Good News From Israel: Building Boom

While "Peace Now" and AP fret over the following, its obviously good news for Israel.

Israeli settlers have begun building new homes at an extraordinary pace since the government lifted its moratorium on West Bank housing starts – almost 550 in three weeks, more than four times faster than the last two years.

In an extensive report Thursday morning, the Associated Press wrote that many of the homes are going up in areas that under practically any peace scenario would become part of a Palestinian state, a trend that could doom US-brokered peace talks.
According to the AP's count, ground has been broken on 544 new West Bank homes since Sept. 26, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lifted a 10-month freeze on new settlement building.

The survey, while not comprehensive, marks the most extensive effort yet to quantify the construction. It was based on visits to 16 of the West Bank's more than 120 settlements as well as phone calls to more than four dozen settlements and interviews with construction workers and mayors.

"This figure is alarming and is another indicator that Israel is not serious about the peace process, which is supposed to be about ending the occupation," said Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' self-rule government in the West Bank.

Netanyahu has played down the new construction, saying it "has no real effect on the map of a possible (peace) agreement." (ynetnews)

May we continue to build in ALL parts of Israel.

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Fight the Freeze - Build a Shul

To make a long story short (because time is of the essence since no one knows what Bibi will really do after September 26), in the Zayit neighborhood of Efrat some of the neighbors have gathered together to build a shul – despite the freeze, or in other words, to fight the freeze.

After winning the municipal tender for a plot of land to build their shul (twice in fact), they decided that their 100 families could no longer wait for the freeze to end (or not to end) and permanently leave them in limbo and shuless (or is that shul-less).



They’re already digging out the mountain to prepare the foundation and need to raise money to complete that (they need another $5000 for that) as well as hire the architect and of course, build the shul.


If you want to fight the freeze, this is your chance to put your money where your mouth is:

You can donate online at: http://www.zayitjewishcenter.com/donations.htm

And you can see pictures here: http://www.zayitjewishcenter.com/pictures.htm

(A friend of mine is involved in this project, so I can vouch for it)


Gmar Chatima Tova,

Jameel.

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Ending the Building Freeze

Despite the arm-twisted "denouncement" by the Palestinian Authority of yesterday's murderous terror attack that left 4 Israelis dead, the average Palestinian rejoiced.

While the Palestinians rejoice over the spilled blood of Jews, the Jews of Israel have had enough. We don't send out death squads to murder innocents like they do, but express our outrage in positive ways.

Instead, we are prematurely ending the building freeze, TODAY.

At 6:00 PM today in the community of Kedumim in the Shomron, there will be an unfreezing ceremony, as Jewish housing construction will be restarted in the Shomron.

Similar ceremonies will be taking place this evening throughout Yehuda and Shomron.


The freeze is over.

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Ehud Barak secures his place in Olam Haba

A7 reports:

(IsraelNN.com) Special Yassam units have destroyed a synagogue in the Shomron-Binyamin community that was built after the construction freeze was announced.

The Torah scrolls were first removed from the building, and the bulldozers began the destruction shortly afterwards.

Earlier this morning (Tuesday), it was reported that large police forces and special Yassam units had arrived in the Talmonim bloc and prevented entry to the communities of Dolev, Neriah, Talmon, Nachliel and Haresha. They thus wished to prevent residents from arriving en masse to thwart their destruction of a synagogue in Nachliel, said to have been built in violation of the two-month-old construction freeze....

The destruction of a synagogue, especially in Israel, is considered very serious, in terms of both religious sensitivity and the efforts, in the words of the Knesset Law Committee, to "prevent harm to synagogues around the world."

After the Disengagement/expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005, the government originally planned to destroy the synagogues that remained in Gaza, in order to avoid their desecration by local Arabs. However, even this fear was not considered sufficient reason to destroy those holy sites, and following opposition by rabbis around the country and much debate, the decision was rescinded.

Here's a few photos of other people gleefully destroying shuls:

Before:
After:
Before:

After:

Ruth Fremson/ The New York Times

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Breaking News: Israel to Freeze Jewish Immigration

Note: The following posting is political satire, yet 90% of the quotes are word for word from current politicians about the settlement freeze on Jewish building in the settlements of Israel.


Israel to Freeze Jewish Immigration
December 1, 2009
Jerusalem, Israel

In an emergency cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that in order to create the necessary positive atmosphere to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians, all Jewish Immigration to Israel, "aliya," would be frozen immediately for a temporary period of 10 months.

Netanyahu explained that increased Jewish demographics in Israel via immigration, creating "facts on the ground" would cause mistrust between the Palestinians and Israel and "would not be helpful" in progressing the peace talks.

Israeli government ministers overwhelmingly approved (11-2) the temporary freeze in an effort to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the freeze "far-reaching and painful," yet the move would be "a very big step toward peace" and he hoped the Palestinians would "take full advantage" of the opportunity to restart talks during the 10-month window.

At least one key Security Cabinet member, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, came out in favor of the proposal. "Its aim is to open a window for renewing negotiations with the Palestinians," he said.

"I hope that the Nefesh B'Nefesh immigration leadership, which is patriotic, responsible and serious, will understand the need for the decision at this time," Barak added.

"The understandings with the United States are of the utmost importance with regard to negotiations, and guarantees of security and its military supremacy."

The Nefesh B'Nefesh aliya/immigration organization was puzzled over the move. "Classical Zionism always included immigration of Jews to Israel and its our historic right to continue to move to Israel," stated a hastily compiled Nefesh B"Nefesh press-release.

MK and Minister Benny Beigin called the move, "painful but correct", and that after the 10 month immigration freeze, immigration would again resume.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon praised the "historic" decision, and urged the Palestinian Authority to seize the opportunity for peace.

"We hope the Arabs will not repeat the miscalculation of November 29, 1947, and will not miss the opportunity to achieve peace. Netanyahu's decision to freeze immigration is historic and unprecedented," Ayalon said during a discussion at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

But Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset from Netanyahu's Likud Party and chairman of the Settlers Council, opposed the announcement. "If the prime minister will implement the ideology of the left, he will not get the support of his own party," he said.

"All the things he wrote in his books, said in his speeches, he so eloquently preached for, he does exactly the opposite," said Danon, calling the move a "disappointment."

Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal summoned foreign ambassadors in Israel to a meeting in Jerusalem Monday. Gal is expected to brief the ambassadors regarding the cabinet's decision to freeze Jewish immigration for 10 months.

"We must work to achieve understanding and declarations of support for the Israeli move," the Foreign Ministry missive said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement the Israeli move was a "step in the right direction" and "a positive contribution to peace."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said his country wanted the Israeli decision to "become a step towards resuming meaningful negotiations."

He called on Israel to implement a full freeze on immigration, which he deemed "illegal."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that he believed Israel's declaration of a 10-month freeze on Jewish immigration would lead to a renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians.

MK Michael Ben-Ari [National Union] slammed the decision, calling it yet another nail in the coffin of Zionism. "First the disengagement from Gaza, then the construction freeze, and now the immigration freeze -- is there nothing left of Zionism?"

The Obama administration welcomed the decision Wednesday as a step toward resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement released moments after Netanyahu announced the 10-month freeze.

"Today's announcement by the government of Israel helps move forward toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Clinton said.

Note: The above posting is political satire, yet 90% of the quotes are word for word from current politicians about the settlement freeze on Jewish building in the settlements of Israel.

(c) 2009 The Muqata Blog: http://muqata.blogspot.com

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