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US: Jewish breeding, building must end in Jerusalem too

Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem are included in the US demand that Israel halt "settlement" construction, including for natural growth, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told The Jerusalem Post during a press briefing on Monday. "We're talking about all settlement activity, yes, in the area across the line," he said, referring to neighborhoods in Jerusalem over the Green Line, or pre-1967 armistice line, in response to a question on where America's calls to halt construction in the settlements would be applied.

Special envoy to President Obama, George Mitchell, has indicated that birth statistics would be closely monitored as the basis for measuring compliance on the "natural growth" provision. He suggested that Jewish births in communities of Judea and Samaria would be consider violations of the Administration's edicts prohibiting "natural growth" of Jews there.

Kelly had no immediate reaction to the Ministry of Housing and Construction's inclusion in the draft 2009-10 state budget of funds for the capital's Jewish Har Homa neighborhood or for the nearby city of Ma'aleh Adumim, also beyond the "green line." The ministry has earmarked more than NIS 200 million ($50 million) for preparatory work and marketing of 1,210 apartments in Har Homa, on the city's southeast edge, next to Bethlehem.

There and elsewhere, Jews would not be allowed to be born even in a manger, Mitchell suggested. Even manger construction would be prohibited.

Israel has always insisted that it has a right to build anywhere in Jerusalem because the state incorporated that land into the municipality and under Israeli law it is not considered part of the West Bank. But the international community considers Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be settlements and has condemned any new Jewish construction there. The US does not recognize any part of Jerusalem, east or west, as being part of Israel. Children born in the city are listed in US passports as being born in Jerusalem, not Israel.

The Netanyahu government had been working under the assumption that US officials' call to halt even natural growth in the settlements did not refer to neighborhoods in the city, according to high-placed government officials. Kelly's comments will further complicate negotiation with the Obama Administration. Obama has called "settlements" illegitimate and said that their expansion must stop, including natural growth. Now "settlements" apparently apply to substantial parts of Israel's capital.

Tags: bethlehem, har homa, jerusalem, jewish breeding, maaleh adumim, mangers, mitchell, natural growth, obama, settlements

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Mary Hale Comment by Mary Hale on July 6, 2009 at 10:54am
I've said it before..Tell Obaman and his Biden vice to go jump in the lake and take their administration with them..tell the Pales to stop having babies and live in Jordan..
julius meller Comment by julius meller on July 2, 2009 at 4:56am
Obama ignores history
And realities on the
Ground that I'd part of
Jimmy Root Jr Comment by Jimmy Root Jr on June 28, 2009 at 1:03am
Obama is proving himself clueless. I say, have as many children as you want, Israel. Then house them all. There are still more of us in the USA that pray for, and bless Israel than not. Stay strong!
Jimmy Root Jr
Author "Distant Thunder" Book One of the Lightning Chronicles Aug. 2009
www.lightningchronicles.com
Lee Underwood Comment by Lee Underwood on June 24, 2009 at 11:25pm
Yeah, Tricia, as I thought about it afterward it seems that David P's comment probably was tongue-in-cheek, as you said. In my zeal I just fired off a bit too quickly.

What the US fails to understand is that Israel is commanded to be fruitful and multiply by a Power much higher than the office of the president of the United States. (However, both Bush and Obama both seem to think that they were/are the ones who had/have to power to decided the borders of Israel.) As Bob Dylan once said, things should start to get interesting right about now.
Michael S. Comment by Michael S. on June 24, 2009 at 11:01pm
I'd help in the move. Is it not funny how much the news cartoons have Jimmy and Osbama looking alike only they need both be snakeoflaged.
Lee Underwood Comment by Lee Underwood on June 24, 2009 at 8:10pm
The US is beginning to show its true colors. It looks a lot like the other Jew-hating nations. Setting birth limits? Israel is a sovereign nation and does not need to answer to the United States or any other nation. In fact, it does much better when it doesn't. Israel is not like China; they have been command to multiply and, not like many in the the Western world, children are seen as a blessing by most Jews.

Good suggestion, Tricia.

David P. - the Arabs DO have somewhere to go -- Transjordan. It's the land the UN gave them, using the same resolution that the world wants Israel to follow.
Jim Talbot Comment by Jim Talbot on June 23, 2009 at 11:26pm
Perhaps it's better to state Obama's soaring rhetoric in Cairo where he refers to the freedom of peoples around the world to live their life in freedom, the hypocrisy of not intruding in Iran's affairs but monitoring birth records and micro-intruding Israel's affairs.

Then tell Mitchell to @%$? off
David P Comment by David P on June 23, 2009 at 3:33pm
The landlocked Arabs have nowhere to go, isolated on a tiny bastion of land that incorporates 99.9% of the region. Obama should have coined the campaign slogan, "HELL NO, ISRAEL CAN'T GROW!" so that his real message fell in line with 20 documented years of radical behavior.
kkeene Comment by kkeene on June 23, 2009 at 2:09pm
Hi ii people, the world and even my gov't looks on in horror as Jewish Jerusalem keeps growing :). Time for a psalm to celebrate!:

Psalms
Chapter 48

1 A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.

2 Great is HaShem, and highly to be praised, in the city of our G-d, His holy mountain,

3 Fair in situation, the joy of the whole earth; even mount Zion, the uttermost parts of the north, the city of the great King.

4 G-d in her palaces hath made Himself known for a stronghold.

5 For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, they came onward together.

6 They saw, straightway they were amazed; they were affrighted, they hasted away.

7 Trembling took hold of them there, pangs, as of a woman in travail.

8 With the east wind Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish.

9 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of HaShem of hosts, in the city of our G-d--G-d establish it for ever. Selah

10 We have thought on Thy lovingkindness, O G-d, in the midst of Thy temple.

11 As is Thy name, O G-d, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth; Thy right hand is full of righteousness.

12 Let mount Zion be glad, let the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of Thy judgments.

13 Walk about Zion, and go round about her; count the towers thereof.

14 Mark ye well her ramparts, traverse her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.

15 For such is G-d, our G-d, for ever and ever; He will guide us eternally.

Love, Kevin
Robert Bernier Comment by Robert Bernier on June 23, 2009 at 9:37am
Jeusalem is Jewish as Washington is American and should not be up for negotiation
The true demographic threat in Jerusalem is the freezing of Jewish building and the limitations placed on the natural growth of the capital by diplomatic initiatives, unless you expand the border of Jerusalem, including Arab neighborhoods – you wont have the area required to allow Jerusalem to expand. In order for Jerusalem to bloom and expand it should remain Jewish and entirely under Israeli sovereignty. Jerusalem should not be up
for negotiation, it has always been the symbol of Jewish unity as explained at :
http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/12/myths-and-facts-about-jerusalem-and.html

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