Netanyahu: Likud-led government wouldn't build new settlements

[IndianaGreen]

All those orthodox women having lotsa babies, that's what they mean by natural growth. Another way to frak the Palestinians out of their land, without a goodnight kiss or lubrication.

Netanyahu: Likud-led government wouldn't build new settlements

By Barak Ravid

A Likud-led government would not build new settlements in the West Bank but would allow for natural growth, Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu told Quartet envoy Tony Blair Sunday, in an apparent attempt to calm the international community before this week's arrival of George Mitchell, the newly appointed U.S. envoy to the Middle East.

"I have no intention of building new settlements in the West Bank," Netanyahu told Blair in a meeting Sunday. "But like all the governments there have been until now, I will have to meet the needs of natural growth in the population. I will not be able to choke the settlements."

Netanyahu also said he plans to work to advance negotiations with the Palestinians quickly and to focus on economic development. "Every moment of stagnation isn't good, and I plan to deal with the Palestinian issue very intensively," he said.

Netanyahu and Blair discussed the renewed American interest in the Middle East and Mitchell's visit to the region, as well as the 2001 Mitchell Report compiled by a committee he headed. The report led to the roadmap and called for a freeze in settlement construction.

Mitchell, who is due to arrive Wednesday, will be meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Netanyahu. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has delayed a trip to Washington planned for Tuesday night so he will be able to meet with Mitchell as well - although when Mitchell was appointed Mideast envoy by then-U.S. president Bill Clinton in the final days of the Barak government, the Labor leader ordered the army and government ministries not to cooperate with him.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058760.html

[oberliner]

1. Here's hoping they'll never even get the chance!

Should be one exciting election.

[DogPoundPup]

2. oh geez,

No new settlements, just bigger and bigger and bigger existing illegal settlements.

[IndianaGreen]

6. I think that was the point of the settlements all along, prevent a Palestinian state

In a break from tradition, CBS 60 MInutes ran a segment that showed the truth about Palestinians, and the ugliness of Israel's settlements. Long overdue!

Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution?

60 Minutes: Growing Number Of Israelis, Palestinians Say Two-State Solution Is No Longer Possible

Jan. 25, 2009

(CBS) Getting a peace deal in the Middle East is such a priority to President Obama that his first foreign calls on his first day in office were to Arab and Israeli leaders. And on day two, the president made former Senator George Mitchell his special envoy for Middle East peace. Mr. Obama wants to shore up the ceasefire in Gaza, but a lasting peace really depends on the West Bank where Palestinians had hoped to create their state. The problem is, even before Israel invaded Gaza, a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians had concluded that peace between them was no longer possible, that history had passed it by. For peace to have a chance, Israel would have to withdraw from the West Bank, which would then become the Palestinian state.

It’s known as the "two-state" solution. But, while negotiations have been going on for 15 years, hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers have moved in to occupy the West Bank. Palestinians say they can't have a state with Israeli settlers all over it, which the settlers say is precisely the idea.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daniella Weiss moved from Israel to the West Bank 33 years ago. She has been the mayor of a large settlement.

"I think that settlements prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel. This is the goal. And this is the reality," Weiss told 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon.

Though settlers and Palestinians don't agree on anything, most do agree now that a peace deal has been overtaken by events.

"While my heart still wants to believe that the two-state solution is possible, my brain keeps telling me the opposite because of what I see in terms of the building of settlements. So, these settlers are destroying the potential peace for both people that would have been created if we had a two-state solution," Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, once a former candidate for Palestinian president, told Simon.

And he told 60 Minutes Israel's invasion of Gaza - all the death and destruction - convinces him that Israel does not want a two-state solution. "My heart is deeply broken, and I am very worried that what Israel has done has furthered us much further from the possibility of two-state solution."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/23/60minutes/main4749723.shtml

[azurnoir]

8. Thinking he means

more take overs of existing homes and orchards, olive groves, ect but nothing new

[Bodhi BloodWave]

10. maybe we should solve this in a very simple manner then >.>

Tell the settlers they have before 'specific date' to return inside the proper borders of Israel, if they remain then the Palestinian state will still be created and those within its borders will become citizens of the said state >.>

[Malikshah]

3. Define Build, bibi. Define new, Bibi. On second thought

forget it. Your words mean nothing. You vile excuse for a human being.

How's that relationship with the Rabin family moving along?

[Chulanowa]

4. No, it would just let the settlers build new settlements

I hope the people of Israel in 2008 are smarter than the people of the US were in 2000.

[rwheeler31]

5. Why are they trying to destroy themselves?

[Idealism]

7. "Read my lips: no new taxes"

Campaign promises are a funny thing, Bibi.

[henank]

9. What are you implying by these words?

All those orthodox women having lotsa babies, that's what they mean by natural growth. Another way to frak the Palestinians out of their land, without a goodnight kiss or lubrication.

Are you saying that Orthodox women should stop giving birth? Or that Orthodox women should be prevented from giving birth?

Do you suggest the same thing for the Palestinians whose growth rate is a major source of their poverty?

Do you realize how racist you sound? Not to say misogynist.

[cali]

11. I hate to defend that comment or

that poster, but she's essentially right. This is just another way of expanding settlements onto the land of Palestinians. And it's disgusting.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Let's hope we never get the chance to find out!

[GoesTo11]

13. Even the Israeli right is reaching out for peaceful coexistence

Would you rather Netanyahu played to the hardliners and said it is a God-given right to build as many new settlements as possible?

[iconicgnom]

14. question is, why is a fascist like Netanyahu so happy with the status quo?

Maybe because, insofar as the status quo is supported and promoted (and even granted as some kind of concession!) the Palestinians are fucked.

[Scurrilous]

15. Peace Now: Israel settlement building accelerated in 2008

<snip>

"Settlements and outposts in the West Bank expanded more quickly in 2008 than the previous year, a Peace Now report said Wednesday.

According to the group, 1,257 new structures were built in settlements during 2008, compared to 800 in 2007, an increase of 57 percent.

The group said in the report that building more than doubled in outposts, which unlike settlements are not recognized by the Israeli government. It says 261 structures were built in outposts, compared to 98 the year before."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059483.html



Reports: Summary of Construction in the West Bank 2008

http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&docid=3508