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Israel, in violation of Obama’s call for a settlement-construction freeze, plans on building 900 more homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem. Robert Gibbs put out this statement:
We are dismayed at the Jerusalem Planning Committee’s decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem. At a time when we are working to re-launch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed. Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. The U.S. also objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. Our position is clear: the status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations between the parties.
In a Windy headline, I said the White House “blasted” the settlement construction, but I wonder if I should have picked a better verb. Like “meekly chirped as Netanyahu ignored a stated position of the White House.” Or “raised meager criticism and did not even broach the very possibility of reprisal.” Or “got pimp-slapped and then said everything was cool but please don’t keep doing that.” Or “suggested that there’s really nothing Netanyahu can’t do to earn substantive rebuke from the White House.” You know, one of those.
Update: Oh also, check this out.
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Is the sherif of DeeCee collecting spines before anyone can enter?
The next time Netanyahoo comes to the United States the immigration guy should take his fingerprints and then send him back. That – not a 70-minute private meeting with the President – might be the kind of lesson he pays attention to.
Obama should just say “Israel is my daddy.”
and have somebody else’s family moved into his house while he’s over here.
Gilo is not in Palestinian East Jerusalem. Gilo is in Jewish South Jerusalem. It is outside the 1948 Armistice line, and you might say it is in the West Bank, but it is not Arab and it is not east of the city.
Here is a link to a Google map spot between Gilo and downtown Jerusalem. Gilo is to the south of the spot and downtown Jerusalem is to the north. The spot is in a valley between.
Here is the link explicitly since clicking doesn’t seem to work:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=31.740081,+35.192299&num=1&vps=2&jsv=188a&sll=31.74627,35.212555&sspn=0.156781,0.402374&ie=UTF8&hl=en&geocode=FbFQ5AEd6_0YAg&split=0
South of Gilo is the Arab neighborhood of Beit Jala. The Arabs used to shoot into Gilo so now there is a concrete wall between them.
To the west and a bit north of Beit Jala there is the newer Jewish area of “Har Gilo”, which is outside the municipal borders of the city, I believe. I’m guessing that there has been some confusion between Gilo and nearby Har Gilo. I’m pretty sure the new plans for 900 units are in plain old Gilo.
Gilo is not far from Har Homa, which has also been in the news.
I can’t imagine what the fracas is about, there are already 40,000 Israelis living in Gilo. If somebody imagines that it will eventually come under the Administration of the PA or some such they are deluded, so what difference does it make whether it is going to be more densely populated?
I’m pretty sure the White House has access to the same internet that I do, and even better maps.
Here is more on Gilo.
Here’s that ‘More’ link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilo#Status
Gibbs:
Of course, that is what everybody is doing, all the time; Trying to precast the end result. The Israelis, the Arabs, the Americans, the Iranians, the Russians, the Pundits…
Gilo is not in Palestinian East Jerusalem. Gilo is in Jewish South Jerusalem. It is outside the 1948 Armistice line, and you might say it is in the West Bank, but it is not Arab and it is not east of the city
That Gilo is predominantly Jewish is irrelevent to its status. The only thing that matters is that it is in territory occupied by Israel in the 1967. As such, it is a war crime for Israelis to move there. All of the Occupied Palestinian Territories are “close” to Israel but that closeness does not give Israel rights to any of it. I find it ironic that Israel correctly makes much fuss about German looting of Jewish property during WW2 even as it continues to loot the Palestinian birthright.