It never ends: one crisis, one
issue after another. Perhaps you are familiar with the curse:
"May you live in interesting times."
Yesterday, Housing Minister Uri
Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi) announced plans for "evaluating potential" for 24,000
housing units in Judea and Samaria. Please be clear on this: it was not,
as some news sources had it, announcement of concrete plans for those 24,000
units. It was initiation of a process to look into building in
several places in Judea and Samaria. (Most controversial: 1.200 projected units
in E1, an area between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem.) Some might have
materialized, some might not have. But even in cases where potential was
positively assessed, it would have been a long time (years) until anything was
built. This sort of process goes on all the time.
Doesn't sound like a huge
deal.
However, Peace Now, which is eager
to obstruct any Israeli potential for building past the Green Line, got wind of
this (which is usually the case) and released the information.
And then, naturally, Secretary of
State Kerry decided to make a huge deal of it, declaring that we were
interfering with the "peace process."
This, please understand, at the
same time that Fatah is accusing Israel -- based on some concocted evidence --
of having murdered Arafat, "just as the Jews murdered Mohammed." But this
sort of inciteful statement was not seen by Kerry as an interference with the
"peace process." Of course not.
Prime Minster Netanyahu prevailed
upon Ariel to "reconsider" all of the preliminary planning, which he described
as causing "an unnecessary confrontation with the international
community at a time when we are making an effort to persuade elements in
the international community to reach a better deal
with Iran."
Ariel said he would
"reconsider."
~~~~~~~~~~
Here I would like to advance a few
thoughts in order to clarify the situation. When it comes to Israeli
building in Judea and Samaria, there are two essential elements -- the legal and
the political. And it is time for us to separate the two as we
assesses situations such as the one described above.
I have some sympathy with
Netanyahu. I know that stopping Iran is his absolute raison d'etre right now
(and not improperly so). I know that -- as long as we do not concede any
land! -- we can come back and build at a later date. Whereas we cannot undo
Iran's status as a nuclear nation if, heaven forbid, it should come to
that.
Netanyahu may have been correct
that Ariel's timing was off, for tactical or political reasons. He may be
right in wanting to avoid giving the international community an excuse to focus
on housing instead of Iran and to deflect hostility towards Israel.
~~~~~~~~~~
But there are some provisos
here. It would be terribly unacceptable, in my opinion, if Netanyahu were
to stop the planning for building with the thought that there was going to be a
quid pro quo: that he would get more cooperation from Obama on Iran if he did
this. That was the thinking of the old Netanyahu, who had not yet
confronted the full and bitter truth of the full hostility and duplicity of the
Obama administration. We must hope he never falls back into that
thinking.
Then, his statements should not
imply an organic link between our behavior here, vis-a-vis the "peace process,"
and what happens with Iran. That is a fallacious argument that has been
floated continuously by Obama and should not be reinforced by Israel. This
was the primary concern of Aaron Lerner, of IMRA. Yuval Steinitz, Minister
of Strategic Affairs, denies that this was the case.
And lastly, the fact that
we have a right to build must be made clear. OK, we will not do
it now, for this and this reason. But let it never be said that we
do not have the legal right. Legality is quite distinct from
politics. And neither the Israeli electorate nor the
international community has heard enough about this.
(It is the intention of the
Committee promoting the Levy Report Campaign that from now on you should hear
about it.)
~~~~~~~~~~
I will add here one other element
that likely played a role in Netanyahu's decision to make the statement he did.
That "element" is Avigdor Lieberman (head of Yisrael Beitenu), who has just been
sworn-in for the second time as Foreign Minister.
In his previous incarnation --
that is, when he was Foreign Minister before he went through a trial for
corruption, which ended with a unanimous finding of not guilty -- he was tough
in his attitude towards the US and Obama. But something has shifted --
something we might hope will not be permanent. Lieberman went to
meet with US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, and came back saying it's not
good that we should fight with the US. Huh? My information is that
Netanyahu felt a sort of support he thought he could count on disappearing
out from under him.
~~~~~~~~~~
At the Knesset today, it should be
noted, the prime minister said we would be building thousands of homes in Judea
and Samaria in the coming months, just as was done in past months. "It was
never easy, but we did it responsibly despite international pressure."
Though not an
explicit declaration of our legal rights, this might be interpreted as
implying a right to build. He was, at the very least, attempting to
clarify that stopping what Ariel had initiated should not be viewed as a
freeze. Now it remains to be seen if this was a serious commitment or
an attempt to reassure his coalition's right flank.
~~~~~~~~~~
There are reports (including from
Reuters), which I mention here but do not yet take seriously, that the PA
negotiators have quit because of Israel's position on housing. Abbas says
he'll find a new negotiating delegation if they don't come back.
Right... Most likely PA game-playing.
~~~~~~~~~~
Soldier Eden Atias, 18 (pictured
below), was asleep in the front seat of a bus stopped at a station in Afula
today, when he was attacked by a Palestinian Arab youth from Jenin, sitting
in the seat next to him, who was in Israel
illegally.
Atias - who had enlisted in the
army only two weeks ago - was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to the
multiple knife wounds in his neck.
Credit:
Facebook
Passengers grabbed the terrorist
and turned him over to security personnel.
~~~~~~~~~~~
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Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner,
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