiation. It will remain a unified capitol of Jerusalem after final status negotiations. Therefore, as Netanyahu told his cabinet, \u201cfrom our point of view, construction in Jerusalem is like construction in Tel Aviv.\u201d And the hawks in Netanyahu\u2019s government have timed the announcements of their point of view to crash into Netanyahu\u2019s visits with American leaders for maximum impact.<\/p>\n
The world community has a different view of East Jerusalem. The border that existed before the 1967 war ran right down road #1. \u00a0The East side was controlled by Jordan. The West Side was Israel. Both sides were called Jerusalem. \u00a0As Israel builds on the East side, the UN calls it illegal and the Palestinian President says he will not return to talks.<\/p>\n
The rest of the West Bank is held in different regard by Netanyahu\u2019s government. It is negotiable, with the exception of the major settlement blocks.\u00a0 That is why he agreed to halt permits for new construction for a 10 month period. \u00a0That moratorium ends in September. Although construction never stopped on partially completed housing, in September the moratorium on new housing expires.\u00a0 Expect great outrage because Netanyahu has already promised to break new ground for Jewish housing in the West bank then.<\/p>\n
The only supporters Netanyahu can find are the same right-wing ministers who keep announcing the new construction.\u00a0 They have polarized against the US administration. Y-net quotes Science and technology minister Daniel Hershkowitz, \u201cWe are not an American satellite.\u201d\u00a0 Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said, \u201cThe Americans also need to understand that if the pressure continues to be one-sided it won\u2019t contribute, and may even lead to an opposite effect \u2013 AKA boomerang.\u201d \u00a0The Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Dany Dannon, played the exodus card in the lead-up to Passover, \u201cPresident Obama\u2019s condescending and insulting behavior reminds us of how we were treated by the Pharaoh in Egypt\u2026We won\u2019t bow to foreign rulers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The defiant persistence to keep building in the West Bank coupled with announcements of new construction in east Jerusalem has left Israel all alone in the world.\u00a0 The Jewish State is taking shots from every angle and can\u2019t find a friend, even in Washington. Arab leaders, of course, hate every brick laid because each one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4733,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}