Posts tagged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel Planning Massive Home Building In It’s Capital City Of Jerusalem
Dec 28th
Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel
“The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.” Psalm 147:2
Jerusalem (AP) — Israel is planning its biggest construction surge in east Jerusalem in decades in a move that critics argue would cement its grip on the contested territory, further complicate any prospects for peace with the Palestinians, and badly rattle Israel’s already rocky relations with the rest of the world.
A construction worker works on a new housing unit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa. Israel is planning its biggest construction surge in east Jerusalem in decades, settlement opponents say, a move that would complicate prospects for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians. With more than 9,000 apartments in the pipeline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reaffirming his opposition to ceding any parts of the holy city to the Palestinians, who say there can be no peace accord without partitioning the holy city.(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)
With more than 9,000 apartments in various stages of planning and construction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reaffirming his opposition to ceding any parts of the holy city to the Palestinians, a compromise two of his predecessors had accepted. The planned construction contributes to completing a ring of Jewish areas around the Arab inner core of east Jerusalem, making it more difficult to one day link it to the West Bank, which surrounds the city on three sides.
The Palestinians, who hope to establish a future capital in the holy city’s eastern sector, say there can be no peace accord without partitioning Jerusalem. They claim the construction push proves Netanyahu isn’t serious about establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Within the space of a single week, Israeli officials have moved more than 5,000 apartments in east Jerusalem close to the stage where construction can begin, including a project that would build the first new Jewish settlement there in 15 years. With some other 4,000 apartments already being built or about to start, the pace is unprecedented, says Daniel Seidemann, an expert on Jerusalem construction.
Those 9,000 apartments would add almost 20 percent to the existing stock of 50,000 apartments built for Jews in east Jerusalem in the 45 years it has been occupied.
“In the last three months, we’re looking at a surge like nothing we’ve seen in the past since 1967,” when Israel captured east Jerusalem, said Seidemann, who views the construction as an obstacle to peace.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem, with its Palestinian population, immediately after capturing the territory from Jordan and began building housing developments for Jews there. The annexation has not been recognized internationally. Today, more than 200,000 Jews live in east Jerusalem alongside some 300,000 Palestinians.
Polls show a majority of Jewish Israelis favor holding on to all of Jerusalem, and construction in east Jerusalem has not stirred passionate opposition among Jewish Israelis. Most don’t see the Jewish areas of east Jerusalem as illegitimate settlements — preferring to call them “Jewish neighborhoods” — whereas some in Israel vehemently oppose settlements in the West Bank.
Yet there is growing nervousness in Israel about the new east Jerusalem plans, with some fearing the current diplomatic woes could blossom into economic isolation as well, driven by the world community’s clear impatience with Israel’s settling of occupied land.
In the longer term, some in Israel warn, if a division is rendered impossible by filling the occupied sector with Jews, there will be no way to reach a deal on the West Bank as well. The area would be in effect absorbed into the Jewish state, rendering it more bi-national and — unless the Palestinians are given the vote — less democratic.
Palestinians have increasingly framed the issue in those terms, suggesting to Israelis that the construction runs against their own interests. ”The Israeli government is making the two-state solution impossible with this unprecedented settlement building,” senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said this week.
Netanyahu is forging ahead — and polls show that he remains poised for reelection next month. If anything, he is currently feeling heat from a surging religious party on his right.
“With God’s help, we will continue to live and build in Jerusalem, which will remain united under Israeli sovereignty,” he said at the campaign launch event of his Likud-Yisrael Beitenu list Tuesday night.
Such tough talk aims to assuage those on Netanyahu’s right who are skeptical that everything in theeast Jerusalem pipeline will be built, noting that some construction projects were unofficially frozen in the past under international pressure.
If officials do push ahead, the 9,000 could be built within a few years. Other major construction projects in east Jerusalem were either smaller or strung out over a decade, said Seidemann. Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, also said the pace was unmatched.
According to Seidemann’s figures on the major projects, the big push of the last decade was the Har Homa neighborhood, with 3,200 units built. In the 1990s, 2,200 apartments went up in Ramat Shlomo. In the 1980s, 11,000 apartments were built in Pisgat Zeev. In the 1970s, Israel started building the Neve Yaakov, Gilo, east Talpiyot and Ramot areas, and Seidemann estimates that around 20,000 apartments were built in those areas throughout that decade.
The Jerusalem municipality did not respond to multiple requests for its statistics on planned and actual construction
Netanyahu put settlement construction plans into high gear to punish the Palestinians for winning U.N. recognition of a de facto state of Palestine in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip last month. Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, but still controls the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
In peace talks, Palestinians privately have accepted former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s 2000 proposal that Jewish areas of Jerusalem would remain under Israeli sovereignty under a peace accord, and Palestinian neighborhoods would become part of a Palestinian state.
At the same time, they have spent four decades watching Israeli construction permanently change the face of the city, and see every new housing project in east Jerusalem as yet another obstacle to building their capital there. Building for Arabs in the eastern sector has been limited since 1967, something Palestinians see as an attempt to stifle their presence in the city, though the current municipality denies any discrimination.
The expanding Jewish footprint in east Jerusalem also tightens Israeli control around the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the Old City, home to the most sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious sites in the Holy Land. A hilltop compound there is Islam’s third-holiest site, revered as the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven in a nighttime journey told in the Quran. The same complex is the holiest site in Judaism, home to two biblical temples, with the Western Wall at its foot.
Palestinians have refused to return to the negotiating table unless Israel stops all construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, a condition Israel rejects. Talks deadlocked four years ago.
The renewed construction push in east Jerusalem has drawn international condemnation, as have plans to build more than 6,000 more homes for settlers in the adjacent West Bank, where more than 340,000 Jews live among 2.3 million Palestinians.
Last week, the United States used unusually blunt language to criticize the settlement activity, accusing its top Mideast ally of engaging in a “pattern of provocative action” and saying plans of new construction “run counter to the cause of peace.”
The most contentious of these plans involves development of a corridor in the West Bank linking east Jerusalem and the Maaleh Adumim settlement. The Palestinians say this project, known as E1, would make it impossible for them to create a viable state because it would sever east Jerusalem from its West Bank hinterland and drive a deep wedge between the West Bank’s northern and southern flanks.
Israel shelved the project for years under U.S. pressure, but started acting on plans to build 3,400 apartments there earlier this month. Netanyahu’s aides have said construction is years away and his rivals have questioned whether he really intends to build. But the very fact that plans there are advancing has drawn ferocious criticism from Israel’s closest Western allies.
Some of the projects closer to fruition would similarly hinder access from the West Bank. Following action last week, the government can soon ask developers to submit bids to build 2,610 apartments in the Givat Hamatos project — the first new settlement to be built in east Jerusalem since 1997. Once a bid is awarded, construction can begin, though it could take months, if not longer, to reach that point.
Within the following week, officials pushed two other projects totaling up to 2,700 apartments to that same stage. source – Yahoo News
Israel Ready To Begin Gaza Military Campaign To Stop Muslim Arab Terrorists
Nov 12th
Judging from statements by government officials Monday, indications were that Israel would begin a military campaign against Gaza Arab terrorists sooner rather than later, analysts said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with foreign ambassadors stationed in Israel, said that Israel could no longer tolerate the incessant rocket attacks on Israel by Gaza Arab terrorists.
If Hamas did not stop the attacks, Israel would have to act, he said. Netanyahu, along with Homefront Security Minister Avi Dichter, met with some 100 foreign diplomats in Ashkelon, one of the cities that have in the past been targeted by Gaza Arab terrorists, and which has been hit dozens of times by Grad and Katyusha rockets and mortar shells.
Netanyahu described the tension residents of southern Israel are forced to live under by the terrorists. “If an alarm is sounded, all of us have exactly 30 seconds to find shelter. This is the situation in which one million Israelis find themselves in. That’s families, old people, children, babies – Including like the children who stand here,” Netanyahu told the ambassadors at the meeting in Ashkelon.
“A million Israelis, including many little children,are targeted on a daily basis, by people who took areas that we vacated, that the Government of Israel vacated, came in there, and are now hiding behind civilians, while firing on civilians, firing on our children.
“I think the whole world understands that this is not acceptable,” Netanyahu said. “I don’t know of any of your governments who could accept such a thing. I don’t know of any of the citizens of your cities, who could find that acceptable and something that could proceed on a normal basis. It’s something that the people of Israel can’t accept and it’s something that I, as the Prime Minister of Israel, I cannot accept it.
“So we’re going to fight for the rights of our people to defend themselves. We’ll take whatever action is necessary to put a stop to this,” Netanyahu continued. “This is not merely our right, it’s also our duty, and it’s something that I think is understood not only by you, who are here in Ashkelon today, but by any fair-minded person in any fair-minded government in the world they would understand that it’s our right to defend our people, and this is what we shall do.”
On a visit to a school in Netivot Monday, Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar mirrored the Prime Minister’s comments, saying that “residents of southern Israel are going through a difficult period, but I am telling you in the clearest manner possible that this situation will not continue to the extent that it becomes the normal situation. We will not allow that to happen,” he said.
With that, no final decision has apparently been made. Speaking to reporters in Netivot, Sa’ar said that “the timing of a military campaign or other action will not be dictated by the terrorists. There is a great deal of activity going on, including ensuring that foreign governments understand Israel’s situation. We are explaining to them that we will not continue to tolerate the situation, and we are preparing scenarios to respond to the current situation, and similar ones in the future,” Sa’ar said.
As Sa’ar visited the city Monday afternoon, a Grad rocket fired by Gaza Arab terrorists exploded next to a factory in the industrial zone of Netivot. Six people suffered from shock as a result of the attack. Witnesses said that there was a great deal of damage to the structure.
It was the second attack on the city Monday; earlier, a rocket fired at the city exploded in a residential neighborhood. That rocket caused a great deal of damage, gutting a shop near where the rocket exploded. Twenty six people were treated by medical personnel after going into shock, with some needing extensive treatment at a trauma center. source – Israel National News
Obama SILENT As Twin Muslim Terror Attacks Kill Americans On 9/11 Anniversary
Sep 12th
A prayer for PM Netanyahu and Israel: “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” Psalm 121
Not a word from the Commander-in-chief about today’s attacks
This year, the anniversary of 9/11 was unlike all the others since the towers fell in 2001. A message was sent today to the American people, and sealed in the blood of dead and wounded Americans.
America, this is your president. He is SILENT as Muslims attack us, as he bows to Islamic rulers and kings.
For today, Muslim terrorists celebrated the anniversary of 9/11 by laying siege to the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and the American consulate in Libya. In the attack in Libya, Americans were killed and seriously injured.
What was Obama’s reply/response today in the face of these twin Muslim terror attacks on America overseas? Nothing. Not one word.
I believe that the debates on whether or not Obama was born in Hawaii or Indonesia, the debates on why he spent millions to seal his college records, the debates on his association with domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers are besides the point. And the point being this: that as president of America he has done a horrible job.
Americans were killed and wounded TODAY – September 11, 2012 – in Libya by Muslim terrorists.
That he has shown time and time again that his main sympathies lie with the Muslim people. And that he has no intention of standing by Israel to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. These things are verifiable facts, played out in the headlines day after day, after day.
Netanyahu To Obama: ‘Wait For What? Wait Until When?’
From CBS WASHINGTON: (CBSDC/AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making it clear that Israel will not wait to take out Iranian nuclear facilities. In heated comments toward the United States, the Israeli prime minister said that it’s becoming clear that diplomacy will not work with Iran.
“The world tells Israel, `Wait. There’s still time,’” Netanyahu said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. “And I say: `Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”
The Obama administration has consistently stated that they don’t want to go the military route against Iran and give more time for the sanctions to force Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu worries Iran will continue developing nuclear technology without giving the Islamic nation a firm timeline to stop. source – CBS Washington
Israel must go it alone
PM Benjamin Netanyahu realizes now that while America is still with Israel, our president is not. He realizes that, perhaps too late, that Obama is doing everything within his power to stall, stall, and stall Israel from striking Iran so that Iran has the time and space it needs to finish building it’s nuclear arsenal.
Iran, at the time of this writing, is a mere 5 or 6 weeks away from finishing producing the necessary materials for a fully-functional nuclear warhead. Russia has been supplying them with the weapons, technology and scientists needed to make this a reality. The process is almost complete.
Mr. Prime Minister, our beloved Bibi, your time is short. Very short. Pray to the Holy One of Israel to lead you and guide you to do what you know you must do for the good of the nation of Israel. Our president is against you, but we, the body of Yesuha Ha’Maschiac, stand with you in prayer, support and much love from the bottom of our hearts.
Fire when ready.
OUTRAGE! Why Did The Main Stream Media Remain SILENT As Bombs Fell On Israel?
Mar 10th
NTEB asks why not one major news outlet covered the attack
- As of the time this story went to post – Saturday March 10 2012 5:00PM New York City Time – bombs continue to fall over southern Israel at the rate of one every 15 minutes…**
Yesterday, for nearly one straight 24-hour news cycle, over 130 rockets were fired by Palestinian terrorists on the nation of Israel. Dozens of them exploded with 9 people being seriously hurt and one of those very badly injured. NTEB was first alerted to this news via the Israeli Defense Force blog site, which had video and photos of the onslaught. The Jerusalem Post also covered the story while it was happening. Then personal emails from friends of NTEB in Israel began to come in, verifying all the the IDF and JPost has reported. Naturally, NTEB ran with the story and had posted on it within 15 minutes of the first alert we received. Within an hour, our website had begun to get thousands of hits related to this story. Then came the weird part.
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IDF video of Hamas launching rocket attacks from Gaza 03.10.2012
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After we posted about the rockets falling over southern Israel, and the corresponding IAF airstrike in reply to the attacks, we took a quick survey over the ‘Net to see who else was running this important story. Surely Fox News would have it…surely the Drudge Report would add a link to it. (Drudge, we personally sent you this story last night twice. We are very disappointed in you.) To our astonishment, there was nothing. Not a link, not a photo, not even a whisper of the fact that 500,000 Israeli citizens spent the night in underground bomb shelters as the skies lit up with Palestinian rocket barrages. How could this be?
Hamas and Palestine don't want the land of Israel, they want each and every last Jew dead.
The bible says that in the end of time, ALL the nations of the world will come against Israel. Not just the Muslim nations but all of them. This include France, Spain, the UK, and yes, it also includes the United States of America. As we get closer and closer to the fulfillment of that prophecy and others just like it, we are seeing the world turning a blind eye to Israel. Any other country this would happen to and we would already be seeing the television commercials for telethons to raise money for relief efforts. But Israel? Bombs falling over Israel doesn’t even apparently rate a two paragraph mention on MSNBC, Fox News, Drudge, CBS, ABC, or any other major news service.
But here is what they are reporting at this moment (surprise!…not)
Just when you think this story couldn’t get any worse, hold on to your hat because it does. As we have told you, not one major news service has reported on the bombs that are still falling on Israel but they are reporting on something. Care to hazard a guess at what it could be? That’s right, you got it. They are reporting on Israel launching airstrikes on Gaza. Note the following from Fox News:
“GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip– The worst violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip in nearly a year entered its second day on Saturday, as Israeli aircraft killed 15 militants, according to Palestinian health officials.” source – Fox News 03.10.2012
So it would appear that making Israel the bad guy – yet again – is something the main stream media are all too happy to do. If you were to read the Fox story, it seems like Israel just randomly launched an airstrike on Gaza for no reason, and the 130+ rockets that Hamas is firing is justified retaliation. But it’s not. Israel was forced to launch an airstrike in the hopes of preventing the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists that were getting ready to attack them, but even an airstrike couldn’t do it. They attacked anyway.
A short, open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“Dear Mr. Prime Minister Netanyahu: The nations of the world are against you. Do not expect their assistance in any meaningful way. Iran is moments away from building a nuclear weapon, and no, President Obama has no interest in stopping them from doing so. As soon as Iran gets just one nuclear bomb together, they will launch it at Israel. Count on it. Whatever you need to do to protect the nation and people of Israel, do it now. Do not wait. I will close this short note with where I started – the nations of the world are against you.” – NTEB Staff
ps – Now The End Begins is with you 100% and will continue to cover every bit of this story as it continues to unfold.
But the Holy God of Israel is wide awake and watching all this
Soon He Himself will step in and fight for His people the Jews and for His land of Israel. We will close with this from the bible:
“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Joel 3
And to Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Yahoo NEWS, CBS, NPR and Drudge we simply ask…why?
Israel Asks US For Advanced Bunker-Buster Bombs
Mar 8th
(Reuters) – Israel has asked the United States for advanced “bunker-buster” bombs and refueling planes that could improve its ability to attack Iran’s underground nuclear sites, an Israeli official said on Thursday.
Yep, that be the one...
“Such a request was made” around the time of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week, the official said, confirming media reports.
But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, played down as “unrealistic” Israeli reports that the United States would condition supplying the hardware on Israel promising not to attack Iran this year.
White House spokesman Jay Carney, asked whether the Israelis had made such a request to U.S. officials during the visit, said “there was no such agreement proposed or reached” in President Barack Obama’s meetings with Netanyahu or his aides.
But when asked if the matter was raised with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta or other U.S. officials, Carney told reporters he had no information on that. “I would refer you to other officials,” he said.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that military capabilities came up in discussions between Netanyahu and Panetta but did not elaborate. No deals were struck during those talks, the official added.
Netanyahu made clear to Obama at a White House meeting on Monday that Israel had not yet decided on military action against Iran, the White House has said.
Netanyahu has hinted that Israel could resort to force should Tehran – which denies suspicions that it is covertly trying to develop atomic bombs – continue to defy big powers’ diplomatic pressure to curb its nuclear program.
The risk of an Israeli-Iranian war troubles Obama, who is up for re-election in November and has cautioned against sparking greater Mideast turmoil, though he has also asserted that military action remains an option if sanctions fail. A Gulf conflict could send oil prices soaring.
A front-page article in the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv on Thursday said Obama had told Netanyahu Washington would supply Israel with upgraded military equipment in return for assurances there would be no attack on Iran in 2012.
Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal but its conventional firepower may not be enough to deliver lasting damage to Iran’s distant, dispersed and well-fortified facilities, many experts say.
Israel has limited stocks of older, smaller bunker-busting bombs and a small fleet of refueling planes, all supplied by Washington. Western powers suspect Iran’s uranium enrichment program is aimed at stockpiling fissile material for nuclear weapons. Iran says it is strictly for civilian energy uses. source-Reuters
Israel and Cyprus Sign Airspace Sharing Agreement For Both Countries Fighter Jets
Feb 16th
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias signed a search and rescue agreement on Thursday. According to the agreement, in the event of a disaster Israeli aircraft will be authorized to enter Cyprus’ airspace, and vice versa.
One more link in the chain of the upcoming strike on Iran's nuclear facilities is now complete. Good job, boys...
A similar agreement between the Jewish state and Turkey was revoked recently in light of heightened tensions between the countries.
While in Nicosia, Netanyahu also addressed the Iranian nuclear threat, saying the sanctions imposed by the international community on the Islamic Republic “are not working.”
“Iran is the most irresponsible force in the world. I hope the sanctions will have an effect, but so far they have not. We are dealing with a regime that violates every resolution and has no respect for international standards,” the Israeli premier said.
“Iran’s race towards nuclear weapons should concern the US and every other country. Nuclear arms in the hands of such a regime is a cause for great concern to the US and Israel.”
Netanyahu and his wife Sarah landed in Cyprus in the morning hours for a one-day visit aimed at boosting cooperation between Jerusalem and Nicosia in the fields of energy, agriculture, health and maritime research.
Netanyahu is the first Israeli leader ever to visit the nearby island nation.
While in Nicosia, Netanyahu will also meet with Opposition Leader Nicos Anastasiades and various government officials. Despite reports suggesting Cyprus may allow Israel to station aircraft in its territory, officials said Netanyahu is not expected to raise the issue during his talks with Cypriot leaders.
Past ties between the two nations have been chilly, as Cyprus was wary of Israel’s military and trade relations with Turkey, which does not recognize Cyprus as a sovereign state and occupies its north. But Israel’s relations with Turkey have deteriorated, and Cyprus is looking to cement ties with neighbors as Turkey’s influence grows. source – YNET News
