JERUSALEM — Israel on Friday approved the construction of 3,000 homes in Jewish settlements on Israeli-occupied lands, a government official said, drawing swift condemnation from the Palestinians a day after their successful UN recognition bid.
The Palestinians reiterated their refusal to resume negotiations with Israel while building continues. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently poised for reelection to another four-year term and insisting that any negotiations begin without preconditions, prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian partition deal appear to be going into deep freeze.
Comments
Because the Palestinians have repeatedly rejected peace offers from Israel, there is still no Palestinian state and there is no final mutually-accepted border between Israel and a Palestinian state. As a result, there is no reason why Jews should not buy land in the "West Bank" and build homes. If there were a Palestinian state, would its leaders prohibit Jews from living within its borders? That would be racist. Note that 20 percent of Israel's population is Arab.
Bibi may have botched the operation in Gaza, but hopefully he recognizes the need for Israel to hold on to ALL its land, and to protect and defend it against all enemies. Israel has the right to build on its land anywhere, anytime; and now that the "Palestinians" have bamboozled a banana republic UN into granting them non-member nation status (whatever THAT is supposed to mean), the next terrorist attack can be construed as a declaration of war. Time for Israel to cut off all aid to Gaza - she cannot afford to "build" a nation that isn't hers.
Where were you people yesterday? To repeat myself,
The Israeli Government's capacity for self-delusion and magical thinking is beyone belief. Or is is that of the Israeli citizens, at least those who don't consider their God to have anything better to do but arrange real-estate deals for their benefit? In any case Israel need not worry about anyone's threats to drive it into the sea; if it keeps on behaving this way - and if the US coninues to pay for such behavior - Israel will destroy itself.