Herb Keinon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the cabinet on Sunday that he made clear in the U.S. last week that although Israel is committed to removing illegal West Bank outposts, it will not stop construction in Jerusalem or building to accommodate natural growth in the settlements. Netanyahu said he stressed in Washington that Jerusalem was not included in various understandings regarding settlement construction that were reached over the years between the U.S. and Israel. "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty, and we do not accept limits on construction or on our activity inside Israel," he said. Netanyahu also told the cabinet, "We can't accept the idea that families will not bring children into the world, or that children will have to move away from their parents....We won't establish new settlements, but there is no logic in not providing an answer to natural growth."
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, trying to illustrate how the settlement issue was widely misunderstood abroad, said that in a recent meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, he said that his home settlement of Nokdim needed additional preschools, and was asked by Kouchner why the children there couldn't just go to study in nearby Bethlehem [which is part of the Palestinian Authority].
(Jerusalem Post)
