JERUSALEM – Israel's deputy prime minister said Tuesday the Obama administration's call to freeze West Bank settlement construction undermines past agreements between the U.S. and Israel and damages American credibility.
The comments by Dan Meridor underscored the growing rift between Israel and the U.S. over construction in the settlements. Meridor, a respected veteran of Israeli politics, is considered a moderate voice in the new Israeli government.
President Barack Obama has urged Israel to halt all settlement construction as a confidence-building move to restart stalled peace negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would not build any new settlements, but that construction must be permitted inside existing settlements to accommodate what he calls "natural growth" in their populations. Nearly 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as part of a future independent state.
Israeli officials and former White House official Eliot Abrams have cited a series of written and oral understandings reached with the Bush administration that appear to permit limited settlement construction.
Speaking to foreign reporters, Meridor, who is one of six deputy premiers under Netanyahu, said it was important for these understandings to be honored. Otherwise, it would raise questions about the legitimacy of future agreements, he said.
"We never had an agreement with the previous administration. We had an agreement with America," he added. "The agreement we had with the Americans is binding on us and them ... They should keep to the agreement."
Netanyahu, known for hard-line views toward the Palestinians, recently endorsed the U.S. goal of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel as part of a peace deal, though shackled by conditions. However, the Palestinians, encouraged by the firm U.S. stance on settlements, have refused to resume talks until Netanyahu halts settlement construction.
"What is required from Israel is to freeze all settlement activity," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in the West Bank Tuesday. "When Israel meets these demands, we will be ready to go to the final negotiations."
The EU issued a statement Tuesday calling on Israel to stop what it termed "provocative" actions in Jerusalem, like demolition of some Palestinian homes. These, "combined with the increase in settlement activity in east Jerusalem, further threaten the chances of peace," the statement said.
Jerusalem city hall has said that the destroyed homes were built without permits.
Meridor hoped the differences over restarting peace talks would soon be bridged.
"In the coming weeks, I think that we will see, I certainly hope so, the resumption of negotiations," he said. He noted that Palestinians conducted three years of negotiations with Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, while settlements expanded.
As he spoke, settlers rampaged in the West Bank for a second day, cutting down some 40 olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers in the village of Burin, said Mayor Ali Eid. The Israeli military said it received reports of the rampage, but by the time troops arrived, the settlers had fled.
Extremist settlers often vandalize Palestinian property to protest Israel's removal of small, unauthorized outposts in the West Bank — a tactic they call the "price tag."
Of course I don't agree with the scumbag Zionists, but I think it's a good argument that Bush made a deal between the Zionists and American people.
So can the President make a long term decision that future Presidents would be bound by?
-------------- The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
Israeli officials and former White House official Eliot Abrams have cited a series of written and oral understandings reached with the Bush administration that appear to permit limited settlement construction.
I guess the question might be more questions. Just who do they mean as "Israeli officials" and I wasn't aware the White House set foriegn policy? I always thought of the president more of a liason.
Written and oral understandings? What does that mean? Ask any businessman if they know someone who has reniged on a deal because of an oral agreement?
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"We never had an agreement with the previous administration. We had an agreement with America," he added. "The agreement we had with the Americans is binding on us and them ... They should keep to the agreement."
So which is it? Did they have an agreement with the previous administration or the U.S?
Personally, I don't understand why more pressure isn't applied to Israel to stop settlment in the West Bank and perhaps eventual withdrawal. Jerusalem, I don't really know.
-------------- Actually my wife is especially happy when my google check arrives each month. Thanks to douchbags like you, I get paid just for getting you worked up. -Liberal
1. The president shouldn't be allowed to enter into an agreement soly of his own accord.
2. These guys are completely full of crap, if they say they think this and they thought that. Like MD said if it was a real agreement there would be written/signed documentation.
3. Not that even matters; how many different things have been signed over the years in that region, what has been the net result?
4. The U.S. has been involved in signing things and entering into agreements that it hasn't abided by as well. Unless all of those American Indian Tribes just made all that stuff up.
Wait a minute here, I am sorry but Israel is a sovereign nation and does not need any permission to build. If I was the leader of Israel I would give a big to the president of the US and to the UN ,and the EU.
I just don't get it, first you guys get all mad if the US sticks its nose into the middle east, but then get mad if the US doesn't intervene with Israel, what gives?
I pray Israel wipes Iran off the face of the earth, and maybe wipe the Palestinians as well.
-------------- *SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS / MOLON LABE / Se Defendendo memoria of cado frater ,Semper fidelis *The object of war is NOT to DIE for YOUR Country, but to make the OTHER BASTARD DIE for HIS...Patton My Constitutional Rights trump your dead.
I don't want us involved with the Zionists in any way. I'm not looking to see us throw them out, I want Palestinians given the same amount of weapons as we give the Zionist scum, and then let them work it out.
-------------- The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 3040
Joined: Oct. 2003
Posted on: Jul. 21 2009,11:14 pm
(Grinning_Dragon @ Jul. 21 2009,9:14 pm)
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Wait a minute here, I am sorry but Israel is a sovereign nation and does not need any permission to build. If I was the leader of Israel I would give a big to the president of the US and to the UN ,and the EU.
They're partners with us on a number of different things, they may be a sovereign nation, but they're the fattest cattle at the U.S. foreign aid troff. People always complain about foreign aid instead of helping more people at home, well Israel gets a third of our foreign aid budget. More than 10% of their entire military budget is paid for by us. Meaning many of those F-15, F-16, guns, etc. that you see them using were paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
I agree, let Israel make their own bed, but it's time for the U.S. government to give that right back at them, and let them clean up their own mess.
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I just don't get it, first you guys get all mad if the US sticks its nose into the middle east, but then get mad if the US doesn't intervene with Israel, what gives?
The problem is we intervene, but it's ALWAYS on the side of Israel. There's a lot of people over there that hate us just because of that.
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I pray Israel wipes Iran off the face of the earth, and maybe wipe the Palestinians as well.
I could care less if Israel wipes Iran off the map, but I could care less if Iran wipes Israel off the map either.
-------------- You know it's going to be a bad day when you cross thread the cap on the toothpaste.
No other country goes through the daily issues that Israel goes through. No other country is surrounded by enemies and has to, every day stay, on the highest level of alert like Israel does. No other country in that region is a bigger source of intelligence or a more reliable ally to this country than Israel. Granted that last statement has been a double edged sword over the years. Could anyone here imagine being someplace like the MoA and having to wonder if a suicide bomber was going to make you or your loved ones the next victim?
I'm with GD and IE and what they both said. While I think the military aid should not be stopped entirely it should be cut back and when we cut back that aid to Israel then Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, the PA and Egypt should also have any aid they receive from us cut back as well. Let the dictates of Islam take care of those countries that are Islamic. I think Israel should be allowed to do as it sees fit within their sovereign borders and to prevent what they believe to be an imminent threat to their existence. This includes Jerusalem which is, according to history and the Christian bible, the ancestral capital city of Israel. Israel has proven it will take whatever steps are necessary to prevent an attack on it's soil or it's people so it is time to cut the cord and let them do their thing. They will do it with or without our okay anyway.
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-------------- I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!
I can do the Youtube thing as well. This is as much reality for Israel as those posted by Liberal are reality for the Palestinians. BTW it's a long video over 10 minutes.
-------------- I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!
No other country goes through the daily issues that Israel goes through. No other country is surrounded by enemies and has to, every day stay, on the highest level of alert like Israel does. No other country in that region is a bigger source of intelligence or a more reliable ally to this country than Israel. Granted that last statement has been a double edged sword over the years. Could anyone here imagine being someplace like the MoA and having to wonder if a suicide bomber was going to make you or your loved ones the next victim?
I'm with GD and IE and what they both said. While I think the military aid should not be stopped entirely it should be cut back and when we cut back that aid to Israel then Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, the PA and Egypt should also have any aid they receive from us cut back as well. Let the dictates of Islam take care of those countries that are Islamic. I think Israel should be allowed to do as it sees fit within their sovereign borders and to prevent what they believe to be an imminent threat to their existence. This includes Jerusalem which is, according to history and the Christian bible, the ancestral capital city of Israel. Israel has proven it will take whatever steps are necessary to prevent an attack on it's soil or it's people so it is time to cut the cord and let them do their thing. They will do it with or without our okay anyway.
-------------- JESUS DID THE ORGANIZING for His church and whenever men go beyond that pattern (found only in the New Testament of Jesus Christ) they do so at their own peril. One needs to only read the New Testament to see the problem that has been created over the last two centuries within the churches.
No other country goes through the daily issues that Israel goes through. No other country is surrounded by enemies and has to, every day stay, on the highest level of alert like Israel does.
No other country is squatting on others land.
Let me guess, you think it's okay because they say God promised them the land 4000yrs ago.
-------------- The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
to the president of the US and to the UN ,and the EU.
