U.S. Vice President Joe Biden sparked headlines Tuesday in Jerusalem by denouncing an Israeli decision to authorize new housing starts in eastern Jerusalem as "undermining the trust" that he needs to advance peace while in the region.
Several left-wing Jewish groups joined Biden in criticzing the move, saying that it would undermine the start of so-called Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks.
Ori Nir, Americans for Peace Now spokesman:
Announcing plans for East Jerusalem construction is a perfect example of what Israel cannot be doing if it is acting in good faith and wants to be taken seriously as a partner in negotiations. This announcement is a slap in the face of not only the Palestinians, the Arab states, and the Obama Administration, but of the entire peace effort.
Hadar Susskind, J Street’s director of policy and strategy:
J Street joins Vice President Biden in condemning Israel’s announcement of new East Jerusalem construction that only serves to hinder Middle East peace efforts, particularly as the Israelis and Palestinians begin proximity talks. As Vice President Biden said, this is "precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now."
In response to claims that they are picking on Israel by focusing so heavily on settlements, the White House and left-wing Jewish groups often counter by saying that they are equally concerns about areas where the Palestinians need to do better, particularly on ending incitement.
Well, it turns out that the Palestinians have their own timing issues: On Thursday, according to Palestinian Media Watch, the Palestinian Authority is planning to go through with plans to name a public square after Dalal Mughrabi, who led a 1978 bus hijacking in which 37 Israelis, including 12 children, were killed.
Thursday is the 32nd anniversary of the attack. Biden will still be in town. So it’ll be interesting to see if he wieghs in, as he did on the Israeli housing starts.
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, has more:
The record shows that within the PA, few opportunities are missed to glorify a terrorist, celebrate a suicide bomber, or inculcate Palestinian youth into worshipping cold-blooded murderers. The record also shows that all aspects of PA life — the schools, youth movements, sports teams, newspapers, TV, even the names of streets — are made vehicles for honoring and praising terrorism. This in turn breeds more terrorists and bloodshed.
The ZOA has long maintained that Mahmoud Abbas, the PA that he heads and the Fatah party that controls it and which he co-founded, are unreconstructed supporters of terrorism and not genuine moderates and peace makers. In fact, it is incumbent upon all civilized people to call Abbas and Fayyad as evil leaders of an evil regime.
A Palestinian leader who neither arrests terrorists nor ceases to honor them is not one who will lead Palestinians on a new path of peace and reconciliation.
Given this shocking record, we renew our long-standing call for the Obama Administration to desist from ignoring the incitement to hatred and murder within the PA and to insist in talks with Abbas and other PA officials that the PA takes immediate action to comprehensively end this glorification of terror. Only when Palestinians reject the idea that it is a religious and national duty to murder Jews and to celebrate those among them who act on this instruction will there be any prospect of peace.”
UPDATE: Apparently the PA is reading the blog — how else to explain that the ceremony has been cancelled? Also interesting… Israel plans to step up monitoring of incitement.
