Posted on 01/24/2010 6:43:05 AM PST by SJackson
The settlements blocs of Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion are an indisputable part of Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
He spoke in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, where he planted a tree in honor of the upcoming Tu B'Shvat holiday.
He was then scheduled to head to the Ma'aleh Adumim to plant another tree. Netanyahu said he will also plant a tree in the Ariel settlement sometime in the next few days.
With these trees, Netanyahu said he wanted to "send a clear message that we will stay here. We are planning and we are building."
He added that these areas are an "indisputable part of Israel forever. This is an idea that is accepted by the majority of Israelis" and is part of international agreements, Netanyahu said.
It was his first visit to West Bank settlements since he took office at the end of last March.
His words come in the midst of a 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction, a move that has sown seeds of doubt in the minds of many settlers regarding his commitment to the settlement movement.
Government sources, while not willing to say that the prime minister's selection of the locales to plant trees was meant as a political message, added that it was clear he did not think Israel could return to the pre-1967 lines, because he did not think they were defensible.
Likewise, Netanyahu was planting trees in areas he believed would always stay within the state, and which were very much part of the national consensus.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
George of Arabia and The One might disagree.
Hopefully Israel will double, maybe even triple, the construction of new settlements.
Picture rule!
: )
Bibi gets it.
Sometimes anyway.
I believe he was the one who ceded control of Hevron to the Muslims.
ML/NJ
Keep planting those trees, Bibi!
I planted several in Kiryat Sh’monah and stinking hezbollah started a forest fire with some rockets and burned them up. They need to be replaced.
I hear he does, actually ;;;-).
(NicknamedBob novels can make even Staid Older Ladies a little frisky.)
Thank you!
10 wasted months
His words come in the midst of a 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction
These public statements came on the same day as he met with Mitchell.
Let them take it up with the author of the Bible.
Conspicuously absent from his list of places indisputably part of Israel were Be’er Sheva and Hevron/Kiryat Arba, just for starters.
His intent aside, Mitchell has done an excellent job of pressing Netanyahu to harden his public positions. Obama too. Diplomats like attorneys shouldn’t ask questions (make proposals) if they don’t want to hear the answer. He’s an incompetent.
Obama should have made Bill Clinton his negotiator.
WEST BANK - JANUARY 24: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) visited Kibbutz Kfar Atzion in Gush Etzion to plant a tree to mark the Tu B'Shvat festival January 24, 2010 in the West Bank. After a meeting with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell who pressed Israel to stop construction in settlement blocs Netanyahu was quoted saying 'The message is clear - we are here and will remain here. We are planting and building; this is an inseparable part of the State of Israel.'
In this photo made available by the U.S. Embassy to Israel, U.S. Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, left, meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010. Mitchell pressed on with his sputtering, year-old peace mission Sunday, shuttling between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort to break a stubborn deadlock over Israeli settlement construction.
Whatever Mitchell is saying, Bibi's looking at him like he's an idiot.
I love that planting a tree do they have Arbor day in Israel too????
We have Tu B’shvat, which is the “new year for the trees.” That is next weekend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.