By Ryan Jones
Oct 20, 2005
Official Bush Administration policy does not afford the Jews the right to fulfill their biblical and historical mandate to settle the ancient Land of Israel, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice inferred Wednesday.
Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rice said plans to build additional Jewish homes in the area known as E1, effectively linking Jerusalem with the Judean city of Ma'aleh Adumim, ?contravene American policy.?
?We have told the Israelis in no uncertain terms? that this is the case, the secretary stated.
That Israel continues to lay the groundwork for the project has resulted in Washington deducting ?some of the resources we provide to the Israelis as a part of their loan guarantees.?
On Thursday, Ma'aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel urged the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to disregard Washington's disapproval and immediately approve the start of actual construction in E1.
Kashriel was reported by Arutz 7 as saying he was aware of the Bush Administration's feelings on the matter, but pointed out the project is of immense importance to the national interests of Israel, which should take precedence over American policy.
The area in question lies in a part of Judea that in biblical times belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin.
The books of Genesis and Joshua directly record the Almighty's deeding of those lands to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the children of Israel.
Millennia later, the international community would use those same scriptures as the basis for the 1920 San Remo Conference decision to mandate ?close Jewish settlement? on all of what is today Israel proper, the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The San Remo declaration remains the sole legally-binding international document regarding ownership of the land. All subsequent United Nations resolutions have been passed under a clause rendering them little more than recommendations.