JERUSALEM IS THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL AND MUST REMAIN UNDIVIDED

ISRAEL IS A SOVEREIGN NATION, NOT A VASSAL STATE

While the timing of the housing construction announcement during Vice President Biden’s visit was bad, it does not alter the fact that Israel has every right to construct 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and, as such, must remain undivided.

Biden, Obama adviser David Axelrod and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have strongly condemned Israel’s intention to continue building Jewish housing in Jerusalem and Clinton added that the timing of the announcement was an insult to Biden and a slap in the face of the United States. What they don’t understand is that the status of Jerusalem is non-negotiable.

NETANYAHU: ISRAEL WILL KEEP BUILDING IN JERUSALEM
By Barak Ravid and Mazal Mualem

Haaretz.com
March 15, 2010

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that Israel would continue to build in Jerusalem in the same way that it has over the last 42 years.

"The building in Jerusalem - and in all other places - will continue in the same way as has been customary over the last 42 years," said Netanyahu at a Likud party meeting.

Israel drew angry reactions from the U.S. and the Palestinians by announcing last week the construction of 1,600 new housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden last week.

Netanyahu did not specifically address the diplomatic crisis with the U.S.over Israel's announcement about the East Jerusalem construction.

However, when asked by MK Tzipi Hotovely what would happen in September, when the 10-month settlement freeze ends, Netanyahu responded that construction would continue unabated.

Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu imposed a limited moratorium on new housing starts in West Bank settlements in November but excluded Jerusalem from the 10-month partial freeze.

Also on Monday, in a speech to the Knesset to welcome Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Netanyahu said the construction of homes for Israelis in the city's eastern sector in no way hurts Palestinians.

In his speech, Netanyahu gave no indication he would cancel the project or limit construction in East Jerusalem.

"For the past 40 years, no Israeli government ever limited construction in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem," he said in a speech to the Knesset, citing areas in the West Bank that Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed to the city.

Netanyahu called on the Palestinians, who have said they would not restart peace negotiations unless the project was scrapped, not to place new preconditions on the revival of the talks.

He added that there was nearly total consensus among Israeli political parties that what he called Jewish neighborhoods in and around Jerusalem would remain "part of the state of Israel" in any future peace agreement.

Palestinians say Israeli settlement in the West Bank will deny them a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They claim East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state.
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Speaking of insults and slaps in the face, that is exactly what Clinton is doing to Israel by her demands. Doesn’t the Obama administration realize that Israel is a sovereign nation, not a vassal state?

U.S. DEMANDS ISRAEL CANCEL RAMAT SHLOMO [JERUSALEM] CONSTRUCTION PLANS
by Gil Ronen and Yoni Kempinski

IsraelNationalNews.com
March 14, 2010

The United States administration has presented Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with a set of demands, including cancellation of the construction of 1,600 housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, Channel 2 reported Sunday night.

According to the report, which is quoted by Maariv/NRG, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Netanyahu to cancel the housing project that passed a bureaucratic hurdle just as Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel, causing an emotional response from the United States.

She also demanded that Israel carry out a “meaningful gesture” toward the Palestinian Authority chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, before the Special US Envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, visits the region on Friday. Reporters said the gesture Clinton was referring to was probably a release of terrorist prisoners.

A third demand made by Clinton was that Israel declare that the negotiations with the PA will include all of the “core issues” that are in dispute between Israel and the PA.