Tishrei 29, 5771, 07 October 10 08:31, by Gil Ronen
(Israelnationalnews.com) A senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem said Thursday that there is “no chance” that US President Barack Obama would consent to renewed settlement construction in two months' time, even if Israel consents to extending the building freeze in Judea and Samaria.
The source told Arutz Sheva's Ben Shaul that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been unable to get Obama to promise that if an agreement on borders between Israel and a future PA state is not reached within 60 days, Obama would not request another extension of the anti-Jewish construction moratorium. “There is no chance of getting Obama's agreement for renewing construction in two months, especially when Obama sees the entire settlement project as illegal according to international law,” the source explained.
Sources in the nationalist camp blame Defense Minister Ehud Barak for formulating the American demands. They estimate that Barak knows that if the freeze is not extended he may have to exit the coalition, thus putting an end to his political career.
Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, confirmed in a Washington Post interview Thursday that the Obama administration has offered certain benefits to Israel if it agrees to extend the anti-Jewish construction freeze in Judea and Samaria.
“The moratorium was a one-time gesture to the Palestinians, to the president, to get everyone back in the peace talks,” Oren told the Post's Jackson Diehl. “The Palestinians basically frittered away most of this period,” he explained.
When President Obama asked Israel for an extension of the freeze, “this created great political difficulties for the Prime Minister,” he added. “His own party, the Likud was opposed to the moratorium... and also there was a basic credibility problem. The Prime Minister had given his word that this was going to be ten months – not eleven, not twelve – and he feared that if at the beginning of the process his credibility was going to be so grievously damaged, that at the end of the process, when was going to have to give his word to the Israeli people that a two state solution would be in their benefit, nobody would believe him.”
“With that,” Oren said, “the Administration has come back to Israel with a number of suggestions, incentives if you will, that would enable the government to maybe pass a limited extension of two or three months.” Matters are coming to a head now as talks are also being held with the PA and the Arab League, and the situation should be clarified by Friday, he estimated.
In a column, Diehl asked: “So why has the Obama administration chosen to focus its diplomacy on extracting a purely symbolic but next-to-impossible concession from Netanyahu? That will be the question worth asking if the peace process breaks down this weekend.”
A breakdown of the talks could hurt the Democratic party in the November midterm election, and this may be the reason why Obama is so keen on extending the freeze, if only for a short time. %ad%
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Knesset's Aliyah Committee Demands Apology from Bill Clinton
Tishrei 28, 5771, 06 October 10 02:39, by Gil Ronen
(Israelnationalnews.com) The Knesset's Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee demanded Wednesday that former U.S. president Bill Clinton issue an apology to Russian immigrants in Israel and to the State of Israel for saying that the immigrant population tends to vote for the Right and is an obstacle to peace.
Committee chairwoman Knesset Member Lia Shemtov (Israel Our Home) said, “Clinton should apologize, especially after the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv refused even to send a written reaction to the committee's session.” The committee had invited U.S. Ambassador in Israel James Cunningham to participate in the hearing, but he stayed away and did not send anyone to represent him.
The U.S. Embassy stated in response, “The administration is not responsible for comments made by a private citizen who has a right to speak his mind, as is customary in Israel as well.”
Sources in the Knesset noted that the American claim that Clinton is a private citizen is belied by the fact that the American government still pays him a pension and supplies him with an entourage of assistants, and noted that Clinton still represents the United States in various world forums.
"The Olim {immigrants] from the former Soviet Union are Zionists who love their country and want to live their lives in security and peace, like any other citizen,” MK Shemtov said. “Some of them have been killed by bullets fired from guns that Clinton gave the terrorists.”
MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) stressed that the immigrants must not apologize to Clinton but rather attack him for what he said. She said that only thing that will speed up the diplomatic process is the addition of a “centrist” party like Kadima to the coalition.
Dr. Ze'ev Khenin, Chief Scientist of the Absorption Ministry, told the committee that surveys carried out by the ministry show that Russian immigrants are not so different from the rest of the Israeli voter body. Five to seven percent describe themselves as leftists, about one third say they are rightists and the rest say they are center-right.
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Obama Effigy to Get the Shoe at Monday's Demo at US Embassy
Tishrei 28, 5771, 06 October 10 03:27, by Gil Ronen
(Israelnationalnews.com) Jewish protests against the the United States are usually polite affairs while Muslim protests often involve effigy-burning, shoe-stomping and other forms of acting out. However, a protest planned for 7:00 p.m. Monday outside the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv could be a sign that Jews have begun taking some pages from the Muslim protesters' book. The event's organizers say they have prepared a large effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama, which protesters will hurl shoes at to protest the way Obama is “stepping all over us.”
“The current American government’s feeble Middle Eastern policy has ultimately caused a substantial amount of damage to the State of Israel,” the organizers stated. “The policies, which are based on appeasing the Islamic states, have unsurprisingly increased hostility and tension in the region.”
The activists accuse the US of “blackmailing” Israel's leaders, "violating agreements" and lacking even “an ounce of regard towards the safety of Israeli citizens.”
“The Israeli public wishes to make its opposition heard. Before further damage is caused to both our country and the region as a whole, we wish to raise our voices in objection to the appalling brutal and intimidating attitude of President Barack Obama. This attitude involves exerting unreasonable pressure on Israeli leaders, forcing them to act against the interests of the state.”
“Ultimately,” they say, “we bear no ill feeling towards the American public or the vast majority of the American leadership, and wish to strengthen the connection between both sides. In fact, it is this connection that inspires us to protest the current American policy – before the situation deteriorates and this connection ends.”
The organizers' Hebrew language Facebook page features videos from yet another unconventional Tel Aviv protest that employed Arab-style techniques: the July demonstration outside Turkey's Tel Aviv embassy, in which a Turkish flag was allegedly set on fire. Rumors at the time said that the active nucleus behind the protest was a group of soccer team fans.
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