Hamas War

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Taking Bets- Will Bibi Build or Won't He?

The world is having fits because Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted to their overwhelming vote in favor or upgrading the status of the P.A. to a Palestinian State by announcing that Israel will build in "sensitive" areas liberated in the 1967 Six Days War, especially in and around Jerusalem.

Now, I have some problems with Bibi's dramatic proclamation, but my complaints aren't the same as those rude undiplomatic countries that insulted our Israeli Ambassadors.
Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser on Tuesday said Israel's settlement expansion announcement came in response to the Palestinians' attempt to gain statehood at the U.N. in a unilateral way.
"The Israeli government needs to make it clear that unilateral steps by the Palestinians are not the way things are going to get solved,” Hauser said.
“We're trying every way possible to get the Palestinians back to the table. The Palestinians think that they can get achievements by unilateral action, and we are showing them that they cannot. If anyone thinks that because of pressure Israel won't build in Gilo and Ramat Shlomo then he doesn’t understand the map of Israeli interests.
"There is consensus in the Israeli public and politics that there are areas that we have to keep normal life going. We are not talking about a little stone in the desert. We are talking about Jerusalem. We have to see the whole picture: It is unacceptable that the Palestinians play alone on the chessboard. We will act according to the behavior of the Palestinians. If they persist with unilateral moves we will react
Sorry, but I still don't see the connection.
  • First of all, Netanyahu himself has declared his support for the "two state solution."  Simple physics, does he expect the Arabs to remain in their nishta hein nishta hare status forever?  If he disapproves the UN General Assembly vote than he should admit that his support for a Palestinian State is a mistake and he should rescind it.
  • Our Jewish Israeli right to build on that Land should not be connected to anything outside of simple supply and demand.  There is a demand for Jewish housing in all of those areas.  The Levy Report concluded that Israel has every legal right, by international law, to build and develop the Land for Jews.  The minute that report was read and accepted the building should have begun.
  • I don't believe that Netanyahu really plans on building all of those homes.  He just made that vague proclamation to k'ilu, sort of,  or "give the impression" as is said in Hebrew that he's going to promote policies from the Israeli Right.
Please remember that, contrary to the impression the media likes to give, the Israeli public is politically to the Right and religiously traditional and even more Torah observant.  All of the polls show this.  Here's a recent poll from IMRA, New Wave poll: National camp 67 Left 43 Arab parties 10.  This two-thirds Right has been pretty consistent.  The question is which parties will benefit.  Netanyahu wants those votes for Likud. 

The Likud primaries made it clear that the voters want a Right government, not a wishy-washy Centrist one.  Bibi's Likud list is more to the Right than his policies, but I'm sure he's happy with that, because he hopes that the voters will vote to get Feiglin and Hotovelli in the Knesset.  Of course, once they are in, again, he'll make Left-Center policy.

And I don't think that the massive number of homes in Judea, Samaria and E1 Netanyahu's government has announced will be built so quickly, if at all.  It's a campaign promise, no more no less.  As is his thumbing his nose at the world.  Once elected, his mask will be off.  That's my humble opinion.

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