In a JPost story this morning, "State asks court for delay in razing W. Bank homes", - and actually, that should be "Jewish homes" at the least, if not "Jewish Samaria homes", and I can''t understand why the Jerusalem Post uses that terminology of an invented Arab national geopolitical entity in the Land of Israel (imagine the paper calling itself the "Al-Kuds Bost"), Joanna Paraszczuk and Tovah Lazaroff, while reporting that
"The state asked the High Court of Justice over the weekend for a three-month delay in demolishing illegal structures in the Ramat Gilad outpost, on the outskirts of the West Bank ÍSamariaÌ Karnei Shomron settlement ÍcommunityÌ" (excuse my corrective redaction), the state will also assure that:-
the Civil Administration will carry out a detailed mapping survey of the land on which the structures are built...
Excuse me, but shouldn''t that have been done, well, years ago?
Shouldn''t the Court of High (or low) Justice have obligated that precedure? Wouldn''t the justices have desired to be completely sure of the facts of the case? One would think that given the volatile nature of the tension over the site and previous violent unfortunate contretemps there that that procedure would have been accomplished months ago or years ago?
But beyond the narrow picture which highlights administratrive bungling to my mind, there is something else looming as regards land issues.
While
this JPost story does not include particulars about what is meant by Erekat’s statement at a meeting in Jordan between Israel and the PA, that he seeks "…efforts to compel Israel to comply with its international legal obligations ... specifically its obligation to freeze all settlement construction",
this story does. It appears that the Arabs of the former territory of the Palestine Mandate are considering launching a diplomatic offensive, expected to begin January 26, that will include
Asking the UN Security Council in February to pass a resolution that would condemn settlement construction and impose international sanctions on Israel…Urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to try Israel for war crimes… Pushing for the implementation the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that ban the construction of communities and transfer of populations in occupied territory…Asking the UN General Assembly or the UN Human Rights Council to send an international fact-finding committee to look into the settlement issue ,
Moreover, they will initiate
mass rallies against Israel in the West Bank, as part of a non-violent popular uprising.
And let us not forget that in the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation talks, Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled Meshal, said the two movements would focus their activities on a popular uprising in an effort to draw international attention to the Israeli occupation.
"Popular uprising" + Hamas assures us that this willbe no genuine non-violent protest. "Popular" is the euphemistic Pal. term for "let''s everyone get a rock in his/her hand, we''ll block roads and then stone the Jews to death". That''s actually an ''intifada''.
As HPW wrote me, there is another consideration besides violence - finances:
Out of curiosity, does this mean that the aid money given by the US, UN and other nations [including the EU] to the PA may also be used for this joint "uprising" with those upstanding statesmen, the young Jeffersonians in Hamas?
Well, what did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mean by this:
"When...we put forward a framework for resuming direct negotiations between the parties[..]We knew that progress toward this goal would not be easy so it is essential that both sides take advantage of this opportunity. The status quo is not sustainable and the parties must act boldly to advance the cause of peace."
How boldly a campaign of violence, yet again, will Sec''y of State Clinton and President Obama tolerate this time? Will they hold back on the money, as
Newt Gingrich has reported to have indicate as a policy for forcing peace?
The year 2012 does not seem to indicate a peaceful resolution of the Arab hostility towards Israel.
^