Bibi caves on IDF pullback from Arab cities. What next?

[Israel Insider]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has collapsed under European and American pressure, ordering the IDF to withdraw from four Arab cities in the West Bank, removing roadblocks and effectively surrendering security control to the Palestinian Authority, without receiving anything in return. In the past, similar withdrawals have led in short order to roadside ambushes and suicide bombing attempts.

In his visits to Italy and France last week, Netanyahu was pressured to toe the American line and to freeze even "natural growth" in communities of Judea and Samaria -- which special envoy George Mitchell has interpreted as meaning that Jews should not be allowed to breed, since birth rate is being used as a key criterion for measuring Jewish compliance. French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Italian Premier and accused pedophile Silvio Berlusconi, 72, both pressured Netanyahu to give in to the US edict. Netanyahu promised the Europeans to pull the IDF out of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho and Qalqilya, and to reduce the number of checkpoints on the West Bank to 10 active facilities. The Quartet -- the US, EU, UN and Russia -- and the Group of 8 reiterated the ultimatum. Berlusconi's wife said she would divorce him for his domestic support for "natural growth" after his apparent affair with a 17 year old girl surfaced.

Quartet envoy Tony Blair blamed Israel as the sole obstacle to the flowering of peace in the Mideast. "There is a virtual consensus across the international community not just as to what needs to happen, but how...which was not the case a couple of years ago," Blair told Reuters. "If Israel were to join that, we could get an agreement and an agreement in my view that protects completely the state of Israel."

The top Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to propose Israeli readiness, at least as a trial balloon, to accept a three month freeze on building in Judea and Samaria, including "natural growth." Barak was vague in describing his forthcoming trip to the United States, and ambiguous on what he was offering. "The ties and understandings with the US are very important to Israel," Barak said. "My visit this week in New York is a follow up to meetings between myself and Netanyahu with the US administration, and both Obama's and Netanyahu's speeches."

"We fully support the initiative for a regional agreement, which includes a need to enter into negotiations with the Palestinians," he stressed. "But the issue that has hit the headlines today has not fully been agreed upon, even amongst ourselves, although of course the settlement issue, along with a wide range of issues, is part of our discourse with the Americans."

Barak on Sunday dismissed recent reports of an imminent deal for the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, although Arab and European papers have been filled with reports of a complex deal that would move Shalit to Egypt, enable a visit in an Egyptian guest house by his parents, and lead to the phased release of more than 1000 Palestinians, including at least 400 Hamas terrorists, among them the most notorious in Israeli custody.

"There isn't a day that goes by on which we don't think about Gilad Schalit," Barak said prior to the weekly cabinet meeting. "But the reports that have been published aren't true and could even be damaging. "The less we talk and the more we focus on action the better," continued the defense minister.

Speaking ahead of his trip to the US where he is due to hold talks with Mideast envoy George Mitchell that are expected to focus on settlement activity, Barak said the issue was still being discussed, refusing to confirm a Yediot Aharonot report that he would promise the Americans a three-month settlement freeze, including on natural growth.

The Yediot Aharonot report enraged some cabinet ministers. "If someone has such an idea, it would be best if he shelves it," said Environment Minister Gilad Erdan of the Likud before the cabinet meeting. "Such a plan will never pass." Interior Minister Eli Yishai added: "If there is such a plan, it cannot be implemented - but it wouldn't be the first time Barak has come up with such statements."

But Avishai Braverman, minister without portfolio for minorities, said that "the most important thing is that we reach understandings with the Americans. That means that some of the settlements will be removed and some will remain."

[Maureen]

What we get from that little fat man Barak is to be expected. I wonder if he is really a genuine Jew? But I never waited or expected BiBi to turn coat on his very own people and country. The more I read the newspapers and especially the internet, the more I wish for the lord to appear and end it all. It has become ma nightmare trying to live a half decent life. mds

[clif atkin]

Robert, agreed. This is a travesty of justice. I cannot understand why Spielberg type guys, even Bronfman do not get this out to the public. They have the Christian Evangelicals on the Israel's side. Pat Robertson a friend of Israel is the most visible. Why can't Israel get a PR campaign going on U.S. TV, bring these facts to light. They are letting world opinion dictate their policies when if fact world opinion is based on 100% lies. Just like you indicate. Hal Linsay is constantly pro Israel. Why aren't the Israeli's? Where is their PR campaign. Bibi what are you doing?

[Robert Bernier]

It is a carefully created myth that the Arabs who today call themselves "Palestinians" once had their own nation called Palestine. Palestine (Palestina), after all, is the name the Romans gave to the Jewish kingdoms of Israel and Judah after defeating them in 135 CE (AD). Up until the creation of the modern state of Israel, it was the Jews of Palestine who were called "Palestinians." The Palestine Post was the name of today's Jerusalem Post, for instance. The Arabs, who migrated to the land relatively recently compared to the Jews, only took the name "Palestinians" in the 1960's, shortly after the "Palestinian" Jews resuscitated the Jewish nation of Israel and called themselves "Israelis." Before that, the Arabs considered themselves as simply Arabs, part of the greater Arab world. More about the history of the “Palestinians at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-world-just-plain-stupid_07.html