Netanyahu promised Kerry to ‘rein in’ settlement construction until mid-June

” The fact is that since the Obama visit there are no new announcements and everything is quiet on the ground when it comes to settlement construction,” he said. “Everyone are on their best behavior and don’t want to be blamed for preventing the peace talks from being re-launched.”

Abbas also gave the same time frame for not making new international moves.

Today in China it was reported;

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is visiting China, said in closed talks that there was no change in the Judea and Samaria construction plan. Netanyahu confirmed that there were delays in issuing bids due to errors, but said they would be issued soon.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered a freeze in tenders for West Bank settlement construction amid a US push to renew the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Army Radio reported Tuesday.

Netanyahu reportedly gave the order in a meeting with Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi).

The reported freeze came as the country is under international pressure not to advance West Bank settlement projects, including those that were direct responses to unilateral Palestinian statehood efforts at the United Nations, such as the unbuilt area of Ma’aleh Adumim known as E1.
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Just a couple of years ago, Jews were fleeing from the city for lack of jobs and affordable housing. Now they are the happiest in the Nation even with their economic condition. Wonderful. Ted Belman

YNET NEWS

Jerusalemites are, on the whole, happier than the residents of other Israeli cities, as thousands of jobs are being created in the capital increasingly defined by its religious majority, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The data, made public before the 46th Jerusalem Day, finds the city enjoying a positive economic momentum. The year 2012 saw some 17,000 new jobs created in the capital, in addition to approximately 30,000 jobs created between 2009 and 2007, meaning that in the course of the last four years Jerusalemites were offered some 50,000 new working positions.
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis May 6, 2013, 12:05 PM (IDT)

Israel’s two air force strikes on Syria in three days – the second targeting the emblems of Assad rule overlooking Damascus from Mt. Qassioun – appear to be part of a tactical plan put together by the US Israel, and two Sunni powers, Turkey and Qatar, to break up the Tehran-Damascus-Beirut radical bloc and eventually force Iran to give up its nuclear bomb aspirations.This is how it will be interpreted by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Bashar Assad and Hassan Nasrallah as they prepare their responses for the Israeli attacks.
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By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

In the spring of 2009, Obama went down to Cairo. He skipped the gaming tables at the Omar Khayyam Casino at the Cairo Marriott and instead went over to the Islamist baccarat tables at Cairo University and bet big on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama had insisted on Muslim Brotherhood attendance at a speech that was part apology and part abandonment. The apology was for American power and the abandonment was of American allies.

The text of the speech was largely inconsequential in the same way that most of the words that scroll across the teleprompters of politicians are. In politics, the speech is often the medium while the timing, the audience and the location are the message. And the message was that the Brotherhood’s hour had come. Read more…

By Barry Rubin, PJ MEDIA

It is amazing how many massive revelations pass people by completely. Consider this new gleaning from the British Archives from early 1948, which sheds much light on current events. British officials in the Palestine Mandate were reporting as follows:

”The [Palestine] Arabs have suffered a series of overwhelming defeats….”Jewish victories … have reduced Arab morale to zero and, following the cowardly example of their inept leaders, they are fleeing from the mixed areas in their thousands. It is now obvious that the only hope of regaining their position lies in the regular armies of the Arab states.”

This is confirmation from hostile British official sources of what Israel and its supporters have been saying for 60 years: that the origin of the Palestinian Arab refugee problem was due to the actions of the Palestinian Arabs themselves: first, their leaders decision to reject the partition into Arab and Jewish states, then their decision to go to war, and then their disorganization and poor leadership. The British Foreign Office even uses the word, “cowardice.”
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from ‘Tze’dek’ Magazine, Makor Rishon, Written by Gil Bringer on March 14, 2012. Translated as a public service by Women in Green

While in Israel there are talks of resuming the negotiations, the Palestinian Authority is establishing facts on the ground. The goal, which has long since been stated, is to take over areas ‘C’ and create territorial continuities. The method: establishing and developing Bedouin settlements while providing financial and legal support to the residents, who are increasingly identifying with the idea of a Palestinian state. The State’s Prosecutor turns a blind eye, and the Civil Administration ignores the matter and in fact conducts a double-standard policy between Jews and Arabs. The Palestinians: “Jerusalem is the gateway to heaven, and the Valley is the gateway to Palestine”.
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DEBKAfile Special Report May 5, 2013, 2:44 PM (IDT)

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Sunday, May 5, that the strike at Syria overnight represented a “declaration of war” by Israel.

Russian and Iranian media earlier predicted full-scale Middle East hostilities involving Israel erupting in the coming hours, in the wake of Israel’s renewed strikes against Iranian missiles bound for Hizballah and other targets around Damascus. Russian sources reported rumors that President Bashar Assad was on the point of declaring war on Israel.

Russia Today claimed that an Israeli rocket strike Sunday caused heavy Syrian casualties – according to rumors, at least 300 members of the Syrian Army’s 501st Unit dead and hundreds filling four Damascus hospitals. DEBKAfile: If this is confirmed, then the unit which operates the chemical weapon facility at the Barzeh district north of Damascus at the foot of Mt. Qassioun was hit. Israel’s security cabinet holds emergency session.
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By Dr Mordechai Kedar

Israel faces three immediate threats today: the possibility of a nuclear Iran, well over 100,000 rockets and mortars poised from three directions (Iran, Lebanon, Gaza plus terrorists in Syria and Egypt) and the Two State Solution.

The first two threats seem obvious, but why do we think that the Two State Solution could lead to the demise of our beloved Israel? After all, it’s been the mainstay policy thrust upon Israel with various international initiatives and roadmaps to peace. But in reality it would bring about the opposite result.

The creation of an artificial Palestinian state requiring the uprooting of Jewish families where no Arab population currently exists would lead to indefensible borders for the Jewish homeland. The more moderate PA and Fatah want a Palestinian state as a precursor for the ultimate demise of Israel. Hamas remains opposed to any agreement which establishes a border recognizing the Israeli state. Any proposed re-unification between Hamas and Fatah is an obvious ploy that further threatens the survival of Israel and the Jewish people. The recent attacks against Israel by Hamas are now coordinated with the militant pro-Syrian, Iran-backed Islamic Jihad. Plus the Popular Resistance Committee is yet another terrorist group operating from Gaza.
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By Charles Krauthammer, JWR

Fate is fickle, power cyclical, and nothing is new under the sun. Especially in Washington, where after every election the losing party is sagely instructed to confess sin, rend garments and rethink its principles lest it go the way of the Whigs. And where the victor is hailed as the new Caesar, facing an open road to domination.

And where Barack Obama, already naturally inclined to believe his own loftiness, graciously accepted the kingly crown and proceeded to ride his re-election success to a crushing victory over the GOP at the fiscal cliff, leaving a humiliated John Boehner & Co. with nothing but naked tax hikes.
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The only difference between al Maliki and Assad is that US President Obama personally installed and armed the Iranian stooge al Maliki as the new Shiite Saddam.

By Mark Langfan, INN

On January 10th 49 BCE, Roman General Julius Caesar crossed south over the red Rubicon river with his army. An all-out-to-the-death Roman civil war was inevitable.

On April 23, 2013, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s Shiite tanks fired and murdered at least 23 unarmed Sunni protesters in the northern city of Hawijah as his tanks crossed red rivers of Sunni blood. An all-out-to-the-death Iraqi civil war is inevitable.

Al Maliki’s penchant for the mass-murder of innocent protesters shares the same religious genocidal lineage as Assad: they are both Shiite stooges of Iran. Al Maliki, Assad, and their Iranian puppet-masters will stop at nothing, and murder millions of Sunnis without a single thought. The only difference between al Maliki and Assad is US President Obama personally installed and armed the Iranian stooge al Maliki as the new Shiite Saddam.
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Israel may join defense pact with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan and Turkey to also play role in US-brokered plan to contain, rather than thwart, Iran, London’s Sunday Times reports

By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF May 5, 2013,

Israel is working on joining an anti-Iran defense alliance with a number of moderate Arab states that would involve sharing Jerusalem’s newly developed anti-missile technologies, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

The plan would see Israel join with Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to create a Middle Eastern “moderate crescent,” according to the Sunday Times, which cited an unnamed Israeli official. Israel does not currently maintain formal ties with Riyadh or Abu Dhabi, and relations with Ankara have been strained since 2009.
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BY WILLIAM KRISTOL, WEEKLY STANDARD

The Obama administration’s Syria policy is bad enough, and this State Department press release from this morning is just pathetic:

Massacre in al-Bayda
Press Statement
Jen Psaki
Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 4, 2013

The United States is appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town of al-Bayda, Syria. Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy.
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