SMH at IsraHELL's reason to expand settlements....
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Israel vows to expand settlements after stabbings
Reporting from Jerusalem
As thousands of Israelis gathered Sunday to bury five members of a family of Jewish settlers who were stabbed to death in their beds over the weekend, the government said it would respond to the attack by building an additional 500 homes in the West Bank.
Israeli security forces continued their manhunt for unknown infiltrators who broke into the heavily guarded settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus, and killed Udi and Ruth Fogel and three of their children, including an infant. The military has named no suspects, but officials are blaming Palestinian militants for the attack.
The government decision to expand housing construction in several large settlement blocs was intended to signal that Israel's presence in the West Bank will not be deterred by violence, officials said.
"This murder reminds everyone that the struggle and conflict is not about Israel's borders or about independence of a repressed nation, but a struggle for our existence," Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said at the funeral. "In this difficult hour we must rise from the rubble and do the most natural thing — continue building and developing Israel."
Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Israel should build 1,000 new homes in the West Bank for every Israeli that is killed there.
Palestinian leaders condemned the attack but criticized Israel's decision to accelerate settlements, saying it would heighten tensions and complicate peace efforts.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil abu Rudeineh called the expansion "wrong, unacceptable and rejected. The climate created by this decision brings nothing more than trouble. Peace needs courageous decisions."
The plans dimmed hopes of restarting U.S.-brokered peace talks, which collapsed last year. Israel's settlement construction has been a key obstacle to resuming negotiations. Palestinians have refused to enter talks as long as building continues in the West Bank, where they hope to one day have their own state. Most of the international community views the settlements as illegal because they are built on land seized by Israel during the 1967 war.
Emotions ran high around the country Sunday as government officials, prominent rabbis and friends and supporters of the Fogel family gathered in Jerusalem to offer support and condolences to surviving family members, including three other children who escaped harm. Many of the eulogies and mourners called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expand settlement construction and resist calls to make concessions to Palestinians.
The pressure is raising doubts about whether Netanyahu will proceed with what his aides had promised would be new peace initiative, expected to be unveiled in a speech in the coming weeks.
"The murder in Itamar places a huge question mark over the planned speech, particularly if it ignites a new wave of violence between Arabs and Jews," wrote Israel's Haaretz newspaper on Sunday.
In the West Bank, mobs of angry settlers have launched a string of revenge attacks against Palestinian villages, setting up roadblocks, throwing stones at Palestinians, raiding homes and burning cars in several towns, Palestinians said.
Fanning the public anger was the release by settler groups of what appear to be military crime-scene photographs, depicting the blooded bodies of the victims with their faces digitally obscured. They said the family approved the release of the gruesome pictures in an effort to demonstrate the brutality of the attack.
Settler groups offered lukewarm praise for Netanyahu's approval of additional housing, which is expected be built in settlements such as Maale Adumim, Ariel, Kirya Sefer and Gush Etzion. Over the last six months, critics have accused Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of quietly restricting construction permits.
"This decision by the government is a small step in the right direction," said Danny Dayan, head of the settler group Yesha Council. But he added, "It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an objective."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-settlers-funeral-20110314,0,4981914.story
Reporting from Jerusalem
As thousands of Israelis gathered Sunday to bury five members of a family of Jewish settlers who were stabbed to death in their beds over the weekend, the government said it would respond to the attack by building an additional 500 homes in the West Bank.
Israeli security forces continued their manhunt for unknown infiltrators who broke into the heavily guarded settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus, and killed Udi and Ruth Fogel and three of their children, including an infant. The military has named no suspects, but officials are blaming Palestinian militants for the attack.
The government decision to expand housing construction in several large settlement blocs was intended to signal that Israel's presence in the West Bank will not be deterred by violence, officials said.
"This murder reminds everyone that the struggle and conflict is not about Israel's borders or about independence of a repressed nation, but a struggle for our existence," Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said at the funeral. "In this difficult hour we must rise from the rubble and do the most natural thing — continue building and developing Israel."
Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Israel should build 1,000 new homes in the West Bank for every Israeli that is killed there.
Palestinian leaders condemned the attack but criticized Israel's decision to accelerate settlements, saying it would heighten tensions and complicate peace efforts.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil abu Rudeineh called the expansion "wrong, unacceptable and rejected. The climate created by this decision brings nothing more than trouble. Peace needs courageous decisions."
The plans dimmed hopes of restarting U.S.-brokered peace talks, which collapsed last year. Israel's settlement construction has been a key obstacle to resuming negotiations. Palestinians have refused to enter talks as long as building continues in the West Bank, where they hope to one day have their own state. Most of the international community views the settlements as illegal because they are built on land seized by Israel during the 1967 war.
Emotions ran high around the country Sunday as government officials, prominent rabbis and friends and supporters of the Fogel family gathered in Jerusalem to offer support and condolences to surviving family members, including three other children who escaped harm. Many of the eulogies and mourners called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expand settlement construction and resist calls to make concessions to Palestinians.
The pressure is raising doubts about whether Netanyahu will proceed with what his aides had promised would be new peace initiative, expected to be unveiled in a speech in the coming weeks.
"The murder in Itamar places a huge question mark over the planned speech, particularly if it ignites a new wave of violence between Arabs and Jews," wrote Israel's Haaretz newspaper on Sunday.
In the West Bank, mobs of angry settlers have launched a string of revenge attacks against Palestinian villages, setting up roadblocks, throwing stones at Palestinians, raiding homes and burning cars in several towns, Palestinians said.
Fanning the public anger was the release by settler groups of what appear to be military crime-scene photographs, depicting the blooded bodies of the victims with their faces digitally obscured. They said the family approved the release of the gruesome pictures in an effort to demonstrate the brutality of the attack.
Settler groups offered lukewarm praise for Netanyahu's approval of additional housing, which is expected be built in settlements such as Maale Adumim, Ariel, Kirya Sefer and Gush Etzion. Over the last six months, critics have accused Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of quietly restricting construction permits.
"This decision by the government is a small step in the right direction," said Danny Dayan, head of the settler group Yesha Council. But he added, "It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an objective."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-settlers-funeral-20110314,0,4981914.story
Comments
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LOL @ "IsraHELL".
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Israel's gangsta is unstoppable. Obama and the USA refused to condemn the illegal settlements through a United Nations veto, although 14 of 15 members of the Security Council supported condemning the settlements.
But what did the USA do? They not only vetoed the legislation condemning the settlements, Susan Rice said the legislation would make the peace process even harder to acheive!!! Wow! Like the illegal settlements are making peace that much easier?????
LOL......Israel's gangsta is unstoppable. What a shame millions upon millions of Arabs are powerless and helpless to stop tiny little Israel. No wonder Obama doesn't respect the Palestinians. He looks at them as children who misbehave time to time, and looks at Jews as the righteous owners of the Middle East err I mean the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Sad but true. -
Israel is learning very well America's history of oppressing and subjugating native peoples. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be very proud of Israel right now.
? bless apartheid!!!!!!!!!!! -
Well don't expect any leadership from Obama here. He hates the idea of there not being war in the middle east.
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Israel is done for, Egypt is back, the whole arab world is coming back. They can take what they want right now, ? whoever they want but best believe they are being monitored and best believe that arab nations do not need approval anymore of the US/EU etc because once there is a new Egypt Israel is not the biggest powerhouse anymore, in fact once there are stable governments etc, they wont even be the nr. 2, 3, 4 or 5 of the region.
Go follow and read some israeli newspapers etc, they ARE SHOOK right now, they fear the arab revolutions. They know that their reign of apartheid will be over soon once Egypt gets their ? together.
? em. The only thing that can save them now is that they have a revolution of there own. -
Ridiculous. Then again the whole mid east is crazy
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Israel is done for, Egypt is back, the whole arab world is coming back. They can take what they want right now, ? whoever they want but best believe they are being monitored and best believe that arab nations do not need approval anymore of the US/EU etc because once there is a new Egypt Israel is not the biggest powerhouse anymore, in fact once there are stable governments etc, they wont even be the nr. 2, 3, 4 or 5 of the region.
Go follow and read some israeli newspapers etc, they ARE SHOOK right now, they fear the arab revolutions. They know that their reign of apartheid will be over soon once Egypt gets their ? together.
? em. The only thing that can save them now is that they have a revolution of there own.
Is this really true though? Egypt's military has said it would honor the peace agreement it has had with Israel since the 1970s. Israel still feels powerful enough to build settlements upon settlements, I hope you're right though. But I personally see Israel nuking the Middle East rather than give up any of its power. The country's leaders are that evil. -
kingblaze84 wrote: »Is this really true though? Egypt's military has said it would honor the peace agreement it has had with Israel since the 1970s. Israel still feels powerful enough to build settlements upon settlements, I hope you're right though. But I personally see Israel nuking the Middle East rather than give up any of its power. The country's leaders are that evil.
Yes it is,change is happening right now before our eyes. No new Egyptian government will support Israel like before, things have changed/are changing radically. -
lol at that being a "reason", they would have expanded regardless and we all know it
