By JPOST EDITORIALPalestinians should hunker down and hammer out an agreement instead of transforming every future building plan into a crisis.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) revealed Tuesday in an interview with Arutz Sheva Radio that he will keep plans to build over 20,000 housing units in Judea and Samaria on the agenda, calling the Palestinian Authority’s threats to quit negotiations “nonsense.”
“Whoever thinks we should engage in negotiations with them, can engage in negotiations with them,” Ariel stated, “but we will continue to build in Jerusalem – and that’s the way it has to be.”
MK Ariel participated Monday in a joint tour of the Neot Kedumim NatureReserve with economics and real estate moguls, which included a night tour andlighting a hanukkiah.
“The holiday of Hanukkah for me is about the Maccabees liberating the entire Land of Israel, and especially the Temple Mount, and the need for the Jewish people to remember this stage in our history,” he said.
Ariel also referred to the Prawer program, which resettles Bedouin illegal settlers in the Negev to legal portions of land. The program has caused mass protests and injuries after Saturday’s “day of rage.”
“The Bedouin’s arguments are wrong,” Ariel declared. “After nearly a decade of dialogue, the time has come to give solutions to all the screaming and the incorrect claims against the state, and it is up to the Police forces to handle the unrest.”
He continued, “I turn to the Prime Minister to convene this episode by looking to the lessons of the past – not only regarding evacuation but regarding the resettling of [the Bedouin] in new communities.”
“The intervention of Arab Knesset members damages their own public,” he continued, referring to the fact that Arab MKs participated in Saturday’s violent protests. “I think it is time that the Arab and Bedouin public take its destiny in hand to find a just solution in cooperation with the state.”
Ariel added that the Housing Ministry is working constantly to lower the housingprices in Israel and in coming weeks will convene a special meeting with the Prime Minister to introduce a number of programs that will lead to lower housingprices in Israel.
The Prime Minister’s office, meanwhile, continued to tell Arutz Sheva that programs for more building in the region “have been frozen” for the time being.
yamit82 Said:
The pudit’s Henny Youngman!!!!!!!!!
mar55 Said:
The oil bussiness is a snakes nest!!!!!Darlin
@ mar55:
Communist China Lobbying to Take Over U.S. Oil, Lawmakers Still Concerned
See additional articles links on same page:
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George Soros Touts China as Leader of New World Order
China: The New Investment Savior?
Chinese Spying in the United States
Communist China Blasts Second Amendment, U.S. Human-rights Record
America’s Exploding Energy Reserves Are Also Exploding Myths
Comment to Norman F in moderation …. It;s like 6 in a row tonight. Only my one liners seem to make it through.
@ NormanF:
Most of the Gas in Europe is piped in from Russia not the ME. The Russians leverage their near monopoly both fiscally and politically. Israel is building LPG facilities in Cyprus and needs to build or complete piples from our wells to Cyprus. Alternative markets are are Asia but they buy ME gas and Philipines gas and oil as well. With new finds in Australia, Asia has a new major source potential but like Israel they have both technical and local ecological pressures against a quick development.
I look at our situation this way. With our own gas, oil and refining capabilities we are now 100% energy independent which alone saves us billions each year and shields us from boycotts and embargoes. initial downside providing security for our off shore wells will cost $ 400-500 million a year in naval ship purchases Choppers and drones. Without exporting product it will take Israel 5 years before we see a profit. Gas is good but we need Shale oil before the pries drop below the cost effectiveness of Fracking around $50 a barrel. I can see the Saudis and Gulf States both upping production and lowering prices to make America and other fracking enterprises unprofitable.
It’s no secret that American oil companies want in in Iran. The Saudis control their own product and only give a small profit to Internationals on service contracts. Iran promises much higher profits. Our best bet for safe exports is to Asia. LPG Facility is a Must.
@ Ted Belman:
Israel is in serious trouble.
As much as I like blaming Bibi for his lack of leadership, the truth is that Israel is small, vulnerable and dependent on the goodwill of the US and to a lesser extent, of the Europeans.
There was a time, in 1967, when Israel could have annexed Judea and Samaria, got rid of many Palestinians by scaring their souls out of the country, and eliminated any traces of arab culture, including street signs in Arabic. The world would have bitched for a week, but would have accepted it. Even as late as when Rabbi Kahane was around, something could have been done that the world would have tolerated.
But, in 2013 Israel has for too long accepted the narrative of the Palestinians. Israel has continually been willing to withdraw from its land by refusing to take possession of it and build it up. It has accepted that a Palestinian state should exist in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Has for so long allowed the arabs in Israel to feel like the true owners of the house, that their hopes and expectations are now sky high. Arabs have no reason to compromise, and they won’t. Their expectations are now fully shared by the Europeans and Americans.
Israelis are now demoralized. The secular Left is leaving Israel. The religious Right is too small and too divided, and more importantly does not have the support of the religious majority or the Chief Rabbinate, who just reiterated that their psak regarding the Temple Mount saying that Jews should NOT go there, it is prohibited for a Jew to enter the Temple Mount.
Feiglin likes saying that whoever controls the Temple Mount controls Israel and the Chief Rabbinate disagrees with him!! The Jews are not allowed in the Temple Mount!!! So much for Jewish leadership.
So, notwithstanding all of Israel’s many achievements and newfound natural resources, and in spite of its military prowess, Israel is weaker than ever before, notwithstanding the delusions of grandeur that some of us have. Given the world’s open hostility to anything we would find acceptable, I don’t know what the solution is anymore, but whatever Obama and Kerry say will likely get done. So like Yamit says quoting the Talmud story of the man who brought the stinking fish to the King and was forced to eat it, be slapped with it and paid for it, Israel is about to go through the same fate, so why not make it easy on everyone and accept whatever Obama says with a smile in our face while we say thank you for stabbing us? Even if it means putting up with a few murdered Jews a year, don’t worry, Jews may continue to move to the US or Canada to become goyim.
NormanF Said:
I was also thinking that our oil and gas would protect us when sanctions are applied. But the only problem is that the countries of the world decided not to buy Iranian oil as part of the sanctions. So it appears they would also forgo buying Israeli energy. Correct me if I am wrong regarding Iran’s energy sales.
@ yamit82:
Yamit,
Tell me – do they hate Jews that much that they would NOT take oil and gas from Israel?
The future is not whether Israel can survive without EU aid but whether the Europeans are prepared to shiver in cold homes out of principle.
Report: Israel clears West Bank land for future settler homes
Israeli bulldozers begin work on West Bank settlements ahead of schedule, local Palestinian official says. Peace Now: Palestinian landowners notified, but not given proper time to object
Israel has bulldozed land slated for settler homes in the West Bank, a local Palestinian official said Tuesday, ahead of a visit by the top US diplomat to boost peace talks.
“The occupation (Israeli) authorities informed us, through notifications to landowners, that new settler homes would be built in the village of Al-Mazraa al-Qabaliya,” Abdallah Lawadeh told AFP. The 255 homes are among some 800 slated for construction by Israel since October.
Palestinian landowners were given two months to “present objections to the decision,” Lawadeh said, but “the authorities did not wait for those to be filed, already bulldozing the land and setting up temporary housing for Israelis,” he said.
Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the army had approved on November 7 the construction of the 255 units in the Israeli settlement Nahlei Tal.
“But it’s only a first step, and objections can be submitted within 60 days,” Lior Amihai, a spokesperson for the group, told AFP.
The units are among some 800 settlement homes approved by Israel in October, when it released 26 long-term Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement to re-launch US-brokered peace talks.
Source: 14 EU countries in favor of banning settlements products
European Union says more countries interested in implementing boycott on products manufactured in settlements. If peace talks fail, EU financial aid might be cut
Here’s a statement by a sage that perfectly describes Netanyahu:
“To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.” – Confucius
The 10 month racist building freeze and his statement that the freeze will continue, and his histrionics at Ariel’s building plans have defined Netanyahu as Israel’s worst PM ever, worse and more harmful than Olmert.
@ XLucid:
It makes about as much sense as WAR IS PEACE AND SLAVERY IS FREEDOM.
The “peace process” is itself is Orwellian. Its not intended to lead to peace and every one knows it.
“We’ll Keep Negotiating – and Building”
How a person can logically simultaneously “negotiate” and “build“, since these two words represent a patent oxymoron.
“Negotiating” implies that:
(i) the land in question does not belong to us, the Jewish people, and
(ii) we beg Arabs and rely on the “goodness” of their heart and soul to leave us at least a tiny portion of said land.
“Building” implies that:
(i) the land in question belong to us, the Jewish people, and
(ii) Arabs have nothing to say about it, since we are the sole and unique title owners of the said land.
This is a typical example illustrating the confusion and incoherence reigning within the Israeli leaders’ mind.
There are NO Maccabees in Israel – even on the so-called Right.
Mattiyahu, Shimon and Judah would never have entertained the notion of negotiating with the Greeks for Jewish independence.
In modern Israel, Jews are negotiating with those committed to their destruction – and out of fear of their enemies, are not settling the Land!
Uri Ariel doesn’t really get the true message of Hannukah.