.
Commentary;
This author, and many others, have received this message from Pini Itzchaky, advisor to Shas Chaver Knesset Atias, in response to the ongoing email bombardment of Shas MKs demanding that they leave the Olmert regime;
The Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert: “It has been said and agreed between me and between the head of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen, that Jerusalem that is an important and emotional subject. We will not start this emotional negotiation, which could bring to failure of the talks. We postponed the TIPUL of Jerusalem until the last stage.”
Until then, Shas will continue to be a member of the Government, in order that we will be able to influence “from within” and to safeguard the interests of the public which voted for it.
This author responded writing;
You have bought and swallowed unmitigated lies by a serial liar and deceiver in order to keep your Knesset seat and your political gravy-train, perks and Hamula which goes with it.
Chaver Itzchaky, the fact is; You cannot influence from inside – it does not work.
For example: “Agudat Yisrael” stayed “within” until Gush Katif was destroyed: they remained “within” because the money to their Yeshivot were on the cutting-board. And what happened? “Aguda” received a bounced check for their trouble in facilitation of the expulsion and to this day never received the money.
The quote from our Holy Torah says it best; “Righteousness, righteousness go after always.” Is your goal to continue amassing money and perks to the detriment of other good Jews?
Are you going to act for and demand Jerusalem? Or are you going to sit comfortably in your political Knesset seat??? As Rav Kahane once wrote; “Uncomfortable questions” for comfortable Shas MKs!
The point being hammered home by Nadav Shragai below is that despite his promises to Shas and Rav Ovadia Yosef, Olmert and Tzipy Livni are blatantly, arrogantly openly dividing Jerusalem with Abbas and Qurei as this very post is being written.
Now it even emerges in an Israel National News piece, cited further down in this post, that Former Israeli Consul General to the US Yoram Ettinger has revealed that it has been Israel, and not political currents in US, which prevented a move that would have relocated the US Embassy to Jerusalem. So it seems that successive Israeli governments, as with freedom for Jonathan Pollard and a multitude of other important issues, has stood in the way and thrown monkey-wrenches into anything which would have improved her world diplomatic and military position.
Further, flying in the very face of Olmert’s bogus promises to Shas, Shragai writes;
Olmert has become the first prime minister since 1967 to effectively appropriate from the Jerusalem municipality and its planning institutions, as well as his own housing minister, the right to have the last word on anything related to approving construction in those neighborhoods, which house some 40 percent of Jerusalem’s Jewish population (about 190,000 people).
When do the masses of B’nai take cue from the people of Sderot and employ the Ukrainian model in Israel and bring the giving away of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel to a grinding halt and end. With collective courage, backbone and emunah in Hashem’s help, we can do it. MB
The Lies of Jerusalem, by Nadav Shragai (Haaretz)
“Those who choose to do nothing and perpetuate the phenomenon of migration from Jerusalem arouse a serious suspicion that they are doing so in order to justify the division of the city in the future.”
Full Text;
Ehud Olmert doesn’t need a secret channel in order to conduct negotiations on Jerusalem. Whether or not Vice Premier Haim Ramon is talking to Palestinian adviser Mohammed Rashid about the future of the city, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is speaking about it to Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia, with Olmert’s authority and permission, openly rather than under the table. Livni herself said as much in a meeting with foreign diplomats over a week ago. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reported this to European lawmakers who visited him in Ramallah two weeks ago. Even in the apparent letter of denial sent to Jerusalem municipal opposition leader Nir Barkat by Livni, a member of his own party, the foreign minister confirmed that all the core issues, as agreed upon in Annapolis, were already being discussed – adding the excuse that “until everything has been decided, nothing has been decided.”
Moreover, a senior official in the Division for Coordination, Follow-up and Control in the Prime Minister’s Office is examining meticulously the building plans for all Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, on Olmert’s direct order, and sending the prime minister a summary of the information. Thus Olmert has become the first prime minister since 1967 to effectively appropriate from the Jerusalem municipality and its planning institutions, as well as his own housing minister, the right to have the last word on anything related to approving construction in those neighborhoods, which house some 40 percent of Jerusalem’s Jewish population (about 190,000 people). He decides whether to approve construction, and he decides whether to freeze it.
Israel Opposed US Lawmakers’ Offer to Move Embassy to Jerusalem
Excerpts;
“‘The US Senate was ready to do away with the waiver that allows the president to defer the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem,’ Ettinger said during a round-table discussion at the Jerusalem Conference. ‘There were over 80 senators – enough to override any [presidential] veto.’”
“It was the Israeli government, Ettinger said, who intervened on behalf of leaving the Embassy in Tel Aviv. “The problem is that both houses of congress have been firmer on Jerusalem than any Israeli government since 1993.”
Under Olmert, construction in greater Jerusalem – north, south and east of the city, where the governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon had continued to build – is in the deep freeze. Construction of schools and kindergartens has ceased in the 07 neighborhood of Ma’aleh Adumim. In Beitar Illit, which needs 700 new apartments a year, no new construction has been approved. Building in Givat Ze’ev’s Agan Ayalot section, where roads and sidewalks have already been paved and sewage, water and electricity infrastructure has already been installed, has also been frozen. Thus are Olmert and Livni advancing, on a practical and conscious level, their plan to divide Jerusalem.
Shas is not alone in refusing to see and hear, deceiving the entire world, but primarily itself. In another year or two – or five – when it becomes clear that Israel has conceded most of East Jerusalem and that dozens of Jewish neighborhoods have become border areas, exposed to light arms and machine gun fire, just as Gilo was a few years ago, Shas will not be able to say that its hands have not shed this blood. By sitting in the government, Shas is a full partner to the process now underway behind the scenes, a process that Olmert and Livni are, for now, carefully trying to hide from the public.
It is certainly possible that in the next few days Olmert will throw Shas another bone, in the form of partially lifting the construction freeze, especially in areas of direct interest to the ultra-Orthodox population: Beitar, Modi’in Illit and Agan Ayalot. If Shas gives in to temptation once again, it will grant Olmert another extension to allow him to complete the negotiations over dividing Jerusalem and bring the results to the public in an election or national referendum.
Shas cannot argue that quitting the coalition would allow Olmert to bring in Meretz and perhaps the Arab parties. After Shas quits, it is not inconceivable that fence-sitters within Kadima would also resign. In addition, it would be better if this terrible measure were taken by the left, with Shas left out of it.
Behind the scenes, there are already signs of the reasoning that Olmert, Livni and Ramon will use to sell the division of Jerusalem to the public: the demographic inferiority of the Jews in the city, and the danger that they will no longer be the majority. There is no greater lie. In the face of the demographic crisis of the Jews in Jerusalem, the government has a wealth of steps it can take. The plans are on Olmert’s desk, and he knows perfectly well what needs to be done.
The real story behind the demographic crisis is the great emigration of Jews from Jerusalem. The reasons are well known: a lack of housing and employment. These issues can be dealt with, and the government knows how to do so. Those who choose to do nothing and perpetuate the phenomenon of migration from Jerusalem arouse a serious suspicion that they are doing so in order to justify the division of the city in the future.