Dahlia Scheindlin at +972 blasts a New York Times editorial that finds hope in Netanyahu’s rejection of a Knesset bill that would legalize a settlement the Supreme Court ruled was illegal.
let me make it extremely clear: Netanyahu’s commitment to rejecting the bill was not a statement against settlements. The vote was not about narrowing construction. And personally, I do not believe it was about implementing Supreme Court rulings either.
The events of the last few days – the committee debates, the Knesset vote on Wednesday and Netanyahu’s compromise plan – were about one thing only: Settlement expansion.
Scheindlin then quotes Netanyahu from a Hebrew speech:
“I am obliged to protect democracy, and I am obliged to protect the settlements. And I say to you now that there is no contradiction between the two. The law that was rejected in the Knesset would have harmed the settlements. By contrast, the framework I have I decided upon, expanding the settlement, relocating the buildings, legal defense of settlements against a precedent – this plan strengthens settlements….At the same time, Beit El will be expanded, the 30 families will remain and 300 families will join them…Those who think they can use the legal system to harm settlements are mistaken. In fact, the exact opposite is happening – instead of decreasing Beit El, the expansion Beit El. Instead of harming settlements, strengthening them.”
It isn’t hard to hear precisely to what the prime minister is saying in plain Hebrew. I wish the New York Times had listened before grossly misrepresenting the developments as a “glimmer of hope” for anyone seeking peace.
The machine runs 24/7 based on the code”this is Jewish land and the Palestinians have no right to live here”.
It’s a very impressive machine that can process dunams in an instant. It’s the closest thing Judaism has ever had to a real Golem.
Is it a surprise that Netanyahu does not see settlements as a problem, he is a right wing Likud prime-minister?
This whole charade is the result of our leftist NGO organizations attempts to hurt the settlements project and Netanyahu now acts in a total accordance with his beliefs and the political circumstances, on
one side he upholds the law (yes i know nobody here thinks much of Israeli law
regarding the West Bank but that’s not the point) which is what he should do as a
prime-minister, on the other hand he makes sure that this tactic that our leftist
NGO’s chose will be ineffective and in fact backfire.
The guys that brought those petitions to Bagatz can now take the credit for the building of those new 300 houses in Beit El (btw this place will remain our in any future settlement so it’s not even a problem from that perspective).
They did help this one Palestinian, though i am not sure how and what will he do with his new acquired land, he won’t live on it and he won’t get any compensation for
it as he should have duly received if the houses on it were not evicted.
AIPAC,JINSA,FDD,JIHAD WATCH ,FOX news, WaPO and WSJ are the hard power projected by Israel. NYT is the soft power projected by Israel.
Yeah, even I think this is a bad idea. They’re what, moving the buildings from one place to another in the settlement? That’s one thing, but building another 851 more (up from 300) is just provocative. How about stopping the expansion for long enough to have peace talks. Start it at a unilateral one week freeze on new building starts and keep it going as long as the talks go on. Give the Palestinians an incentive to talk peace, to go along with all the incentives they have to actually make peace.
/They’re what, moving the buildings from one place to another in the settlement?/
Beit El is not a settlement it’s already a town by Israeli size standarts.
They will probably demolish the buildings i doubt it’s practical to actually move
them.
/Give the Palestinians an incentive to talk peace, to go along with all the incentives they have to actually make peace./
I’ll let you in on a secret Fred .
They are talking, all the time, it’s not high profile but they are talking
they have no choice but to talk after the UN debacle
and the almost 0 progress they have made with Hamas.