ANOTHER I TOLD YOU SO! ALERT: Senate To Go After Handguns!

Piers Morgan: Both the Bible and U.S. Constitution Are ‘Inherently Flawed’ and Need to Be Amended

 

 

While CNN’s Piers Morgan is a well known critic of America’s Second Amendment, he has now ventured into a new campaign to reform another document critical in the development of western civilization; the Bible.
During a discussion on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” on Monday — Christmas Eve — with Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren, Morgan argued that there needs to be an “amendment to the Bible” for same-sex marriage, because like the Constitution, the Bible is “inherently flawed.”
“Both the Bible and the Constitution were well intentioned but they are basically, inherently flawed. Hence, the need to amend it,” Morgan told Warren during a conversation where Morgan emphasized the need for America to separate Church and State.
“My point to you about gay rights, for example, it’s time for an amendment to the Bible.”
“Uh, no,” replied Warren, in a conversation that remained civil between both parties. “Not a chance. What I believe is flawed is human opinion, because it constantly changes.”
Morgan has attracted more media attention than usual over the last few weeks as he has increased his always vocal cries for increased gun control laws in America following the Newtown elementary school shooting earlier this month. Morgan’s campaign has infuriated Second Amendment enthusiasts, leading to a petition to the White House signed by over 75,000 calling for the CNN host’s deportation back to Britain. This development led to a counter protest in the UK “Stop Piers Morgan from being deported back to the UK from America.”
Warren has debated LGBTQ issues on Morgan’s show before, discussing his thoughts with the host last November on whether or not someone can be born gay.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/piers-morgan-both-the-bible-and-u-s-constitution-are-inherently-flawed-and-need-to-be-amended/

Obamacare Could Double Health Care Premiums: Aetna CEO

To provide all Americans with health insurance, premiums will have to rise to pay for it, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Wednesday.

"If we're going to insure all Americans, which is a worthy and appropriate cause, then somebody has to pay for it," Bertolini said of the expected premium increases under Obamacare.

Bertolini said that insurance premiums could double in some places just on the basis of what types of policies people buy today.

He also said that when Obamacare is fully implemented, it won't start the way people had hoped and it won't be cheaper.

Over the longer run, the key to bringing down premiums will be controlling health care costs, he added. "It'll be fits and starts, but we'll get there," Bertolini said.

Higher premiums also will not necessarily mean higher margins for Aetna. "The people coming into the system will be sicker because they have not used services," Bertolini said. "So in the initial part of this program it will cost more to take care of people because they have been going without health care for so long."

The Aetna executive also weighed in on the debate over the country's fiscal situation.

(Read More: Forget the 'Fiscal Cliff,' Look at These Cliffs)

Bertolini said a big deal would be the best deal for the country, but that it's looking increasingly unlikely that politicians do anything more than a short-term fix which won't be enough to restore confidence.

And confidence is key to increasing business investment and spurring economic growth. "A grand bargain won't create a slow economy," Bertolini said. "It will restore confidence and we'll all invest."

He added, "Americans don't want Plan B, they don't want a short term fix. They want the very best we can come up with. They want Plan A."

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100340096

Supreme Court denies Hobby Lobby request for reprieve from health care mandate

The Supreme Court has denied a request by Hobby Lobby to shield the company from the so-called contraceptive mandate while its legal battle plays out, after a federal court last week similarly ruled against the Christian-owned company.
The lower court had earlier refused to protect the company from an ObamaCare-tied requirement to provide contraceptive coverage, and the fines that come with it for not complying.
CEO David Green, who had taken his case to the appeals court after losing in a lower-court ruling, had argued that his family would have to either "violate their faith by covering abortion-causing drugs or be exposed to severe penalties."
The Supreme Court's latest ruling is not on the underlying merits of the mandate itself -- it simply denies the company's request for an injunction while legal battle on the merits plays out. There are currently more than 40 cases pending against that rule.
The mandate requires businesses and organizations, with some exceptions, to provide access to contraception coverage -- Hobby Lobby was most concerned about coverage for the morning-after pill, which some consider tantamount to an abortion-causing drug. Hobby Lobby has refused to comply, while saying the fines could add up to $1.3 million a day.
In its earlier ruling, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said the company did not prove the rule would "substantially burden" its religious freedom. Though the mandate has exemptions for religious entities like churches, the lower court ruled that Hobby Lobby is not a religious group.
The company, founded in 1972, has more than 13,000 full-time employees across more than 500 stores.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/26/supreme-court-denies-hobby-lobby-request-for-reprieve-from-health-care-mandate/#ixzz2GHt6J8zx

West Longs for Jew-Free Zones in Jerusalem

 

 

Israel plans to step up the building of residences within the settlement blocs and—drawing particular ire—in parts of Jerusalem that were under Jordanian occupation from 1949 to 1967. The Jerusalem plans include housing for both Jews and Arabs.

 

In this holiday season, those plans should be cause for rejoicing instead of heightened rebukes. The city’s status as a hub of three religions, and also of tolerance, pluralism, and across-the-board demographic growth, is being strengthened.

Instead, official Western reactions have been harshly critical (reports here, here, and here).
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: “We are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action.” The French Foreign Ministry called the building plans “a provocation that further undermines…trust…and leads us to question Israel’s commitment to the two-state solution.” British foreign secretary William Hague called the plans “a serious provocation and an obstacle to peace.”

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton even hinted at repercussions, saying the EU would “closely monitor the situation…and act accordingly.”

And 14 of the 15 countries on the UN Security Council—with the U.S. as the only exception—issued condemnations as well. Four of them—Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal—said in a joint statement that they were “extremely concerned by, and strongly opposed, the plans…all settlement activity, including in east Jerusalem, must cease immediately.”

It should be noted that, except the U.S., all of the abovementioned countries either voted aye or abstained in last month’s UN General Assembly vote conferring a watered-down form of statehood on the Palestinian Authority. It was partly in reaction to the Palestinians’ move, which blatantly violated the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords that the EU once sanctioned, that Israel announced the new building plans.

Israel, though, couldn’t win. It couldn’t persuade the European states to oppose the Palestinian move; and once it reacted to the move, it was roundly condemned.

Israel was particularly disappointed by Germany’s abstention in the UN vote, after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government had seemed to be intending to vote nay. Germany, as already mentioned, then joined three other countries in demanding that even “East Jerusalem”—where 200,000 Jews now live, 40 percent of Jerusalem’s total Jewish population—be treated as a Jew-free zone.

Beyond these specific points, though, stands the ongoing spectacle of the world’s leading Western powers seeming to pine for a redivided Jerusalem, this time with the Palestinians ruling the Jew-free part. Even if a Palestinian sovereign entity were to arise in the West Bank, “Ramallah,” as David Solway notes in his new book, “…is a good enough Palestinian capital.” Why, then, the insistence on East Jerusalem?

It doesn’t seem reasonable that Washington, London, Paris, Berlin et al. would be nostalgic for the previous period of Muslim Arab rule over that part of the city. The Jordanian occupation was particularly hard on Jews, who were denied all access to their holy sites while Jordanian snipers fired repeatedly into the Jewish part of the city. But the Christians under Jordan’s control suffered as well, their number dwindling from 25,000 in 1949 to 10,000 in 1967 as they were given only paltry access to their holy sites and forced to teach the Koran in their church schools (accounts here and here).

Would it be better under the Palestinians? Not if one takes Bethlehem—where the Palestinian Authority has wielded autonomy since late 1995—as a test case. Palestinian Muslim control there has caused ongoing steep demographic decline for the town’s Christians as they suffer from terror, intimidation, land theft, sexual assault, forced marriages, and the like (accounts here, here, and here)—not surprisingly in light of the continuing severe persecution of Christians throughout the region.

Indeed, however eager the West is for Palestinian rule in East Jerusalem, it turns out that even the predominantly Muslim Palestinians there don’t want it. As Evelyn Gordon notes, the numbers of these Palestinians requesting Israeli citizenship has dramatically climbed in recent years. Polls find that, even if the Palestinian state was established, most East Jerusalem Palestinians would prefer to remain Israeli.

Considering that the Palestinians’ supposed desire to shake off Israeli rule is a shibboleth of Western diplomacy, one might ask why that would be so. But anyone who has been both to Israel and the Palestinian Authority—one is tempted to say, anyone but Western diplomats—knows that the former is an island of Western democracy, prosperity, tolerance, and pluralism in a harsh region.
Jerusalem Palestinians, exposed to those upsides since Israel reunited the city in 1967, have come to know their worth.
As Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat put it in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed,

Since [1967] the city has maintained freedom of access, movement and religion. Peace-seeking pilgrims of all faiths can again visit the holy places without limitation or restriction. Tourism to Jerusalem is thriving, as is the city’s economy, and its per capita crime rate is among the world’s lowest….
Isn’t it ironic that many in Europe who recently celebrated 25 years of the reunification of Berlin are at the same time calling for the division of another capital on another continent?

And as Barkat went on to ask: “By 2030, the city’s population will expand to one million residents from 800,000 today (33% Muslim, 2% Christian and 65% Jewish). Where does the world suggest we put these extra 200,000 residents?”

If the answer is, “Put them where you want, but make sure you keep some parts off-limits to Jews,” Israel’s answer is: no.
Peace and goodwill to all.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/west-longs-for-jew-free-zones-in-jerusalem/

Senate to go for Handguns!

Stopping the spread of deadly assault weapons

Stay informed

In January, Senator Feinstein will introduce a bill to stop the sale, transfer, importation and manufacturing of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.
To receive updates on this legislation, click here.

Press releases

• Feinstein to Introduce Updated Assault Weapons Bill in New Congress, December 17, 2012
• Feinstein Statement on Connecticut School Shooting, December 14, 2012

Summary of 2013 legislation

Following is a summary of the 2013 legislation:

• Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:
• 120 specifically-named firearms
• Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one military characteristic
• Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds
• Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:
• Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test
• Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test
• Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans
• Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.
• Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:
• Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment
• Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes and
• Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons
• Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:
• Background check of owner and any transferee;
• Type and serial number of the firearm;
• Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
• Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
• Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration

A pdf of the bill summary is available here.

Effectiveness of 1994-2004 Assault Weapons Ban

Following are studies that have been conducted on the 1994-2004 Assault Weapons Ban:

• In a Department of Justice study (pdf), Jeffrey Roth and Christopher Koper find that the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was responsible for a 6.7 percent decrease in total gun murders, holding all other factors equal. They write: “Assault weapons are disproportionately involved in murders with multiple victims, multiple wounds per victim, and police officers as victims.”
• Original source (page 2): Jeffrey A. Roth & Christopher S. Koper, “Impact Evaluation of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994,” The Urban Institute (March 1997).
• In a University of Pennsylvania study (pdf), Christopher Koper reports that the use of assault weapons in crime declined by more than two-thirds by about nine years after 1994 Assault Weapons Ban took effect.
• Original source (page 46): Christopher S. Koper, “An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003” (June 2004).
• In a Washington Post story, reporters David Fallis and James Grimaldi write that the percentage of firearms seized by police in Virginia with high-capacity magazines dropped significantly during the Assault Weapons Ban. That figure has doubled since the ban expired.
• Original source: In Virginia, high-yield clip seizures rise. By David S. Fallis and James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post.
• In a letter to the editor in the American Journal of Public Health (pdf), Douglas Weil and Rebecca Knox explain that when Maryland imposed a more stringent ban on assault pistols and high-capacity magazines in 1994, it led to a 55 percent drop in assault pistols recovered by the Baltimore Police Department.
• Original source (pages 297-298): Douglas S. Weil & Rebecca C. Knox, "Letter to the Editor, The Maryland Ban on the Sale of Assault Pistols and High-Capacity Magazines: Estimating the Impact in Baltimore," 87 American Journal of Public Health 2, Feb. 1997, at 297-98.
• A recent study by the Violence Policy Center finds that between 2005 and 2007, one in four law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty was killed with an assault weapon.
• Original source (pages 6-7): Violence Policy Center, "Target: Law Enforcement—Assault Weapons in the News," (Feb. 2010).
• A report by the Police Executive Research Forum finds that 37 percent of police departments reported seeing a noticeable increase in criminals’ use of assault weapons since the Assault Weapons Ban expired.
• Original source (page 2): Police Executive Research Forum, "Guns and Crime: Breaking New Ground by Focusing on the Local Impact," (May 2010).

Assault weapons in the news

• NRA misleads on assault weapons (Salon, Dec. 26, 2012)
• "Dems to push for more sweeping assault weapons ban" (Washington Post, Dec. 20, 2012)
• "A conservative case for an assault weapons ban" (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 20, 2012)
• "Obama Vows Fast Action in New Push for Gun Control" (New York Times, Dec. 19, 2012)
• "Trying, again, to ban assault weapons" (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 17, 2012)
• "Stop the sale of assault weapons" (San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 17, 2012)
• "Reason to Hope After the Newtown Rampage" (New York Times, Dec. 17, 2012)

http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons

Their plans to control guns go way back! DO YOUR OWN HISTORY SEARCH! In the early 70's John Todd exposes his former family, the Illuminati

Listen from time 27:53 to 29:28!

'Chemical weapons were used on Homs': Syria's military police defector tells of nerve gas attack

General becomes one of the most senior officers to join the rebels

 

 

 

 

 

The head of Syria’s military police defected to the opposition, accusing the Assad regime of systematic “murder” and claiming that reports of chemical weapons being used against rebels in the restive city of Homs were true.

Maj-Gen Abdul-Aziz Jassim al-Shallal became one of the highest ranking Syrian military officers to throw their support behind the rebels, accusing forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of turning their weapons on innocent civilians in the now 22-month-long civil war.

 

“I declare my defection from the army because of its deviation from its fundamental mission to protect the nation and [its] transformation into gangs of murder and destruction,” he said in a video message posted online, reportedly from the Turkish border.
 

He accused the military of “destroying cities and villages and committing massacres against our innocent people who came out to demand freedom.” General Shallal suggested in his message that he had been working with the opposition for some time before he formally defected to the rebel cause.

He becomes the latest in a string of leading military advisers to abandon the government and join the disparate rebels. But it is his claim that chemical weapons were used in Homs during a deadly attack on Christmas Eve that is likely to be of greater interest to the Syrian opposition and their foreign backers.

Reports from Homs had suggested that a type of nerve agent was used by the Syrian forces in the attack, a point that General Shallal appeared to verify yesterday. Al Jazeera reported at the time that at least seven people had died after inhaling a poisonous gas “sprayed by government forces in a rebel-held Homs neighbourhood”.

“We don’t know what this gas is but medics are saying it’s something similar to sarin gas,” Raji Rahmet Rabbou, an activist in Homs, told Al Jazeera.

It is not clear that the substance used in Homs was banned by international law, even the though the General yesterday specifically referred to a “chemical weapons” attack. Nonetheless, the use of non-conventional weapons is considered a “red line” by some in the international community who have been reluctant to intervene directly.

The issue of chemical weapons and their security is likely to form the basis of discussions when the UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi visits Moscow on Saturday. Russia has hitherto officially backed the Syrian government, but with recent rebel advances, particularly in Damascus, individual Russian officials have suggested that support for the Assad regime may be waning.

General Shallal said that he had been working with the opposition for some time and that plans for his formal defection had taken weeks to finalise. He suggested that several more leading officials were either working for the rebels from within the regime or wanted to defect. An unnamed Syrian security source confirmed the defection but played down its significance, the Reuters news agency reported. General Shallal was due to retire soon and joined the uprising to “play hero”, the source is quoted as saying.

The defection came as reports emerged of women and children being killed in an attack in the northern Raqqa province. An amateur video showed the bodies of eight children and three women. Activists said the attack was in the village of Qahtaniyeh.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chemical-weapons-were-used-on-homs-syrias-military-police-defector-tells-of-nerve-gas-attack-8431380.html

Netanyahu held recent talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah

Jerusalem Wednesday confirmed reports in the Arab press that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently paid a secret visit to Amman to discuss the common threat of Syrian chemical warfare. According to the Arab media, Netanyahu suggested that IDF forces enter Syria through Jordan to attack Assad’s chemical stores, a proposal which the king tunred down.

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3295/

Israel Air Force showed fraction of capabilities in Gaza op

In last month’s Pillar of Defense anti-terror operation in Gaza, “the Israeli Air Force displayed only a fraction of its capabilities,” said IAF chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel at the passing-out parade of the flyers' course at Hatzerim Thursday. The IAF has the range for striking at any would-be aggressors with a force that would resound across the Middle East. Maj. Eshel added: “It is worth remembering that more than one line connects Gaza and Iran.” DEBKAfile: This was a reference to the Iranian arms smuggling line to the Gaza Strip and a warning that if it continued, Israel would hit back at Tehran itself.

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3302/

Turkish F-16 warplanes strike PKK bases in N. Iraq

Eight Turkish air force jets bombed rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq Wednesday night. Ground and air operations continued against Kurdish separatists inside Turkey.

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3300/

Rash of Palestinian West Bank violence continues

Two more pipe bombs were thrown Thursday night after the first device, which targeted a Israeli Border Control unit at Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, blew up prematurely and ricocheted against the Palestinian thrower. Another showered shrapnel over the Jewish shrine. There were no casualties. Six Israeli vehicles came under attack by Palestinian rocks in different parts of the West Bank. The cars were damaged but no one was hurt.

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3301/

Where are Obama and Netanyahu's nuclear clocks?

Where are Obama and Netanyahu's nuclear clocks?

DEBKAfile Special Report December 26, 2012, 10:00 PM (GMT+02:00)

 

Iran's nuclear clock is ticking. Is anyone listening?

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his deputy, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon, suddenly woke up Tuesday, Dec. 25, when at the launch of their Likud-Beitenu election campaign, they were asked what had happened to the dire Iranian nuclear threat. “It will soon be back in the headlines,” they said. “Not a day goes by without it receiving our attention,” said sources close to the prime minister. “The nuclear clock is still ticking” - and it is fact that National Security Adviser Yaacov Amidror has made several recent trips to Washington to discuss the issue with American colleagues. “Now we are waiting for Barack Obama to form his new government,” Yaalon remarked.
But Obama and his government will only be sworn in on January 21, and the next day Israel itself goes to the polls. On past performance, an incoming Israel prime minister takes weeks, if not months, to assemble a new government. Iran has therefore been given the gift of at least three months to play with before either administration is ready for strategic decision-making with regard to preemptive action against its nuclear program. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can therefore rest easy until the late spring of 2013.

Dennis Ross, Obama’s former adviser on Iran, who is well versed in White House thinking and has good access to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, said in an interview Monday that, for the moment, the Iranians “are not convinced we are prepared to use force.” Speaking to the Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post, Ross said he believed 2013 would be the critical year.
debkafile connects this remark to a comment President Obama made while campaigning for reelection: He spoke of Iran attaining “breakout capacity” next year - a development which must be prevented, because it means, “we would not be able to intervene in time to stop their nuclear program.”
For breakout capacity, Iran would have to acquire the materials – highly-enriched uranium and components for a weapon - and the knowhow to build nuclear weapons quickly if it is so decided. A decision could be too fast for US intelligence, or presumably Israel, to catch in time to take action. It was this eventuality which Obama said must be prevented.

The current situation poses two problems. Although the US president has often expressed his determination to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, he has never explained how he would achieve this, or promised to use force if nothing else availed. The other problem is that, according to debkafile’s intelligence and Iranian sources, Tehran has already reached “breakout capacity.”

This phrase has therefore become a convenient slogan for delayed action, another red line to be missed, like the ones set by Netanyahu in his cartoon presentation to the UN Assembly last September, such as 20-percent enriched uranium.
Khamenei has rejected the stipulations the United States laid down in the secret direct negotiations held earlier this month for settling the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program. And there are no signs he is worried about repercussions. The only true words about the current stalemate were heard from Dennis Ross, that the Iranians “are not convinced we are prepared to use force.” The rest is spin.

 

http://www.debka.com/article/22636/Where-are-Obama-and-Netanyahu-s-nuclear-clocks-

Whats up Irans sleeve? Sorry I just don't trust them!

2004 satellite image of the military complex at Parchin, Iran (photo credit: AP/DigitalGlobe - Institute for Science and International Security)

Iran offers to let inspectors into suspected nuclear site if ‘foreign threats’ stop

Iran’s deputy foreign minister says IAEA may be allowed in Parchin base, where atomic work may have taken place

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian official is saying the country may open a controversial military site to inspectors of the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

A Thursday report by independent Mardomsalari daily quotes Deputy Foreign Minister Hasan Qashqavi as saying the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency may visit Parchin military site “if the foreign threats weaken”. He did not elaborate.

As high government officials rarely speak out on such sensitive issues, Qashqavi’s remarks were seen as echoing the views of Iran’s leadership.

Earlier this month IAEA inspectors on a trip to Tehran failed to visit Parchin, where they believe Iran has carried out some nuclear experiments.

Iran says Parchin is only a conventional military site and denies the West’s claims its nuclear program has a military dimension.

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-offers-to-let-inspectors-into-suspected-nuclear-site-if-strike-threats-dropped/

I want to point out that when Islam says the Jews have no ties to Jerusalem historicaly, that is not TRUE! From the last article I posted there is evidence of the Jewish presence dated back 3,000 years ago! Do your homework

This was a statement from the last article that is factual!

 

On Monday morning, Landau took about a dozen members of Yisrael Beytenu’s English-speaking and youth divisions on a tour of the City of David archeological park, the site of an important excavation.

“If all those who are now criticizing Israel abroad would also take part on such visits, they would say the same things,” Landau told The Times of Israel, referring to the 3,000-year-old Jewish presence in Jerusalem, which he said was evidenced by the archeologists’ findings. “I do understand why Arabs do criticize [us] and are doing whatever possible to stop these excavations here, because every layer which is discovered simply shows how deep Jewish roots here are, and how nil are any Arab footprints.”

“I would invite here all of our European and North American colleagues who level their criticism these days, just to come and pay a short visit,” he added. “At least, if they then had criticism this wouldn’t come out of ignorance.”

Lets HOLD THEM UP IN PRAYER! Israel will build in Jerusalem no matter the criticism, vows senior minister

If Israel’s international critics learned more about Jewish history in the city, at least their condemnations would not ‘come out of ignorance,’ Uzi Landau says

 

 

The Israeli government doesn’t care about — and will ignore — recent international criticism of its plan to expand construction in east Jerusalem and other places beyond the Green Line, Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau said Monday.

Speaking to The Times of Israel after touring the City of David archeological site, located in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, Landau suggested those who censure Israel for building in its capital do so out of ignorance and might change their views if they learned more about the millennia-old Jewish presence in the city.

“What we have to care about, before anything else, is Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem,” he said, dismissing the onslaught of condemnations of Israel’s announcements to resume building in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Ramat Shlomo, Givat Hamatos, Har Homa and Givat Ze’ev, and elsewhere in the West Bank.

“Just to make it unequivocally clear to anyone: Israel will continue and do in Jerusalem what the British do in London and what the French do in Paris and what our friends in America do in Washington,” the Yisrael Beytenu politician said. “We do not advise anybody what to do in their own capital and we are going to follow only our own choice regarding Jerusalem.”

Last week, 14 out of 15 members of the United Nations Security Council condemned Israel for its construction plans, saying they “send a negative message and are undermining faith in its willingness to negotiate.” Even the US gave Israel a tongue-lashing, with the State Department calling Jerusalem out for engaging in a “pattern of provocative action.”

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU will “closely monitor the situation and its broader implications,” and expressed a thinly veiled threat to “act accordingly” if Jerusalem doesn’t freeze its plans.

It is not clear what actions the EU would take. The threat of an unspecified response by Ashton was first issued after a meeting of the Union’s foreign ministers earlier this month. A joint statement by the continent’s foreign ministers condemned Israel but took no steps, such as a boycott or sanctions against the Jewish state. However, some observers fear that if Israel were to go ahead with its construction plans, especially in the area known as E1, which connects Jerusalem with Ma’aleh Adumim, the EU would consider punitive measures.

Minister Uzi Landau, left, visiting the City of David archeological park in Jerusalem, December 24, 2012. (photo credit: courtesy David Katz/Yisrael Beytenu)

Landau, who is No. 7 on the Likud-Beytenu list for the upcoming elections, said that “every threat must be taken seriously, and also answered seriously.” However, past Israeli leaders, from David Ben-Gurion over Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir to Menachem Begin, have always responded to threats by ignoring them and doing what they thought was the right thing to do, he said.

By giving in to pressures to freeze building in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, the Israeli government would “simply invite” more pressure on it to make further concessions to the Palestinians, he said. “You’re simple sending a message that if somebody will press you on it, he’ll be successful. The message coming from here should be just in the opposite direction. We don’t care what people are going to do. We are going to live here in a natural manner,” he said. Construction in Jerusalem is not meant as a punishment for anyone, he added, but merely intended to serve the “natural” needs of Israeli citizens.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly indicated that some of his plans to expand construction in east Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank were publicized and pushed forward as a response to the Palestinians’ unilateral step to successfully seek nonmember observer state status at the UN.

Netanyahu has also vowed not to be deterred by international condemnations. “All Israeli governments have built in Jerusalem. We’re not going to change that,” he said last week.

On Monday morning, Landau took about a dozen members of Yisrael Beytenu’s English-speaking and youth divisions on a tour of the City of David archeological park, the site of an important excavation.

“If all those who are now criticizing Israel abroad would also take part on such visits, they would say the same things,” Landau told The Times of Israel, referring to the 3,000-year-old Jewish presence in Jerusalem, which he said was evidenced by the archeologists’ findings. “I do understand why Arabs do criticize [us] and are doing whatever possible to stop these excavations here, because every layer which is discovered simply shows how deep Jewish roots here are, and how nil are any Arab footprints.”

“I would invite here all of our European and North American colleagues who level their criticism these days, just to come and pay a short visit,” he added. “At least, if they then had criticism this wouldn’t come out of ignorance.”

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-will-keep-building-in-jerusalem-no-matter-how-bitter-the-criticism-vows-senior-minister/

 



Panel approves new Gilo homes, pushes ahead with East Jerusalem building plans

Move comes after last week’s green light for thousands of homes across the Green Line in the capital’s Givat Hamatos and Ramat Shlomo neighborhoods

 

 

A Jerusalem committee approved the construction of over a thousand homes in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem late Monday, less than a week after Israel was condemned by the international community for approving building elsewhere in the capital.

The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved plans for 1,242 housing units in the Gilo neighborhood, which lies across the Green Line in southern Jerusalem.

The announcement came a week after the council approved 2,612 units in Givat Hamatos and 1,500 units in Ramat Shlomo, also Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line annexed by Israel but claimed by Palestinians as part of their state.

Givat Hamatos and Gilo, together with Har Homa, extend the capital to the outskirts of Bethlehem. Critics say the construction will cut off the Arab neighborhood for Beit Safafa from the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has come under intense international criticism for the planned construction in Jerusalem and other projects in the West Bank, including the controversial E1 corridor, which links Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim.

Map of Gilo roughly showing the area to be built up (illustration credit: Times of Israel/Google Maps)

On Monday, Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau said that Israel will continue to build beyond the Green Line despite international condemnation, echoing comments made last week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Gilo construction plans have been in the works for some time, and were approved despite objections by some residents. Walla on Tuesday reported that construction on most of the approved units could begin immediately after construction bids are approved.

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/panel-approves-gilo-homes-pushing-ahead-with-east-jerusalem-building-plans/



Hinting at war crimes charges, UK minister attacks Israel for East Jerusalem construction plans

Alistair Burt also calls for reversal of Ariel University upgrade; praises Mahmoud Abbas for ‘measured response’ to Israel’s ‘profoundly provocative actions’

 

 

 

A British minister on Thursday harshly condemned Israel for its plans to expand construction in East Jerusalem and for conferring university status on a college in the West Bank city of Ariel, employing damning language rarely used by government officials.

While international outcries following Israeli announcements of construction beyond the Green Line are a common occurrence, UK Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt took the unusual step of mentioning the Geneva Conventions, likely implying that settlement expansion is considered a war crime under international law.

The move is being seen by some as an intensification of rhetoric in response to Israel’s increasingly aggressive avowals to broaden its settlement enterprise.

In his statement, Burt said he and Foreign Secretary William Hague last week expressed “condemnation and deep disappointment” at the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee’s approval of 1,500 housing units in Ramat Shlomo. They also denounced recently announced plans for additional construction in the Givat Hamatos and Gilo neighborhoods, which are beyond the Green Line.

“These are further profoundly provocative actions that run contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention,” Burt stated. “By taking these steps, despite the international community repeatedly raising our profound concerns, the Israeli government is damaging Israel’s international reputation.”

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that an occupying power “shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” This is the basis for the position of international bodies, such as the United Nations and the European Union, to consider Israeli settlements beyond the Green Line illegal under international law.

Violations of the 1949 Geneva Convention are considered war crimes under international law. Israel is a party to the convention and therefore bound by its obligations.

According to Israel advocate Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister and expert on international law, Burt’s evoking of the Geneva Convention marks a “gradual ratcheting up” of criticism in light of Israel’s increasingly assertive settlement policy. While international human right activists have in the past quoted the convention to incriminate Israel, Western government officials have lately refrained from mentioning it in relation to Israeli settlements.

“At first the settlements were unhelpful, then they became an obstacle to peace; from there they went to being illegal, from there to being contrary to international law, and now they are violating the Geneva Conventions,” Cotler told The Times of Israel. “It seems that this signifies a calibrated indictment reciprocal to the increasing affirmations of the Israeli government’s settlement policy.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor called the word choice “disappointing.”

“The Palestinian interpretation of the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the West Bank and to settlements therein is highly controversial and stands in contradiction with a great number of legal opinions by leading experts,” Palmor said. “It is therefore disappointing to see that a [Foreign Office] minister should adopt the contested Palestinian position hook, line and sinker, thus adding controversy where it is already in excess.”

In trying to fend off such attacks, Israel usually refers to a clause in the convention that says regulations only apply to “High Contracting Parties” — in other words, signatory states. Since the West Bank and East Jerusalem were not within the recognized territory of any contracting party when Israel captured them, they are to be considered disputed territories rather than occupied, Jerusalem argues.

In May, the EU foreign ministers released a statement mentioning “the applicability of the fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians.” This passage seems to refer mostly to Israel’s obligation to safeguard Palestinians living under Israeli military control. On December 10, the EU issued a harshly worded rebuke of Israel’s plans to expand settlements in the West Bank but failed to mention the convention.

 

 

 

 

 

Burt, a Conservative, also called on the Israeli government to “urgently” reverse its decision to upgrade the Ariel University Center to a full-fledged university. “Ariel is beyond the Green Line in a settlement that is illegal according to international law. This decision will deepen the presence of the settlements in the Palestinian territories and will create another obstacle to peace,” he said.

The minister further said that the United Kingdom appreciates the Palestinian leadership’s “measured response” to Israel’s recent announcements and recommended Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for publicly rejecting recent “inflammatory statements” by Hamas leaders.

Having received nonmember state status at the United Nations in late November, the Palestinians are said to be considering turning to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to denounce Israel for alleged war crimes.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior government ministers have repeatedly vowed to keep building despite all pressure.

 

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/hinting-at-war-crimes-charges-uk-minister-attacks-israel-for-east-jerusalem-construction-plans/



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