David Bedein, Middle East Correspondent
Friday, May 29, 2009
Jerusalem — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has issued an unprecedented statement clarifying President Barack Obama’s demands for Israel to stop expanding Jewish communities in areas it acquired following the 1967 Six-Day War, including Jerusalem.
The statement, issued Wednesday, applies to the area known in Israel by their Biblical names, Judea and Samaria, and as the West Bank by the international community.
There are now 128 Jewish communities in these areas, with a population of almost 300,000 Jews.
Mrs. Clinton explained President Obama demands that there should be no expansion in these communities for the purpose of “natural growth.”
That would include an American demand to stop construction of kindergartens, schools and housing for young couples.
“West Bank maps” issued by the United Nations also include 18 Jewish neighborhoods inside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, in areas inside the city that Israel formally annexed after the 1967 war.
One of the Jerusalem neighborhoods resettled by Jews after the 1967 war is the Old City of Jerusalem, which hosts the Temple Mount, the holiest place in the world to the Jewish people.
Ms. Clinton’s press spokesman was asked if President Obama’s demand to halt expansion of “West Bank Jewish communities” included a demand to stop expansion of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
The answer was affirmative. The U.S. State Department demands that Israel limit Jewish growth in these areas of Jerusalem, “whose status remains to be determined” in negotiations.
Israeli Government Press Director Daniel Seamen reacted to this Obama administration statement by saying: “I have to admire the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem.”
David Bedein can be reached at bedein@thebulletin.us
Guest Comment:Enough is Enough!
This should outrage every single Israeli, and Jew. If not killing the Jews in Pogroms or Holocaust Obama has found a new method to curtail the number of Jews in the world: the U.S. State Department demands that Israel limit Jewish growth in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Will the USA demand that the Arabs cease their growth too?
Obama’s on going demands to stop W. Bank expansion includes Jerusalem elicited strong Israeli Government Press Director Daniel Seamen reaction who said: "I admire residents of Iroquois Territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem."
This is the most appropriate reply I have heard after the last one from Gilad Erdan, Minister of Environmental Protection who said, in responding to Obama’s statement in which he reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to all previous understandings between Israel and the Palestinians, including the process launched at Annapolis in 2007: “Israel does not take orders from Obama.”
Israel needs to ask Obama if he will be permitted to demand and apply such policy in all the USA territories, which is most of the USA land. How about what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Will Obama tell Israel next how many children each Israeli family is allowed to have?
Obama and Clinton, tutored by their own chosen ignorance, denial of truth and bizarre acceptance of the Arabs lies along with Obama’s Islamist trends and his zealous desire to appease the Muslims are pointing political spears and daggers at Israel. Obama must learn that Israel is not the USA 51st State neither it is the USA punching bag
For those who do not know: Iroquois is a member of Native North American people; he is a member of a former six Native North American people’s confederacy, the Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora. Originally settled along the Hudson River Valley, many Iroquois now live in urban areas.
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With kind regards,
Nurit
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