On Monday, defiantly responding to the ridiculous assertion in last Friday’s anti-Israel resolution that Israel does not have sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, the Israeli government announced it would build thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.”
A top Israeli official confirmed 600 housing units would be built in east Jerusalem; the first of 5,600 new homes.
The Israeli government has accused the Obama Administration of orchestrated the UN resolution; on Tuesday the Times of Israel reported:
An Egyptian paper published what it claims are the transcripts of meetings between top US and Palestinian officials that, if true, would corroborate Israeli accusations that the Obama administration was behind last week’s UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. At the same time, a report in an Israeli daily Tuesday night pointed to Britain helping draft the resolution …
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fiercely defended the new homes that will be built: “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek. This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.”
Palestinian leaders were predictably overjoyed with the Security Council resolution; Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, chortled, “Now we can talk about the boycott of all settlements, the companies that work with them, et cetera, and actually take legal action against them if they continue to work with them.” He added that the Palestinians could urge the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders.
Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, replied, “The Palestinians are waging a diplomatic and legal war against Israel. That’s the strategy. Their strategy is not to negotiate an agreement with Israel because a deal is give and take. They want take and take.”
Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, the planning committee chairman, told the newspaper Israel Hayom, “I won’t get worked up over the U.N. or any other organization that might try to dictate to us what to do in Jerusalem. I hope that the government and the new administration in the United States will give us momentum to continue.”
Dermer said of the Obama Administration, “They not only did not get up and stop it, they were behind it from the beginning. This is why the prime minister is so angry. We’re going to stand up against it.”
“This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Mitchell Barak, a political consultant, said that Netanyahu’s base were strengthened in their belief that Obama is inherently anti-Israel, and Netanyahu is heroically resisting Obama. He concluded, “For them, Netanyahu emerges from this unscathed, as the lone wolf in a lion’s den of hatred.”
As far as why the “settlements” are perfectly legal, see here, here, and here.
