Free Republic

Public Security Ministry backtracks after US intervenion. Demolition orders for illegally constructed Arab homes in east Jerusalem are highly unlikely to go ahead in the near future, it emerged on Thursday, despite a recent announcement to the contrary by Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch. The U-turn came after the US State Department sought clarifications over comments by Aharonovitch, who said on Wednesday that “police have no instructions to refrain from carrying out the demolitions. They will be carried out in the coming days.” The comments threatened to reignite a US-Israeli row over Israeli policy in east Jerusalem. “It’s not our...

Construction of new housing for Jews in east Jerusalem will press forward, Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser illustrated in a statement on Monday. This drew Palestinian accusations that the plans could undermine newly relaunched peace talks. "Building is expected to begin soon in Har Homa ... and Neve Yaakov, where (construction) bids have been issued," Hauser told Army Radio, referring to two east Jerusalem neighborhoods. "Building in Jerusalem is continuing according to its regular pace."

While Israel and the Palestinian Authority are finally expected to begin US-mediated indirect “proximity” talks in the very near future, concern is growing among some in the Israeli government that the PA is planning to marginalize the diplomatic process and instead unilaterally seek UN recognition for a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines. There is a rising conviction among some in the Netanyahu government, The Jerusalem Post has learned, that the PA is aiming to secure a new UN Security Council Resolution, updating 1967’s Resolution 242, providing for the establishment of Palestine and fudging the refugee issue.

Israel is willing to be flexible towards the United States following a crisis that erupted between the two countries during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel earlier this month, but will not give up on some core issues. A source at the Prime Minister’s Office said Friday Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agrees to carry out goodwill gestures towards the Palestinians, but not in Jerusalem. Netanyahu reportedly may agree, among other things to release Fatah prisoners as a gesture to the Palestinian Authority. Earlier this week, Netanyahu reiterated that his government’s policy in Jerusalem is no different than the policy...

Two Arabs from east Jerusalem were charged in a Jerusalem court on Monday for allegedly enlisting in Hamas and gathering intelligence on potential targets for terror attacks inside Israel, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Monday. The two Israeli identity card holders – Marad Namer, 25, from Sur Bahir, and Marad Kamal, 24, of Joz – were arrested on January 3 in the Beersheba central bus station. They were allegedly in possession of digitized intelligence information pertaining to various places in the country that they had gathered on behalf of Hamas for planning terror attacks.

A unique ten-line Aramaic inscription on the side of a stone cup commonly used for ritual purity during Second Temple times was recently uncovered during archaeological excavations on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, The Jerusalem Post learned on Wednesday. Inscriptions of this kind are extremely rare and only a handful have been found in scientific excavations made within the city.

The special US envoy for Middle East peace, George Mitchell, has asked to open his own office in the region to deal with day-to-day developments between Israel, the Palestinians and neighboring states, signaling a desire for greater American hands-on involvement in negotiations. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with US Special Mideast envoy George J. Mitchell, at the PM's residence in Jerusalem last week. Photo: GPO Slideshow: Pictures of the week Mitchell, who just returned from the region on Monday and plans to go back this month after Israel's February 10 elections, has proposed placing a small staff in Jerusalem to monitor...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel's government has agreed, in writing, to hand over 6,250 square kilometers of land – the equivalent of its entire biblical and strategic heartland - to an Arab terror state. So reports Dr. Guy Bechor, a leading expert on Arab affairs, who also supplies some of the details of the negotiations. Bechor reports, based on "leaks from the Palestinian side," that Israel has, in the past few days, presented Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas at least one draft of an "agreement of principles." The agreement calls for a state named Palestine to be established alongside Israel, and have a...