Western Wall protest: ‘End peace talks at once’
Hundreds gather at Jerusalem holy site to pray and rally against ‘growing pressure’ to ‘forfeit lands’ to Palestinians
January 30, 2014, 5:01 pm
0-The Times of Israel
Hundreds of right-wing
demonstrators gathered at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem
Thursday to voice their rejection of ongoing US-brokered peace talks
between Israel and the Palestinians.The
protesters called on the government to halt all negotiations with the
Palestinians, and to resist “growing pressure” to “forfeit territories”
and evacuate settlements in the West Bank.The rally, dubbed by its organizers a
“gathering for anguished prayer,” was attended by Housing Minister Uri
Ariel (Jewish Home), as well as several prominent rabbis within the
settler community, including Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi Dov
Lior of Hebron and Rabbi Haim Druckman.The participants called for the cancellation
of the “Kerry edicts.” The word “edicts” is a reference to historic
anti-Jewish measures by various rulers throughout European and Muslim
history, often involving expulsion or pogrom.One prayer pamphlet distributed at the rally,
which was read publicly during the proceedings, read: “Please O God,
give strength and courage and truth and faith to our leaders, and give
them a great fear from Thee, to fill them with reverence and make them
wary of harming our holy country … make them fear Thee, and not the
nations of the world.”Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev, who also attended
the afternoon rally, insinuated earlier in the day that US Secretary of
State John Kerry was at least partially motivated by anti-Semitism in
his efforts to forge a peace agreement between Israelis and
Palestinians.“The prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] is
maneuvering under the obsessive and unprofessional pressures that might
also bear an undertone of anti-Semitism on Kerry’s part,” Yogev told
Israel Radio.Yogev’s comments came amid a public spat between Netanyahu and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett
over Bennett’s reaction to a statement by an official close to
Netanyahu – first reported by The Times of Israel – according to which
the prime minister was insisting in the peace talks that West Bank
settlers be given the choice to remain in their homes under Palestinian
rule.Bennett had said on Tuesday that leaving
settlers in a Palestinian state was unthinkable because, among other
reasons, it would represent a reversal of Zionism and the settlers would
be killed by their Palestinian neighbors. In an apparent thinly veiled
reference to Netanyahu, he added that history “won’t forgive” an Israeli
leader who relinquishes parts of the Land of Israel under a peace deal.Bennett was later forced to issue a semi-apology after Netanyahu’s aides threatened to fire him, saying he did not mean to offend the prime minister.Israel and the Palestinian Authority began a
nine-month track of US-backed peace negotiations in July, but so far
there has been little visible progress. The Palestinians warned that
after the deadline, they could take legal action in the international
courts against Israel over its settlement expansion on land they want
for their future state.Several Israeli politicians and a host of
pundits have said they believe Israel will be blamed if the current
round of talks with the Palestinians fails to produce an agreement.Senior Israeli officials, including Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) and Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh
Atid), have warned that absent an agreement leading to two states,
Israel will face a severe backlash and be isolated economically and
politically from the international community.JTA contributed to this report.
Liberman: Settlers won’t live under Palestinian rule
Foreign minister says Bennett was right to apologize to PM, then contradicts recent leak from PMO officials about settlers in Palestine
January 30, 2014, 4:56 pm
0-The Times of Israel
Foreign Minister Avigdor
Liberman said Thursday Israel has no intention of leaving Israelis to
live under Palestinian rule as part of a peace deal.Liberman’s statement was at odds with a recent leak from officials in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since the Times of Israel reported on Sunday,
according to PMO officials, that Netanyahu intends to insist settlers
be given the option of staying in place under Palestinian rule if they
so choose.During a visit to Katzrin in the Golan Heights, Liberman commented on the public conflict in recent days
between Netanyahu and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett, and
said Bennett was right to apologize to the premier. “One may disagree
with the prime minister, and one may argue with him, but one cannot lash
out at the prime minister,” Liberman said.The spat began when an official close to
Netanyahu said the prime minister believed West Bank settlers must be
given the option to remain in their homes under Palestinian rule under
any future peace accord. “His consistent position has been that those
settlements that will be on the Palestinian side of the border should
not be uprooted,” the official told The Times of Israel. “Just as Israel
has an Arab minority, the prime minister doesn’t see why Palestine
can’t have a Jewish minority. The Jews living on their side should have a
choice whether they want to stay or not.”
In a series of statements made in the days
following the PMO leak, Bennett said the proposal “reflects a loss of a
moral compass,” and that “our forefathers and our descendants will not
forgive an Israeli leader who gives up our country and divides our
capital.” He also criticized the government’s handling of peace talks,
suggesting that the government’s growing fear of boycotts “is what will
bring on the boycott. This is no way to handle negotiations, running
frightened between the capitals of the world.”Bennett was later forced to issue a semi-apology after Netanyahu’s aides threatened to fire him, saying he did not mean to offend the prime minister.Liberman said Bennett was right to apologize for statements that were out of place.“What’s more important is that there was no
intention to leave Israeli settlers under Palestinian rule,” Liberman
continued. “I don’t know how or why [things were] interpreted this way…
There wasn’t, there isn’t and there won’t be an intention to leave any
Israeli settler under Palestinian sovereignty.”Liberman also addressed the status of the
contested Golan Heights, saying any regional peace agreement should also
recognize the Golan as sovereign Israeli territory.“We must reach an understanding with the
international community, and particularly the US, that the Golan Heights
must be an integral and inseparable part of the State of Israel,” he
said.Syria claims the Golan Heights for itself,
though the civil war raging there has silenced any discussion of Israel
giving up the territory. Israel captured the Golan in 1967, and
subsequently extended Israeli law to the area.
Jewish Home MK: Why can’t settlements stay in future Palestine?
December comments seem to contradict Ayelet Shaked’s current criticism of Netanyahu for reportedly raising the same question
January 30, 2014, 5:29 pm
17-The Times of Israel
In televised comments just a few
weeks ago, MK Ayelet Shaked appeared to accept the idea that Jewish
Israelis should be allowed to stay in a future state of Palestine, and
expressed incredulity that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
would not allow it.If
there is to be a peace agreement, Shaked told the i24 television news
network in a December 29 interview, “I don’t see a reason why the
settlements cannot stay and live in a Palestinian state if they want.”“I don’t think the two-state solution will
happen,” Shaked declared, but she went on to ask, “Why does Abu Mazen
[Abbas] want a Palestinian state cleared of Jews? I just don’t get it…
there are Arab villages [in Israel] and I think they should have the
same rights as myself. I think Jews can live in the Palestinian state.”Shaked’s boss, party leader Economy Minister
Naftali Bennett, was in a high-profile spat this week with Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over this very issue. The Jewish Home
chairman reacted publicly to a statement by an official saying the prime
minister was insisting that Jewish West Bank settlers be given the
option to remain in their homes under Palestinian rule, following the
signing of a peace deal.Bennett dismissed the idea out of hand, and
said that history “won’t forgive” an Israeli leader who relinquished
parts of the Land of Israel under a peace deal, leading to a short-lived
coalition crisis. He later partially apologized for his remarks, but did not change his position.On Thursday, Shaked said that the statements
coming from the Prime Minister’s Office this week represent “a real
offer from someone who agrees to a Palestinian state,” whereas her
remarks to i24 were about an “imaginary scenario as an example” to
expose “the racism of Abu Mazen, and nothing else.”“I am very much against the dangerous idea of two states, and I don’t think it will happen,” she added.Housing Minister Uri Ariel, Jewish Home’s
number-two, defended Shaked, saying her December comments were true “in
principle,” but that “in reality” Jews would not be able to live under
Palestinian rule. “In principle, those who speak of peace but do not let
us live in our homes are racist and anti-Semitic. In reality, no one
believes that Hamas will allow [the safe presence of Jews in a future
Palestine] to happen.”Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
