Bibi and Obama
Cabinet votes on 10-month building freeze
Prime minister expected to declare partial halt to settlement construction, in move coordinated with Americans. Sources close to Netanyahu says announcement has nothing to due with impending prisoner exchange deal with Hamas. Palestinians reject gesture as it does not include east Jerusalem
Roni Sofer
The diplomatic-security cabinet convened Wednesday afternoon to approve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's request to freeze settlement construction for 10 months, as reportedly agreed in Netanyahu's recent meeting with US President Barack Obama.
A similar announcement is expected to be made in Washington by US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell.
The new decision is expected to be enforced according to an outline reported by Ynet earlier Wednesday, following a meeting convened by the coordinator of the government's activities in the territories.
The matters discussed in the meeting included the need to sign orders, issuing a construction prohibition map in accordance with a general's order, defining communities' borders, imposing sanctions on heads of communities and councils, arresting and banning youth involved in building exceptions, framing caravan operators in the West Bank and closing them with the help of the Shin Bet and police, defining illegal construction as a criminal activity, quick demolition of any new construction, etc.
It was also decided to focus on the Amana settlement movement and to appoint a inter-ministerial team to implement the conclusions.
Sources close to the prime minister clarified that the expected decision, which was coordinated and agreed upon a long time ago, had nothing to do with the impending prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.
Palestinian officials rejected the expected Israeli offer to partially freeze West Bank settlement construction, even before it was made public.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that any freeze that did not include east Jerusalem was unacceptable. The Palestinians have refused to reopen peace talks with Israel until it halts all settlement construction.
Efrat Weiss and The Associated Press contributed to this report
So all you people that support Bibi and sent me emails through the years telling me I was wrong about Bibi.
Tell me how you can call him and his government right wing.
Building freeze, let us please tell the truth.
It is a building freeze for Jews only the Arabs will keep building like crazy, with no permits and no Israeli government with enough self respect to stop it.
Then don't even get me started on an exchange of terrorist for a kidnapped soldier.
What happened to the IDF ?
Was it not the IDF that wrote the book on special ops and counter terrorism?
If you can say that Bibi is conservative with a straight face, I can guess that you will also say Obama is a conservative too.
