MKs outraged at last minute funding to settlements

[Israeli]

Funds cut from southern Israeli communities and welfare programs; opposition members erupt in shouts, kicked out of Finance Committee meeting.

Moran Azulay
Published: 12.08.14, 17:34 / Israel News

What was most likely to be the last Knesset Finance Committee meeting Monday before the upcoming elections ended in shouting and MKs being ushered out of the room after the committee approved a last minute change in funding which would transfer hundreds of millions of shekels to West Bank settlements instead of to communities in southern Israel and social welfare programs.

Opposition members from Yesh Atid and Labor called the last minute change a grab schemed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to funnel funds into an electoral community that would likely support him and his right-wing allies in the upcoming election.

The committee members decided to approve NIS 211 million for West Bank settlements in addition to NIS 3.77 million that would be transferred to the security infrastructure, from which NIS 2.5 million was cut from social welfare and other offices.

Several members from Yesh Atid came to the meeting in the hopes they would be able to prevent the approval of the funds but almost all of Netanyahu's allies arrived at the meeting to make sure the funding passed.

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[Israeli]

1. Israel's defense minister behind closed doors: Obama administration won't last forever

Moshe Ya'alon tells Yeshiva students U.S. blocking new settlement plans but boasts of massive building over the Green Line, according to tape obtained by Israel Army Radio.

By Haaretz | Dec. 10, 2014

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told yeshiva students in the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion on Tuesday that the Obama administration was blocking Israel from building more settlements, but that the current government in the United States "won't last forever," according to a recording obtained by Israel Army Radio.

"I really want to approve plans and build more – right now this issue draws a reaction first and foremost from the Americans, and then threats from various sources," Ya'alon was reportedly recorded as saying in Hebrew, Army Radio reported. "So, we are very cautious not to stretch the rope too much." He then added, "This government won't last forever, and I hope that this is temporary."

Ya'alon stressed repeatedly that Israel was being cautious, noting that the country is in a particularly inferior position in the world arena, according to the report.

"Publicizing building, even in Jerusalem, draws a reaction from various sources, including out friends, who attack us, and we manipulate the issue." Ya'alon said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was leading the cautious approach and that he understood the need for such an approach and supported it.

The freeze only applied to new tenders, Ya'alon stressed to the students, and that massive building was going on based on already approved tenders. "Look at the past year – settlement in Judea and Samaria, and I know the numbers, grew by 20,000 people," he said. "There is no such growth in any other region in Israel."

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.630922

[Israeli]

2. Israel's two-faced government

It is hard to grasp why the United States continues to placate Netanyahu, the prime minister who has done everything he could to sabotage relations with it.

Haaretz Editorial | Dec. 11, 2014

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has shown his true colors. In an address to students at the Mekor Haim yeshiva in Gush Etzion, Ya’alon said he wished to expand settlement construction, and refrained from doing so for fear of the American administration’s displeasure.

Ya’alon, who was recorded by Army Radio, told his listeners, “This administration will not last forever.” He also took pride in the 20,000 Israelis who had moved to the settlements over the past year, saying, “No other place in Israel has had such an increase.”

In other words, the defense minister is waiting for Barack Obama’s administration to be replaced so that construction for the settlers can be expanded to even greater dimensions than their current ones.

Right after Ya’alon’s statements were made public, it was learned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be traveling to the United States early next week for an urgent meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry. The purpose of the meeting is to coordinate with the United States in preparation for the upcoming vote in the UN Security Council on the proposed resolution calling for an end to the occupation in the West Bank within two years.

These are the two faces of the State of Israel’s outgoing government, and this is its duplicitous nature: On the one hand, the defense minister, who longs for the replacement of the American administration, hopes to build more and more settlements to ruin the last chance for the two-state solution. On the other hand, the prime minister urgently asks the same administration for help in scuttling the Palestinian initiative to end the occupation, using the accepted Israeli claim that unilateral measures are not helpful to the peace process.

It is hard to grasp why the United States continues to placate Netanyahu, the prime minister who has done everything he could to sabotage relations with it. It is even harder to grasp how Israel dares come out against the Palestinian initiative even as it does everything possible to leave the Palestinian Authority with no alternative. After all, Israel continues to build in the settlements, which is perhaps the most unilateral move imaginable.

Here are the Netanyahu government’s true intentions: to build recklessly in the territories, to sabotage relations with the United States and to call for its help whenever the Palestinians take political measures in the international arena. That has been the policy of the Netanyahu government, which led Israel to a dead end. That is why he must be removed from power with all urgency.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.631096