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On Thursday, I reported that the City of Jerusalem gave final approval for the construction of 930 housing units to be added to the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa. It took a few days, but the US State Department reacted to that report on Tuesday, expressing 'deep concern' (that would put us on the same level with Asssad murdering civilians... except that I can't even find 'deep concern' from the State Department about that recently) that Israel is going to build apartments for Jewswithin its capital city (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
In a statement, the department said the U.S. has raised the issue with Israel and noted such “unilateral actions work against efforts to resume direct negotiations and contradict the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties.”
The administration will “press ahead with the parties to resolve the core issues in the context of a peace agreement,” the statement said.
The housing project will expand the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, which directly borders the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, by 930 units. Construction on the project, which was approved last week, is at least two years away, The Associated Press reported.
For the record, Har Homa is in southern Jerusalem. It is not a 'settlement' and until Obama came along, no US administration called Jerusalem suburbs 'settlements.' There's not a Jerusalem Arab anywhere near it (the closest ones are probably in Beit Tzefafa).
The picture above, which ran with the Politico report from which I quoted, is not identified. The implication is that it is part of the area into which Har Homa is to be expanded. It looks like there are a lot of people living there, doesn't it?
Then Politico comes up with this one:In its rebuke, the State Department said Israel and Palestine must continue to work for a peace agreement through the negotiating process.
No, the State Department briefing did not refer to 'Palestine.' Hey Politico - there ain't no such thing as 'Palestine.'
Haaretz adds (Hat Tip: Noah Pollak via Twitter).The State Department's statement was made four days after AFP reported that EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned Israel's approval of the new housing units and five days after top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat’s released a statement slamming the Israeli approval.
Ashton said the new move damaged Israel's prospects for peace. "The European Union has repeatedly urged the government of Israel to immediately end all settlement activities in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. All settlement activities are illegal under international law,” AFP quoted Ashton as saying in a statement.
"Continued settlement undermines trust between the parties and efforts to resume negotiations. This is especially true with regard to Jerusalem," the EU chief said, adding "I believe there can be no sustainable peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution with the state of Israel and a viable and contiguous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security."
"Settlement activity damages this prospect," she cautioned.
Hey - what took the State Department so long?
And isn't it amazing that with all the other things going on in the world, this continues to take the top priority for the State Department and for the EU 'foreign policy chief'?
Actually, continuing 'settlement activities' is the only way the 'Palestinians' are ever likely to come back to the table. You see, so long as Israel is freezing 'settlement activities,' the 'Palestinians' have nothing to lose by staying away. If their staying away means that Israel does whatever it pleases, then they have something to lose by staying away.
What could go wrong?
Seven 10 years ago terrorist snipers attacked southern Jerusalem. The stage is now being set for a repeat performance.
Last month Three years ago the Israeli Ministry of
Housing issued a tender for the construction of some 300 apartment units in the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem. Immediately, Palestinian spokesmen screamed bloody murder: Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat described the housing starts as "raised fists" against the peace process. “We loudly ask the U.S. administration to act as the judge and compel Israel to implement its commitments which the Road Map plan specified," Erekat told the Voice of Palestine. "If Israel went on, this will destroy all the efforts that aim at launching a meaningful peace process leading to ending the Israeli occupation which started in the 1967," he continued.
No one was surprised when Erekat’s complaint was quickly echoed by the UN Secretary General. "The United Nations' position on the illegality of settlements is well known," Secretary General Ban said. "The Americans must pressure the Israeli government to stop settlement activities."
The real surprise came when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined the chorus and expressed her opposition. She told a news conference and Israel’s Foreign Minister Livni, "We're in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence between the parties and this doesn't help to build confidence. There should not be anything which might prejudge final-status negotiations," Rice said. "It's even more important now that we are on the eve of the beginning of the negotiations.“ One British newspaper described her comments as, “delivering what for the Bush administration is rare criticism of Israel over its settlements policy.”
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November 2010 -- President Obama and his spokesmen decried a new Israeli announcement of plans to build more homes in Har Homa.
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The de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s new (post-1967) neighborhoods and the diplomatic attack on their expansion appear to have begun anew. The last time we saw such an assault was in 2000, and it was accompanied by deadly gunfire, as well.
During the first two years of the Intifada, more than 400 shooting attacks were unleashed on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and its 40,000 residents from the nearby Arab town of Beit Jala. Although the town was predominantly Christian, Beit Jala was infiltrated by Fatah’s Tanzim gunmen who shot at Gilo, hoping for Israeli retaliation against the local residents. Gilo residents began to evacuate. Belatedly the Israeli government provided cement barriers and bullet-proof glass to protect the Jerusalem neighborhood’s residents.
Ignoring the fact that the neighborhood consisted of major apartment complexes, schools and shopping centers, much of the world press condoned the attacks on the “Israeli settlement,” as if it were some temporary military camp. The British press was quick to claim that Gilo was “illegal under international law.” [See The Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg .] Reuters’ correspondent Christine Hauser tried to show that it was the Arab town of Beit Jala under Israeli attack by describing the piles of brass bullet shells collected by the Palestinian locals, not realizing that spent casings are found at the source of the shooting, not the target. The media distortion was so great that in 2001 CNN issued a memorandum to its staff stating that "We refer to Gilo as a 'Jewish neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem'... We don't refer to it as a settlement."
Har Homa, established in 1997, is another Jewish neighborhood on Jerusalem’s southern flanks. With an estimated6,000 20,000 residents, the suburb is a strategic impediment to Palestinian attempts to link up northern Bethlehem with Jerusalem. Google Earth’s maps of the area show Har Homa less than a mile from the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Bethlehem. Just north of Har Homa are several Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, and the Old City of Jerusalem lies just 3.5 miles beyond. No wonder Palestinians are launching an attack on the building of a measly 300 apartments.
See more history of Har Homa here.
