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1. Judea and Samaria Prepare to Build
by Maayana Miskin
Jews in Judea and Samaria are preparing for the end of the construction freeze imposed on them for the past 10 months this Sunday night. Local officials have announced that they will open their offices on Sunday at midnight to begin signing building permits the minute the freeze ends.
Deputy head of the Binyamin Regional Council Moti Yogev spoke to Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service and said construction would resume “as soon as possible.” Yogev criticized the building freeze as immoral, but said local authorities in Judea and Samaria would abide by the freeze until Sunday out of respect for the rule of law.
When the freeze ends, “we won't seek publicity, we'll just work on building,” he continued. “What we want is to build as much as possible,” he explained.
Jewish renewal in Israel is unstoppable, he continued. “We are all witnesses to the return of the people of Israel to its land. Even if some want to get in our way – this process cannot be stopped. It's best to join in and help. Judea and Samaria will only grow stronger, and those who make trouble only create challenges to make us stronger over the course of the years,” he stated.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has faced strong pressure from the United States to continue the construction freeze. U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday and told the world that America wants a continued building freeze for Judea and Samaria Jews – a statement that angered many Israelis, who accused Obama of disrespect for democracy and the will of the Israeli people.
Despite the pressure, Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that building will resume as scheduled. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas backed down this week from threats to quit negotiating with Israel if construction is allowed.
2. Bill Clinton Causes Anger with Slam of Russian Israelis
by Maayana Miskin
Former United States President Bill Clinton upset many Israelis this week by putting much of the blame for failed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Russian Israelis. According to Clinton, Israelis who immigrated from the former Soviet Union and their families are more likely to oppose peace.
Many current Israeli MKs are immigrants from the FSU, as is Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party released a statement condemning Clinton's remarks as “crude generalizations.”
“Russian immigrants, as the other citizens of Israeli, yearn for true peace based on recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” the statement read. Clinton should remember that it was then-PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, and not Israeli leaders, who rejected his peace proposal ten years ago, it continued.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected Clinton's statements as well, saying, “As an old friend of Israel, Clinton surely knows that the immigrations have made a huge contribution to the strengthening and development of Israel and the IDF.”
MK Lia Shem Tov, head of the Knesset committee on aliyah (immigration) and absorption, said her committee would meet after the holidays to discuss Clinton's statements. She pointed out that Israel is currently engaged in negotiations with PA, and that it is the PA that has repeatedly threatened to end talks.
“Immigrants from the former Soviet Union are Zionists who love their country, and like other citizens, want to live their lives in peace and security. The argument that immigrations oppose peace is completely baseless and stems from a total lack of understanding of this community,” she said.
Clinton was involved in unsuccessful Middle East peace negotiations several years ago. His wife Hillary Clinton is the current U.S. Secretary of State and is deeply involved in ongoing Israel-PA talks.
His comments were made in a discussion with reporters in New York. “An increasing number of the young people in the IDF are the children of Russians and settlers, the hardest-core people against a division of the land. This presents a staggering problem,” Clinton claimed.
“It's a different Israel. 16 percent of Israelis speak Russian,” he added.
Clinton claimed that Russians are less likely to support territorial concessions to the PA, “They just got there, it's their country, they've made a commitment to the future there. They can't imagine any historical or other claims that would justify dividing it.”
He ranked other Israelis by their perceived willingness to make peace, putting Israelis whose families have been in the land for hundreds of years in first place, followed by Israelis with roots in Europe, and then Moroccans.
He recounted an alleged conversation at the Camp David summit with former MK Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who now heads the Jewish Agency. Clinton said he had asked Sharansky about his opposition to peace with the PA, and was told, “I can't vote for this, I'm Russian... I came from one of the biggest countries in the world to one of the smallest. You want me to cut it in half. No, thank you.”
Clinton said he replied that even without Judea and Samaria, Israeli would be “a lot bigger than your jail cell,” a reference to Sharansky's stay in a Soviet prison.
Sharansky later said that the alleged conversation had not taken place. “I appreciate President Clinton's commitment to peace... However, as to the basic facts, I was never at Camp David and never had the opportunity to discuss the negotiations there with President Clinton,” he said.
3. Obama Slammed as 'Racist,' 'Ignorant' Over UN Speech
by Maayana Miskin
United States President Barack Obama was criticized Thursday after calling on Israel to continue to forbid Jews to build in Judea and Samaria, in a speech to the United Nations.
“Israel's settlement moratorium has made a difference on the ground, and improved the atmosphere for talks,” he said. “We believe that the moratorium should be extended. We also believe that talks should press on until completed.”
Regarding talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Obama said, “We can say that this time it will be different, that this time, we will not let terror, or turbulence, or posturing, or petty politics stand in the way.” If talks succeed, he said, “we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations – an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel.”
Obama's call to continue the construction freeze led Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika to term the U.S. president “racist” and “ignorant.”
“Hussein Obama is a racist, arrogant politician who really and truly believes, apparently due to ignorance, that Israel is a dictatorship like the rest of the countries in the Middle East, and that its leaders can 'pull tricks' despite the will of the people,” he said. Most Israelis oppose the construction freeze, Mesika said, describing the freeze as “a racist step against Jews alone.”
MK Danny Danon (Likud) dimissed Obama's pressure, saying, “Obama is welcome to turn on CNN on Sunday and watch the tractors resume construction in the land of Israel.” He expressed concern over the president's statements, saying that whoever believes that peace depends on a construction freeze is out of touch with reality, and should not play a part in peace talks.
MKs Aryeh Eldad (National Union) and Zev Elkin (Likud) of the Knesset Lobby for the Land of Israel called on Obama to “honor the democratic decision of Israel's citizens, who voted in favor of strengthening Jewish cities in Judea and Samaria, and against concessions and withdrawals.”
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said he was pleased with Obama's speech. In his own speech, Abbas said that he is ready for peace. Abbas insisted on a freeze as a prerequisite for talks, but did not agree to them until the ten month freeze was almost over, using its continuation as a lever for pressuring Israel.
"How can the President of the United States be a broker for peace if he demands preconditions for talks when Israel is ready to negotiate without preconditions, and how can he demand a condition that is so one sided," was the response of Danny Dayan, head of the Council of Judea and Samaria.
4. UN: Delegates Walk Out as Ahmadinejad Hints US Gov't Behind 9/11
by Gil Ronen
United States delegates to the United Nations walked out in the middle of a speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday, as the Iranian leader floated a theory that elements within the US government orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on America.
“A propaganda machine began to work” after 9/11, he said. “It was said that some 3,000 people were killed on 9/11, for which we were all very saddened, but in Afghanistan and Iraq hundreds of thousands have been killed” since then, he accused, referring to the American sponsored battle against terrorism in those countries.
Ahmadinejad said that there were “three viewpoints” regarding who was behind the 9/11 attack: The first, he explained was that a very sophisticated terrorist group did it. The second was that “some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack” to reverse the declining US economy and in order to save "the Zionist regime." This view, Ahmadinejad said, was the one most widely held among the nations of the world. A third opinion was that the attack was carried out by a terrorist group, but that the American government took advantage of the situation.
When Ahmadinejad reached the second “theory,” US delegates walked out. Ahmedinejad went on to call for an "independent" UN investigation of the 9/11 massacre.
Ahmadinejad attacked Israel several times in his speech, and said that “the Zionists have committed the most horrible crimes against defenseless people in their wars against Lebanon and Gaza.”
Regarding women's rights, he said that "The tendency of toughening the soul and behavior of women deprives them of their basic right to be loving mothers and devoted wives. It would result in a more violent society with irreversible defects."
5. As Predicted, UNHRC Blames Israel in Flotilla Probe
by Maayana Miskin
The United Nations Human Rights Council probe of the late May flotilla clash between Israel commandos and Turkish terrorists has ended, as predicted, in a report harshly condemning Israel for the incident.
The report termed Israel's response to the attempt to defy its blockade of Hamas “disproportionate and brutal,” and suggested that Israel be prosecuted for “willful killing.” The report accused Israel of “a series of violations of international law.”
UNHRC-appointed panel members also questioned Israel's right to impose a naval blockade on Hamas, saying residents of Hamas-controlled Gaza should be allowed to import by sea as well as by land. Israel has refused to allow imports by sea due to the lack of oversight over such imports, which could allow Hamas to import weapons.
In May, a group of international citizens attempted to forcibly defy Israel's naval blockade on Hamas. Israeli commandos opened fire on passengers aboard one ship, the Mavi Marmara, after soldiers were stabbed, beaten, and briefly kidnapped by members of the Turkish pro-terror group IHH. Nine IHH members were killed.
The UNHRC report was conducted independently of the main body of the UN, which is carrying out its own probe. Members of the Human Rights Council announced the probe only after releasing a resolution accusing Israel of committing an “outrageous attack.” A UN watchdog warned at the time that the probe verdict was already set.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office released a statement terming the UNHRC report “tendentious” and “distorted.” The UNHRC is a group “most of whose decisions are based on an obsessive persecution of Israel,” the statement said.
Videos showing passengers on the Mavi Marmara ambushing IDF soldiers and violently attacking them as they came aboard are widely available for viewing, the statement noted. However, it went on, “this did not prevent the committee from ignoring the facts and drawing false, predetermined conclusions.”
Major-General Giora Eiland, who led the IDF probe into the flotilla incident, slammed the UNHRC report as biased and flawed. He proposed that Israel prepare a legal defense detailing the events aboard the Mavi Marmara.
Pro-Hamas activists led by former British MP George Galloway are planning to launch a large flotilla to Gaza in October. The flotilla will approach by land and by sea. IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has warned that a clash may occur if activists try again to break the maritime blockade.
6. Israel: UN Absence due to Sukkot
by Maayana Miskin
Following speculation over the absence of Israeli delegates from the United Nations session Thursday, the Israeli consulate in New York released a statement explaining that the session took place on the first day o fthe holiday of Sukkot. Israel traditionally does not send delegates to UN meetings taking place on holidays or on the Sabbath (Shabbat).
Some had suggested that Israel missed the assembly in response to United States President Barack Obama's decision to focus on the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in his UN speech. Obama called on Israel to continue a 10-month construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, a move that angered many Israelis.
Television cameras showed empty seats at Israel's UN desk during his address.
The New York Times described Israel's absence as “odd,” while an LA times writer referred to suspicions that “Israel was snubbing Obama as boycotting his speech.” A writer for Politico, while noting that Thursday was Sukkot, suggested that Israel was deliberately keeping a low profile and quoted an anonymous U.S. official as saying, “If Bibi [Netanyahu] had good news to deliver on the freeze, he would have been here.”
Consulate officials said the absence had nothing to do with Obama's speech. The U.S. president was informed in advance that Israeli delegates would not be present, they said.
While Israeli Ambassador to the UN Meron Reuben was not present Thursday for Obama's speech, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres attended a speech given by Obama on Wednesday at the UN's Millennium Development Goals summit.
7. Jewish Children Targeted in Hevron
by Maayana Miskin
Young Arab men have targeted Jewish children twice this week in the city of Hevron. One attacker repeatedly exposed himself to young Jewish girls. He was arrested on Thursday.
Earlier in the week, an eight-year-old Jewish boy was attacked by a gang of Arab men as he made his way to school. His attackers ran off and hid in a nearby Arab school.
Instead of turning the attackers out, teachers at the Arab school gave them shelter and prevented IDF soldiers or police from entering the building to search for them. The principal also barred security forces from entering.
Israeli police surrounded the building, but did not enter. Jewish residents of Hevron began to gather outside the gates of the school and held a spontaneous rally calling on police to enforce the law on Palestinian Authority Arab attackers as well as Israelis.
Police eventually brought about the attackers' surrender. The group walked out to a waiting police car, and were arrested and taken to a nearby station for questioning.
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