UPDATES
9:00 am Israel time, Wednesday, July 29 2015
**Jonathan Pollard to be released on November 20:
As you all know by now, the U.S. government let it be known yesterday that it will not intervene to block the U.S. Parole Commission from releasing Pollard; however, it will attach certain conditions to that release–most important of which is that Pollard may not leave the U.S. for five years.
And President Obama let it be known yesterday that he would “not interfere” with the conditions that the Parole Commission sets for Pollard’s release.
Really? Pollard is now going to be a free man but not really free?
It is worth saying again that Pollard has been egregiously mistreated from beginning to end by the United States and Israel.
The way that Shimon Peres issued orders not to allow Pollard into the Israel Embassy in Washington when he was running from authorities and sent Israeli representatives to testify against him at trial; the way that the American government entered into a deceptive plea deal with Pollard that was supposed to result in a brief incarceration–and ended up resulting in a sentence of “life imprisonment” because of the intervention of the anti-Semitic Caspar Weinberger; the failure of the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations to pardon him year after year; and the way that Pollard–whose main “crime” was supplying information to U.S. ally Israel–remained in prison while spies for America’s enemies were released willy nilly will forever remain a dark stain on Israel and the United States.
Yet Pollard has remained unfailingly gracious and issued this statement through his attorneys yesterday:
“Mr. Pollard is looking forward to being reunited with his beloved wife Esther. Mr. Pollard would like to thank the many thousands of well-wishers in the United States, in Israel, and throughout the world, who provided grass roots support by attending rallies, sending letters, making phone calls to elected officials, and saying prayers for his welfare. He is deeply appreciative of every gesture, large or small.”
**What’s happening at Sar-Na?
While the situation at Beit El (see below) remains tenuous, tensions have quieted at Sar-Na, the Jewish community in northern Samaria that was destroyed (except for one building) back in 2005. The 250 Jews who have taken up residence there have indicated that they plan to stay until their food and water run out in the next couple of days. The IDF has wisely decided not to force the issue.
**New immigrants from France continue pouring into Israel:
Another planeload of 200 French Jews arrived at Ben Gurion airport just after midnight last night. This brings to more than 20,000 the number of French Jews who have made Israel their new home in the last 5 years.
The really good news about last night’s arrivals is that more than one hundred of the new Israelis are children.
TODAY’S BLOG:
The unfinished Dreinoff apartment buildings in Beit El.
The outrage at Beit El continues at this moment though a tense standoff seems to have taken hold. Hundreds of Jewish community members are aligned against hundreds of police and border guards.
Tired of broken government promises to continue construction in Jewish communities (for example, Netanyahu promised to build 300 new units in Beit El but never fulfilled that promise), Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria have rallied around contractor Meir Dreinoff’s unfinished apartment buildings as a cause celebre.
And, indeed, the issue of the “Dreinoff buildings” has gripped Israel.
In case you missed yesterday’s blog, the problem centers around two apartment buildings which contain 12 apartments each. The apartments were partially built in 2010 by contractor Meir Dreinoff only be halted mid-construction by NGO Yesh Din’s petition to the Israel Supreme Court claiming that the apartment buildings were being built on “private Palestinian land.”
In a case that has dragged on for 5 years, the Supreme Court has finally reached the point of ordering Dreinoff’s apartment buildings demolished by July 31, not because of the “private land” issue but because the buildings never went through a planning process and never received the proper building permit–even though the Civil Administration has now issued that permit.
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For reasons that remain unclear today, someone (see below) ordered the buildings forcibly evacuated Monday night of community members who had squatted there. It was a completely unnecessary move that has sparked a firestorm of protest.
The situation in Beit El degraded last night with fresh clashes between Jewish community members and the police and Border Guards though as stated at the outset, a tense standoff currently prevails–as everyone anxiously awaits the next Court order.
One casualty of Beit El may soon be the Netanyahu coalition though there is reason to believe that some of yesterday’s incendiary statements may be walked back today.
Specifically, Education Minister and head of the Beit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party Naftali Bennett blasted Defense Minister Ya’alon for what he called Ya’alon’s “reckless, extreme, and provocative act” in ordering the forced evacuation of the Dreinoff buildings.
Justice Minister and fellow Jewish Home member Ayelet Shaked attacked Ya’alon as “a liar” whose deception about the evacuation would not go unanswered. Shaked was particularly upset that Ya’alon had told her that no demolition would take place before July 31 but failed to mention that the evacuation would.
Amazingly, by the end of yesterday, Ya’alon claimed that he did not issue an order to evacuate the Dreinoff buildings–which begs the question of who did because nothing happens in Judea and Samaria without the express permission of the Israel Defense Minister. Ya’alon went even further and proclaimed that he opposes the demolition of the apartment buildings.
If all of this wasn’t enough, PM Netanyahu echoed Ya’alon’s words and said that he was moving heaven and earth to stop the demolition. Specifically, Netanyahu said that he had called Israel’s super-leftist Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to get him to oppose the demolition before the Supreme Court. Of course, Weinstein would demolish the buildings singlehandedly if he could, so one can only imagine how that conversation went.
By day’s end yesterday, Meir Dreinoff had submitted another petition to the Supreme Court to halt the demolition, and the government (read “Weinstein”) appears to have half-heartedly supported his petition arguing that “there is no reason to proceed with the demolition until all of the issues have been resolved.”
As regular readers of this blog know, your humble servant strongly supports the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria–and cannot for the life of me understand why the evacuation of Dreinoff was ordered prior to the Court imposed July 31 deadline.
Whoever ordered it whether it was Netanyahu, Ya’alon, Weinstein, the head of the IDF COGAT division or someone else did indeed act recklessly–and needlessly inflamed what was already going to be an inflammatory situation.
By the way, stop and think about all of this for a moment.
Given what has now taken place concerning two unfinished apartment buildings containing 24 apartments in a Beit El community of only 6000 residents, can you even begin to imagine what would happen should the government try to forcibly evacuate the 400,000+ Jewish residents who now live in Area C of Judea and Samaria?
A civil war would erupt.
———–
A surreal addendum: 10:00 am: The Israel Supreme Court has just disappointingly and stupidly affirmed that the Dreinoff buildings must be destroyed by Thursday.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has declared that once the buildings have been destroyed, they will immediately be rebuilt because the contractor now has a permit.
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