Israeli Cabinet Backs New Settlements

Defying Rebuke from Washington, Gov't Backs Prime Minister Netanyahu's Plan for New West Bank Construction

(AP)  Israeli Cabinet ministers lined up on Sunday behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to approve the construction of hundreds of new apartments in West Bank settlements, defiantly shrugging off a rare and harsh public rebuke from top ally Washington.

Israeli officials announced the new construction on Friday, while suggesting they might halt some building in the West Bank in exchange for overtures from the Arab world.

But while Israel portrayed its willingness to consider a building slowdown as a concession toward peacemaking, the proposed new construction flouted U.S. demands for a complete settlement freeze. And it drew swift denunciation from the Palestinians, who have conditioned the resumption of peace talks on a halt to all settlement activity.

Israel says a curtailment in construction would not apply to the new housing units, the 2,500 units currently under construction, or to east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim for the capital of a future state. Israel captured that sector of the city in 1967 and Netanyahu's hawkish coalition objects to any territorial concessions there.

If Netanyahu hoped to defuse a coalition crisis by linking a possible building slowdown to the approval of new building projects, then the tactic appeared to work, judging by ministers' comments ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting.

The head of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, Eli Yishai, spoke supportively of a "strategic pause" in construction. And Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz called Netanyahu's move "well-conceived," adding that no agreement had been reached with Washington on a construction freeze.

Netanyahu pointedly did not address the issue in prepared remarks before the weekly Cabinet meeting.

On Friday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the U.S. regretted Israel's plans to approve additional settlement construction.

"As the president has said before, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop," Gibbs said in a statement.

In recent weeks, however, in the face of Netanyahu's staunch refusal to freeze construction, the U.S. administration has appeared to back down from its initial insistence that Israel halt all settlement expansion.

Washington's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, is due in the region later this week to try to bridge differences.

Peace talks have been suspended since shortly before Netanyahu's election, but Israeli and Palestinian officials had both said that Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas might meet for the first time at the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month.

Abbas, however, hinted Friday that such a meeting would not take place while settlement construction continues, saying "the meeting is not scheduled yet."

On Sunday, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the new construction plans "really undermines the efforts being exerted to revive the peace process"

About 300,000 Israelis live among about 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank. An additional 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem neighborhoods built since Israel captured the area in the 1967 Mideast war.

[truespeak]

NOTHING CHANGES THE DIRECTION OF THE APOCALYPTIC MINDSET -
ALL OF WHICH IS CAUSED BY DANGEROUS AND DEADLY RELIGIOUS FANTASY

If the progressive, secular, free - mainly Western, non-Islamofascist - world does not put a stop to the destructiveness that religion has ON THE ENTIRE WORLD, we can EXPECT total or near-total death and destruction. And that means virtually all of the totally innocent flora and fauna who quite frankly deserve to live, and have the right to live far more than mankind does, will also be wiped out!

This planet's total destruction is much closer than many of us can conceive. In fact, if we measure our time remaining on the Doomsday Clock, we should set it at about ONE AND A HALF MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT, because with the advent of nuclear and other weapons and devices of massive destruction being acquired by religiously maniacal nations and/or religiously maniacal individuals, groups, and/or the similar APOCALYPTICALLY-MINDED...

It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that our Western and other Free World leaders coordinate their efforts as the number one priority, to hunt down and eliminate these religiously maniacal barbarians, and to prevent and neutralize ANY NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES of maniacally religious nations and religiously maniacal entities, from acquiring or producing nuclear or other weapons or devices of mass destruction.
If it takes massive military action - AND SOONER RATHER THAN LATER - to accomplish the forgoing, we owe no apologies for doing so, as OUR SURVIVAL IS AT STAKE!!!

[pensacola8-2009]

How stupid can a country be? Why would anyone build Manhattan island styled development right on the frontier of their country's leading enemy?

I guess Israel aims to portray their neighbor's as a landfill and build Disney World right next to them to make a political statement. What a waste of resources!!

Something tells me Israel lives to fight and fights to live.

[hamiltoningrate]

What country celebrates baby killers ???

[hamiltoningrate]

Who killed Robert Kennedy ???

what kind of people or media could forget that it was Palest. agent SIRHAN SIRHAN.. Arafat's man in LA.
Once captured, Arafat tried to blackmail the USA by taking hostages, including our Ambassador. Nixon of course refused to let SIRHAN go, and ARAFAT personally tortured our man, by pulling and peeling off his skin, burning him and more........ What kind of people are these ???

[truespeak]

by truespeak September 6, 2009 5:32 PM EDT
HI, earth562.

We are doomed if we don't phase out and eliminate religion.

You see, with the advent of nuclear weapons and devices, and other weapons and devices of massive death and destruction being acquired by all sorts of religiously maniacal minds...

...aren't you able to draw your own conclusions ?

If there is one way to make people 'MURDER AND DIE FOR', it is by using religion to manipulate minds!

[truespeak]

HI, earth562.

We are doomed if we don't phase out and eliminate religion.

You see, with the advent of nuclear weapons and devices, and other weapons and devices of massive death and destruction, being acquired by all sorts of religiously maniacal minds...

...aren't you able to draw your own conclusions ?

If there is one way to make people 'MURDER AND DIE FOR', it is by using religion to manipulate minds!

[truespeak]

MY GOD IS MUCH BETTER THAN YOURS, AND FURTHERMORE,
SHE IS THE TRUE, REAL, ONE AND ONLY GOD POSSIBLE!

How is it that everybody's God - one brandname or another - is better than everybody else's God?

Can anyone tell us which brand-named God tastes the best, smells the best, is the coolest, the smartest, the kindest, and knows how to please his/her lover best?

[worldcitizen1]

The US taxpayer can not affort to continue to police the world. Cut off all aid to countries that do not need it on humanitarian needs, hunger or natural disasters, and start taking care of the US. With all the money wasted no the "war on terror" we could actually save many more lives by spending it on education and healthcare for all Americans. Israel has had 60 years to provide for themselves, cut off all military and financial aid. They might be more inclined to make peace with their neighbors.

[mrjustice1]

AGAIN AND AGAIN, DELUSIONAL RELIGIOUS MENTALITY PROHIBITS PROGRESS

When will 'the world', its leaders and its people, recognize the fact that religion is poison, and that religion is a dangerous and deadly fantasy?

[dcline5]

It's time to stop supporting Israeli theft of land with American billions infused into their budget every year. What neighbor would tolerate his neighbor stealing his back yard??? None!! There is no - repeat - NO excuse for underwriting Israeli behavior.

[quapawsix]

Here's a thought how bout we just cut off aid to everyone we are giving aid to pull our troupes back to the US and tell the rest of the world you are on your own. I as a taxed to death American am tired of supplying these dip wads they are not worth the effort it takes to fart.

[marvenetta]

Pres. Obama has proven once again that he has no spine. His cave-in to Israel will not only cause him to lose the confidence and respect of the Palestinians and Arabs for his handling of Israel, but he will also lose the respect of the world. Pres. Obama has allowed Netanyahu and the Israeli Jews to prove once again that they control the US, and the historical double standards and hypocrisy of the US in favor of Israel will continue.

Hopefully, Pres. Obama's betrayal of the Palestinians and Arabs will motivate them to seek alliances with Iran, and all to work on getting nuclear bombs. This is the only solution to their lack of defense against Israel and inability to bring peace in the Middle East.

[stopoil]

Has not owning all of Israel been worth 61 years of such suffering by the Palestinians? There never was a country to start with. All countries have made territorial compromises (except Australia). Arabs not willing to recognize Israel's right to exist is the reason Palestinians have suffered so much and do not have a state of their own.
Two people, two nations who have thousands of years of shared history to this land, must recognize each other?s legitimate right to this land and share this land in peace together.

[antoniof123]

I say get out and let them kill each other they are all a bunch of idiots they all have the same blood and yet they kill for their god.

Some god must be the devil.

[ajayvee]

How humiliating to see one's country owned and controlled by a miniscule portion of its population! To see one's President snubbed and middle-finger saluted by a rogue state the size of a postage stamp and to be too scared as a people to say or do anything about it! What will it take to liberate America from Ariel Sharon's famous boast?

[hamiltoningrate]

///////// WHO KILLED ROBERT KENNEDY ?? WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE WOULD FORGET ???


After a couple of hours we learned they had seized the participants at a diplomatic reception organized by the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum and were asking for Sirhan's release. On March 2, 1973, after President Nixon refused the terrorists' demand, the PLO commandos executed three of their hostages: American Ambassador Cleo A. Noel Jr., his deputy, George Curtis Moore, and Belgian charge d'affaires Guy Eid.


ap report

[hamiltoningrate]

A History Lesson.... By the way ARAFAT was born in Egypt !

Arabs are not native to Palestine, but are native to Arabia, which is called Arab-ia for the breathtakingly simple reason that it is the historic home of the Arabs. The territories comprising all other "Arab" states outside the Arabian peninsula?including Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as the entity now formally under the Palestinian Authority?were originally non-Arab nations that were conquered by the Muslim Arabs when they spread out from the Arabian peninsula in the first great wave of jihad in the 7th century, defeating, mass-murdering, enslaving, dispossessing, converting, or reducing to the lowly status of dhimmitude millions of Christians and Jews and destroying their ancient and flourishing civilizations. Prior to being Christian, of course, these lands had even more ancient histories. Pharaonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000 year history. The recent assertion by the Palestinian Arabs that they are descended from the ancient Canaanites whom the ancient Hebrews displaced is absurd in light of the archeological evidence".

[marvenetta]

NETANYAHU and hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews were born in the US and immigrated to Israel, where they practice their racist superiority by murderng defenseless Palestinians and stealing their land without suffering consequences. They could not get away with this in the US. Most of the other Israeli Jews come from europeans countries and they, too, have no history or right to land in the Middle East. Israeli Jews conquered the Palestinians and stole their land with the assistance of the US, which is most frustrating and sad part of this story. Without US double standards and hypocrisy, the Palestinians would not be in occupation. The US abolished its own system of slavery centuries ago, only to support the Israeli Jew system of slavery. Now, the US is working against its own national interest by allowing the Israeli Jews to continue their illegal settlements. GO FIGURE!!!!

[hamiltoningrate]

We need to remember the slaughter of poor Jews in Hebron, at the hands of the Arabs. What people could forget such atrocities ?

[quapawsix]

People read what Israel did when they first moved into that area after the exodus from Egypt, they slathered every one they came across. this war between the Jews and their neighbors has been going on for thousands of years it's almost like they don't know how to do anything else.

[jackobyte]

Thats a joke isnt it?
One last build before slowing down... no mention of stopping.

The USA has been facilitating Israeli expansion for decades, why would they stop now? because of a black president? give us a break the USA is top heavy with Jews.

Then people wonder why muslims are agitated all over the world. This crime of Israel against the Palestinians will be seen in the future as one of the largest and long running ever and will bring shame on all countries that colluded with Israel and its "puppet" the USA (which means the whole world really). The UN is pathetically ineffective as it is in most things being mainly funded by the west.

The only reasons theres some movement on it now is the 2 wars bankrupting the usa as a consequence, prior to this it had been established that OPEC cannot exist without the wests oil consumption so they stopped rocking the boat.

Who fights for the Palestinians? it seems only the rank and file muslims all over the world who see the reflection of Palestinians in every hurt they suffer.

I am not a muslim in fact muslims were/are our arch enemies but I know injustice and crimes against humanity when I see it, it is not hard.