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America in the Middle East

Israeli ministers to 'Condi' - Go fly a kite


By Stan Goodenough
December 09, 2007

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can think again if she believes that Israel is going to stop building homes in Jerusalem, the Arab-coveted capital of the Jewish people.

This was the thrust of messages delivered at the weekend by Israeli Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim and Vice-Prime Minister Haim Ramon after Rice criticized Israel Friday during a press conference in Brussels.

Speaking after meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the American expressed her displeasure at Israel's recent issuing of a tender to build a little over 300 new housing units in Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood near Bethlehem.

Rice, who has virtually tied her dreams for a lasting legacy to the successful creation of an Arab state on Jewish land, said she had made it "very clear" to Livni "that we're in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence between the parties and this [building of homes for Jews in land the Arabs want to take for themselves] doesn't help to build confidence."

In response, Boim declared that nothing could prevent the new construction in Har Homa because the neighborhood is inside the capital's municipal borders.

"Rice must be commended for her part in setting the peace process in motion," he said diplomatically, before swiping at her for "at every possible opportunity" bringing up the halting of construction in Jerusalem.

"The Har Homa neighborhood is within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, to which Israeli law applies, and therefore there is no obstacle to building there," he declared.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Ramon - one of the more outspoken anti-Zionists in a government that is planning to surrender the ancient heartland of the Jewish state - as saying that Israel needs to clarify its intention to relinquish control over Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods but retain Jewish neighborhoods, including those built in 'east Jerusalem.'

"When we have a clear-cut policy that says Arab neighborhoods that were never part of Jerusalem won't be part of Jerusalem and that all Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will be part of Jewish Jerusalem, then I imagine the United States, too, will understand that position," he told Army Radio, wishfully.

Rice unsurprisingly earned "Palestinian" support for her position when the PA's so-called foreign minister slammed Ramon.

"These statements place obstacles before any serious attempts by Palestinian negotiators on Jerusalem," Riad Malki said. "They aim to create confusion and change the course of negotiations before they begin. They try to pressure Palestinians and the international parties to think of Israeli needs before they begin."

The Arabs Malki represents have no national history in Jerusalem and no historic rights or claims to the city.

Observers have noted, however, the "Palestinians'" discovery that they can garner a great deal more support for their falsified territorial claims if they unbudgingly insist that it is THEY who are being asked to give up some of THEIR land for Israel's sake rather than that they are looking to Israel to give them some of the Jewish people's ancient homeland.

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