Netanyahu ’surprised’ by U.S. demand

Netanyahu explained an open city does not discriminate against Jewish housing and that Israel would not accept a stance that counters that civil right.

“Israeli Arabs are not forbidden from buying houses in west Jerusalem, and Jews must be granted the same right in the eastern part of the city,” he added.

WND has confirmed that over the weekend the State Department summoned Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren to urge him to reject a permit granted to Moskowtz’s housing project.

Moskowitz purchased an eastern Jerusalem hotel. He plans to tear it down and build housing units in its place. The Jerusalem municipality earlier this month granted approval to the project, allowing for the construction of 20 apartments plus a three-level underground parking lot.

Historically, there was never any separation between eastern and western Jerusalem. The terminology came after Jordan occupied the eastern section of the city, including the Temple Mount, from 1947 until it used the territory to attack the Jewish state in 1967. Israel reunited Jerusalem when it won the 1967 Six Day War.

While the U.S. strongly protests any Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem, it has been actively aiding Palestinians building illegally upon Jewish own land in eastern sections of the city, WND has exposed.

Nimer Hamad, senior political adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told WND the PA recently received guarantees against any Jewish construction in the West Bank or eastern Jerusalem taking place without the approval of the Obama administration and the Palestinians.

Last month, WND quoted a top PA negotiator stating the Obama administration told the Palestinians the “golden era” of Israeli construction in sections of Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank will soon come to an end.

“The U.S. assured us that for the first time since 1967, we are going into a period where there will not be allowed a single construction effort on the part of the Israelis in the settlements, including in Gush Etzion, Maale Adumum and eastern Jerusalem,” said the negotiator, speaking from Ramallah on condition his name be withheld.

The negotiator told WND the positions of the PA and U.S. regarding ongoing Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem “are closer than ever.”

“The U.S. used to differentiate between natural growth and adding new communities. Not anymore. No construction will be allowed, not even natural growth,” the PA negotiator said.

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Russia Won’t Agree To Iran Sanctions

JPost – A Russian Foreign Ministry source was quoted Tuesday as saying that Moscow would not impose tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in exchange for a new nuclear arms cuts deal with Washington.

Reuters cited an Interfax report which quoted the source as saying, “There are no reasons to link these issues or count on Russia being more cooperative in toughening sanctions against Iran if there is progress in talks with the United States on further cuts in strategic offensive weapons.”

The comment referred to negotiations between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over the START I agreement, a pact regulating the number of long-range nuclear weapons held by the US and Russia, which expires on December 5.

Russia has consistently shown reluctance to place strong sanctions on Iran, with which it enjoys trade ties.

However, Reuters quoted a Kremlin source as saying that the remarks on Iran did not indicate any change in the vibe of the negotiations. “It was nothing more than an exchange of remarks over a specific suggestion,” the source was quoted as saying.

 

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‘Iran could build bomb within a year’ by Herb Keinon

Both the US and Israel believe Iran has the technical capacity to build one nuclear bomb within a year if it decides to do so, but both countries also believe the chances that Teheran will indeed make that decision are slim, according to assessments made known to The Jerusalem Post.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy gestures as he speaks during a news conference at the G8 summit, in L’Aquila, Italy.
Photo: AP

According to these Israeli assessments, there is not much difference now between the US and Israel regarding a timeline for a “worst case scenario” on Iran’s development of a bomb. At the same time, both Jerusalem and Washington currently believe that “worst case scenario is not likely to materialize.”

The assessments come in the wake of comments made Sunday by US Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the effect that Iran could be as little as a year away from completing a nuclear bomb, while Mossad head Meir Dagan recently surprised many by saying Iran won’t have a nuclear weapon until 2014.

“I would be careful about all the declarations on this matter,” said one senior government official who deals with the issue, adding that a decision by Teheran to go full throttle toward the building of a bomb was dependent on numerous different decisions the government would have to make, and which it had simply not yet made.

In the meantime, the official said, the Iranians have decided to continue to enrich as much low grade uranium as they can, and to also continue development in the field of ballistic missiles at a level that would not make their situation with the international community much worse than it already is.

 

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US & EU Government’s Resist Israel

TEL AVIV – The composition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government

is “under assault” by the U.S. and Europe, says a top minister in the Israeli government.

“It seems there is a coordinated assault between the U.S. and some European countries to remove Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his party and to replace them with the Kadima party,” the minister said.

The minister spoke on condition his name be withheld due to possible political fallout from his comments. He said he was expressing his belief and does not have any proof of possible U.S.-European collusion to influence the composition of the Israeli government.

Kadima, headed by opposition leader Tzipi Livni, is considered a “centrist” party politically, although in reality its politics are leftist. Kadima, which led the government until earlier this year, supports a Palestinian state and under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert engaged in negotiations with the Palestinians that reportedly included the willingness to relinquish sections of Jerusalem and 94 percent of the West Bank. Livni led all negotiations.

Kadima’s policies are more aligned with the policies of the Obama administration and Europe than Netanyahu’s Likud party, which states it stands against giving up Jerusalem. Likud officials also say they are against halting Jewish construction in the strategic West Bank.

Currently, there is no place in the Israeli government for Kadima since all senior positions are filled.

In the last few days, witnesses have reported assaults on Lieberman, whose Yisroel Beitanu party is a senior coalition partner in Netanayhu’s government. Lieberman holds the foreign minister post. His politics are more aligned with Likud and at odds with the Obama administration and Europe regarding the Middle East.

Yesterday, Israel’s Channel Two television reported that in a meeting last week with Netanyahu, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the Israeli leader to “get rid” of Lieberman.

According to the report, Sarkozy said that while he usually scheduled talks with Israel’s top foreign envoys on their visits to Paris, he could not bring himself to meet with Lieberman. Channel Two claimed Sarkozy’s statements were accompanied by disparaging hand gestures.

Sarkozy then advised Netanyahu to fire Lieberman and bring Livni back into the coalition as foreign minister, according to the report. Netanyahu reportedly told Sarkozy that Lieberman came across differently in private than his public appearances would suggest.

Lieberman’s office responded with a strong condemnation:

“If the words attributed to the president of France are correct, the interference of a president of a respected democratic state in the matters of another democratic state is a grave and intolerable thing. We expect that that regardless of political stance, every political body in Israel will condemn this callous attack by a foreign state in our domestic affairs.”

Yesterday, in a meeting with a group of over 20 European ambassadors at Jerusalem’s King David hotel, Netanyahu defended Lieberman as an important part of the Israeli government.

“[He] is fully committed to peace and security,” said Netanyahu. “Lieberman constitutes an important part of the elected government of the democratic state of Israel.”

According to political sources in Jerusalem speaking to WND, France is not the only foreign country to express a negative attitude toward Lieberman and a wish for Livni to replace him.

Lieberman has played a minor role in the Israeli relationship with the U.S. Just yesterday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak was in New York to meet with U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell in an effort to agree on a compromise formula on settlement construction. Such a meeting normally would have been led by the foreign minister and not the defense minister.

 

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Syrian Group Threatens To Reclaim Golan Heights

JERUSALEM – A Syrian militant group threatened over the weekend to seize the strategic Golan Heights by force if a peace agreement involving the strategic plateau is not reached with Israel.

Israel’s Army Radio reported a group calling itself the Syrian Committee for the Liberation of the Golan on Saturday said it would move to capture the Golan, adding Israel has not shown willingness to achieve peace or to return what they called “Syrian land.”

WND first broke the story in September 2006 of the formation of the Committee for the Liberation of the Golan, quoting Syrian officials stating the group was formed to launch “resistance” against Israeli troop positions and Jewish communities in the Golan Heights.

WND also conducted an in-person interview with a top leader of the Committee.

One month later, a man identified as the leader of the Committee gave an interview to state-run Iranian television.

Amos Yadlin, head of the Israel Defense Forces’ intelligence branch, told the Knesset in October 2006 that Syria was indeed forming a Hezbollah-like group.

The latest threats from the Committee were made in comments over the weekend at the inauguration ceremony attended by Syrian President Bashar Assad for a new communications center in the town of Quneitra, which runs alongside the Syrian border with Israel.

In July 2007, Syria for the first time in 30 years opened a strategic border road at Quneitra to civilian traffic in a move some Israeli security officials worry could help facilitate guerrilla attacks against Golani Jewish communities. The road is visible from the Israeli side of the border.

Israel has not been standing idle at recent Syrian rhetoric and military moves.

A WND trip to the Israeli-Syrian border three weeks ago found Israeli tanks stationed alongside the Syrian border as well as a series of massive trenches dug in recent months on the Israeli side.

Also, according to information obtained by WND, Israeli security forces previously arrested two Syrian nationals living in the Golan under suspicion they worked for the Committee for the Liberation of the Golan. Those nationals were sentences in a closed military court several months ago to 3 years in prison. The complete details of the case – fully known to WND – are being held back by Israel’s military censor.

 

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Israel – Against All Odds Part 13

Israel – Against All Odds Part 12

Israel – Against All Odds Part 11

Israel – Against All Odds Part 10

Israel – Against All Odds Part 9

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