U.S. Blasts Israel’s Plan for New West Bank Settlement

 Says Netanyahu Broke His Word 

By Barak Ravid HAARETZ

The U.S. administration published an unusually harsh statement on Wednesday against a plan to build an alternative settlement for residents of the illegal outpost of Amona.

The statement, signed by Mark Toner, deputy spokesman for the State Department, drew an unusual linkage between the signing of the defense aid agreement with Israel and criticism of settlement building.

Toner stressed that the U.S. views advancement of the plan as a violation of a commitment by Netanyahu’s government not to establish any new settlements in the West Bank.

The State Department’s statement comes against the backdrop of the Civil Administration Planning Commission’s decision last Wednesday to approve a plan for the construction of 98 housing units in the new settlement to be established next to the Shvut Rachel settlement.

According to the plan, it will be possible to build up to 300 housing units and an industrial zone. The NRB web site and Channel 2 were the first to publish the decision. The new settlement, which settlers say is only a neighborhood of the existing settlement of Shvut Rachel, can provide housing for residents of the illegal outposts of Amona, who are expected to be evicted by the end of December.

A senior U.S. official said that the White House boiled with anger at the advancement of the plan and even more at the timing of the decision – just a week after the signing of the military aid agreement by which the U .S. will give Israel $38 billion for a decade, and the day of the death of former president Shimon Peres, whose funeral was attended by President Barack Obama.

A large part of American anger was due to the administration seeing the step as a violation of a commitment Netanyahu gave Obama in 2009 that Israel would not build any new settlements. In his speech at Bar-Ilan that year, Netanyahu said he agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state and added: “The territorial issues will be discussed in a permanent agreement. Till then we have no intention to build new settlements or set aside land for new settlements.”

The statement was unusual statement both in its length of more than 300 words, and in content, using strong language to express U.S. objections to advancement of the plan.

“We strongly condemn the Israeli government’s recent decision to advance a plan that would create a significant new settlement deep in the West Bank, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.

Toner said that the new settlement would damage even further the chances of implementing a two-state solution.

“This approval contradicts previous public statements by the Government of Israel that it had no intention of creating new settlements. And this settlement’s location deep in the West Bank, far closer to Jordan than Israel, would link a string of outposts that effectively divide the West Bank and make the possibility of a viable Palestinian state more remote.”

Toner said the decision to advance the establishment of a new settlement raises doubts as to the seriousness of Israel’s intentions with respect to the two-state solution.

“Israelis must ultimately decide between expanding settlements and preserving the possibility of a peaceful two state solution. Proceeding with this new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. Such moves will only draw condemnation from the international community and distance Israel from many of its partners.”

One of the statement’s clauses referred to the defense aid agreement. Its wording was most extraordinary, for through the years the U.S. has avoided creating any linkage between defense aid to Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the settlement construction issue.

“It is deeply troubling, in the wake of Israel and the U.S. concluding an unprecedented agreement on military assistance designed to further strengthen Israel’s security, that Israel would take a decision so contrary to its long term security interest in a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Palestinians,” Toner added.

‘The State Department’s statement also referred to the timing of the decision – the day of former President Shimon Peres’ death, saying:

“Furthermore, it is disheartening that while Israel and the world mourned the passing of President Shimon Peres, and leaders from the U.S. and other nations prepared to honor one of the great champions of peace, plans were advanced that would seriously undermine the prospects for the two state solution that he so passionately supported.”

October 5, 2016 | 21 Comments »

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21 Comments / 21 Comments

  1. A month-before the elections I THINK OBAMA’S hands are tied, afterward depends on who wins. A SMALL POKE IN Obama’s eye with little risk.

  2. No proof that Jesus ever lived. He was just as likely a Roman invention. He is not written about until 400 years after his alleged death. So how does anyone really know.

    Josephus who wrote the history of the time did not mention Jesus.

  3. yamit82 Said:

    yeshu could not be of line of king David. His father not from the tribes of Israel or of this world

    So what!!!!!! His Mother was Jewish !!!!!!

  4. @ Austin:
    It is not less credible than the claim that the top floor over King David’s Mausoleum is the location where Rav Yusha, AKA Jesus, had his Passover Feast before being killed by the Romans? Why would Rav Yusha select such a high honor for Passover by locating his last Supper there, near King David’s resting place and not elsewhere in Jerusalem?
    I am not sure that my memory is true, but I seem to recall that Jesus was in King David’s lineage. Can anyone confirm this?
    Given that Jerusalem is our Capital City for millennia I much rather take the Jewish version than the Vatican’s.

  5. @ John F:
    Has it been proven to be where David is buried. I have read that this tomb on Mount Zion has only been regarded as David’s tomb since around the 12th-13th century. I read this a number of years ago and would like to know if any archaeological findings since, has proven that the site is genuine…

  6. King David’s tomb is on Mount Zion next to Dormition Abbey and was almost given to the papa on his last visit because they have something built above it.

  7. By now I would have hoped that our alert analysts and commenters would have realized that Netanyahu is not the type of leader for the defense of JEWISH National interests at all. Forget about his moronic speechering, face making, cardboard propped figs. His plan is “mega disengagement” and not only from Yehudah and Shomron but from our historical Icons such as King David’s Mausoleum and Temple Mount.
    His intentional releases of “construction plans” are meant to elicit what we get from our enemies.
    HE WANTS to be “forced” down. To freeze.
    No worse element could be placed in the PM Office.

  8. @ YJ Draiman:
    The True Boundaries mark toner-

    The Lord said to Moses, “Command the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries:

    “‘Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. Your southern boundary will start in the east from the southern end of the Dead Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.

    “‘Your western boundary will be the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This will be your boundary on the west.

    “‘For your northern boundary, run a line from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north.

    “‘For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Galilee. Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea.

    “‘This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side.’”

    Moses commanded the Israelite’s: “Assign this land by lot as an inheritance. The Lord has ordered that it be given to the nine and a half tribes, because the families of the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance. These two and a half tribes have received their inheritance east of the Jordan across from Jericho, toward the sunrise.”

  9. yanks wouldn’t know the truth if it kissed clinton on the arse! 1967 was a continuation of 56 due to yanks disrespecting ikes commitment.
    One reason Israel did give in to Eisenhower was the assurance he gave to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Before evacuating Sharm al-Sheikh, the strategic point guarding the Straits of Tiran, Israel elicited a promise that the United States would maintain the freedom of navigation in the waterway. In addition, Washington sponsored a UN resolution creating the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to supervise the territories vacated by the Israeli forces.
    yanks lies continue today.

  10. I think it’s long past time for a reality check. Every time Israel thinks aloud about building anything in those parts of Judea and Samaria that are clearly intended to remain under Israeli government, the state department sends out an overwhelming message about Israel ruining the peace process. In the meantime, everything is frozen but they still feel they have to make the noise. How about making some noise whenever the Arabs build something anywhere they shouldn’t be? Come on, take the side of your “no daylight between us” ally for a change.

  11. To me and to most Traditional Jews, Greater Israel is the Biblical Israel, which included a good part of the territory east of the Jordan River. The original allocation of Palestine to the Jewish people included the territory east of the Jordan River and up-to the Railroad line which is about 120,000 sq. km.. The best defense is offense, no capitulation to Arab or worldwide pressure; we want what is ours no exceptions. See the minutes of the 1919 Paris conference, The 1920 San Remo Conference and the Faisal Weizmann Agreement of January 1919. The Arabs-Muslims received over 12 million sq. km. of which over half of it has no habitation, plus the British in violation of treaties and agreements gave away over 77% of allocated Jewish territory and created the new Arab-Palestinian state of Jordan and prohibiting Jews from living there and confiscating all their assets, and now the Biased U.N. (which has no authority to create countries, it can only recommend) and other nations who are deceived and or misinformed, want Israel to cede Judea and Samaria as a second Arab-Palestinian state (and plant a terrorist state in the heart of Israel), after the disastrous ceding of Gaza and the constant rocket attacks against Jewish communities in Israel). My response to that is it is not going to happen; this is Jewish land with a history going back over 3,800 years; Jews are the remaining indigenous people, with the Jewish holiest city Jerusalem and the Capital of Israel. Moreover Jerusalem is the home to two Jewish temples and the city of Hebron as the 2nd holiest city for the Jews with the Cave of The Jewish Patriarchs (The atrocities and murder committed by the Arabs in Hebron against the Jews goes at least as far back as 1517). The Arabs also terrorized and expelled over a million Jewish families and confiscated all their assets including businesses, homes and about 120,000 sq. km. of Jewish owned land for over 2,200 years; valued in the trillions of dollars. Most of the expelled Jewish families and their children were resettled in Israel, and today comprise over half the population. Any Jew who wants to cede land to the Arabs has no place in Israel, especially in view of past results that such land for peace has brought more terror and violence and less safety and security for Israel and its people.
    No Jew has the right or authority to cede Jewish territory and any such ceding of Jewish territory is not valid.
    “A United Israel is a strong Israel”
    YJ Draiman, President of AFSI in the Greater Los Angeles area

  12. From day I the SD has been AGAINST IL and remains against IL. Trump needs to clean-up ONCE and for all this department of Antisemitism!
    What about a “test of allegiance for every member of the SD”? Starting from the Top down.