Just hours before Joe Biden was sworn in 12 days ago, Israel moved ahead with 100s of new illegal settlement units. That included opening construction bids on 1200 units in the “doomsday settlement” of Givat HaMatos, so-called because putting Jewish-colonist housing on this hill south of Jerusalem would forever separate Bethlehem and the West Bank from Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. So it would doom the “two-state solution,” according to liberal Zionsts who fight the settlement project.
Benjamin Netanyahu went ahead with Givat HaMatos five hours before inauguration with “malice aforethought” and “antagonism” for Biden, Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann told the Israel Policy Forum last week.
“He chose the timing. He did it with malice aforethought,” Seidemann said.
Netanyahu is wed to the Trump plan that allows Israel to annex much of the West Bank, Seidemann says, and so he sought to “stick it to a Democratic president,” much as he had sought “altercations” with Barack Obama over settlements in 2010-2012 and with Veep Joe Biden in 2010, in Biden’s case announcing new settlements as Biden arrived in Israel.
Obama and Biden repeatedly backed down, and there are no signs that Biden is going to battle Netanyahu over Givat HaMatos.
Biden’s envoys have issued only vague statements about Israel desisting from “settlement activity.” They have not called out the doomsday settlement. And one of his leading national security aides, Anne Neuberger, gave more than half a million dollars to a rightwing Israel lobby group that supports Netanyahu. A resume-builder in the Biden administration.
And meantime Netanyahu is running for reelection by saying there is one state between the river and the sea. So, get used to it, America!
“What has been done by Netanyahu over the past several days indicates an element of antagonism toward the administration, expending precious political capital [on settlements],” Seidemann said. “Netanyahu has chosen to deliver to President Biden a completely gratuitous crisis. It didn’t happen by mistake. It happened intentionally.”
Seidemann says that Netanyahu is pursuing “de facto annexation” in line with the Trump plan of a year ago. And this precludes any possibility of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s policy is that “Israel is the sole sovereign in Jerusalem, the Palestinians have no national rights or equities in the city… [The policy] entails the denationalization of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem… There is one collective in Jerusalem, it’s Israeli.” That means the dehumanization and marginalization and fragmentation of the Palestinian community. In a word, Givat HaMatos.
You’d think Netanyahu would be kissing up to Biden right now. To keep him from reentering the Iran deal. “He’s going to clash with Biden over Iran… He’s going to need some good will,” Seidemann said.
But Netanyahu obviously feels such confidence about his ability to block Biden on the Iran deal that he’s spending political capital on Jerusalem.
Liberal Zionists have repeatedly urged Biden to block Netanyahu over Givat HaMatos since the tenders were announced last fall. And of course Biden has shown no inclination to do so. It appears that Netanyahu is in the driver’s seat here, though Biden is president of the most powerful country in the world. Not on this question.
Can construction still be halted? Evan Gottesman asked Seidemann. “Regrettably I think it can’t be stopped.” Once building contractors and developers are contracted under the tenders, Israel would have to cancel private contracts to back out of the plan, and that is “virtually impossible,” Seidemann said. “The Rubicon was crossed on January 20, 2021 hours before the inauguration.”
Seidemann is a liberal Zionist who wants to block Givat HaMatos as a threat to Israel’s legitimacy as a “Jewish democracy.”
Last month, a leading Israeli human rights group said the idea of democracy is absurd, Israel is an “apartheid regime.” Liberal Zionists have largely ignored the report. That’s because acknowledging that there is a “regime of Jewish supremacy,” as B’Tselem declared, and not a Jewish democracy, would mean actually taking action against Israel, by endorsing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).
Seidemann is eloquent about Israel’s power over Biden on settlements (on twitter): “If you don’t want Netanyahu to turn you into Joe Hussein Biden, you can make some noises but let us do whatever the fuck we want.”
Liberal Zionist orgs continue to issue happy talk statements about a two-state solution, but can’t take real action to try to stop Netanyahu– say by joining with the left to threaten suspension of US aid. They are surely registering the attitudes in the American Jewish donor community, which has no problem with Anne Neuberger. No wonder Netanyahu has so much political capital!
The feeling may be mutual – https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/president-biden-still-hasnt-called-benjamin-netanyahu-657303
“President Biden still hasn’t called Prime Minister Netanyahu…Biden has called the leaders of Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, Germany, NATO, Russia, and Japan, in that order, but not the Israeli PM.”
Biden doesn’t have to mess around with threatening to cut off aid to Israel, he can unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state along the 67 borders and let the chips fall where they may. It’s a fantasy, but it’s at least as possible as the two state solution.
Yet another demonstration of Israel’s commitment to peace.
Put it down to the usual zionist chutzpah. Crooked Beebs has shown poor timing many times, including the time he announced stealing more lands for illegal settlements when VP Biden was right there in Israel. Another tactless, tasteless, act of defiance, by this war criminal. Damn him.
This time too, he knows he will NEVER be held accountable in any way, tax payer money will keep flowing to keep the zionists happy and content, and Joe and Kamala, devoted honorary zionist members, will embrace him and welcome him, when and if he visits the US, showing their unwavering support and love. Have ANY of our Presidents ever held him accountable for anything?
They spy, they steal, they lie, they interfere in our elections, and our foreign policies, and get away with every thing, including building illegal settlements, against our policies.
They certainly act like they control us, and we know it.
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“The Biden administration rejected allegations from Republican lawmakers that resuming U.S. aid to the Palestinians would violate the Taylor Force act, legislation that limits U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority over its payments to convicted terrorists and their families.
“Trump had shuttered the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington in 2019, saying that the Palestinian leadership had ‘not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.’
“Under Trump, the U.S. cut some $360 million in annual funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, leading to tens of thousands of Palestinians no longer getting food aid or basic health services. Most of the money was supposed to support humanitarian and economic projects in the West Bank and Gaza, and was not meant to go directly to the Palestinian Authority.”
“Benjamin Netanyahu went ahead with Givat HaMatos five hours before inauguration with ‘malice aforethought’ and ‘antagonism’ for Biden, Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann told the Israel Policy Forum last week.”
“’He chose the timing. He did it with malice aforethought,’ Seidemann said.”
“….and so he sought to ‘stick it to a Democratic president,’ much as he had sought ‘altercations’ with Barack Obama over settlements in 2010-2012 and with Veep Joe Biden in 2010, in Biden’s case announcing new settlements as Biden arrived in Israel.”
Well, if Netanyahu continues refusing to comply with international law, i.e., “the absolute prohibition against the annexation of occupied territories,”** President Biden should set about ending all U.S. financial aid to Israel and instruct the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. to introduce a resolution calling for the suspension of Israel’s membership (as happened to apartheid South Africa) until it complies with international law.
** https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24716&LangID=E
GENEVA (20 June 2019) – “Recent statements by senior Israeli political leaders and US diplomats in support of the annexation of parts or all of the occupied West Bank by Israel fly in the face of the absolute prohibition against the annexation of occupied territories, a UN human rights expert said today.
“’International law is very clear: annexation and territorial conquest are forbidden by the Charter of the United Nations,’ said Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. ‘The Security Council, beginning with Resolution 242 in November 1967, has expressly affirmed the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war or force on eight occasions, most recently in 2016.’
“This reflects the seminal observation of Lassa Oppenheim, a renowned scholar of international law, who wrote in 1917, amidst the bloodbath of the First World War, that: ‘There is not an atom of sovereignty in the authority of the occupying power.'”