Today, the Knesset voted down a bill legalizing construction in the settlement of Givat Ulpana in the West Bank. Bibi himself threatened to fire any minister who voted for it. But getting rid of settlements is never easy, as Bibi’s great compromise is here to show us — through the construction of 551 new units. In addition to the 300 housing units slated for Bet El, “117 will be built in Ariel; 92 in Ma’ale Adumim; 144 in Adam; and 84 in Kiryat Arba.”
Reminds me of a little something in 1997 that went like this, as excerpted from my undergraduate thesis:
Netanyahu’s tendency to give in to his government systematically eroded the Hebron Agreement. Following the signing, for example, Netanyahu knew he needed to “compensate his constituency” if he was to carry out a credible first FRD. There were plans to build in Har Homa, an area “between Bethlehem and the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem,” but the right and center members of the Prime Minister’s cabinet were “demanding that he build in Jerusalem now.” Member of Knesset (MK) Hanan Porat of the National Religious Party commented that “’Jerusalem can’t be allowed to become the hostage of the Hebron agreements,’” and Jerusalem Mayor and Likud MK Ehud Olmert “said that from the planning viewpoint there is no reason to hold up the Har Homa project.” When a “mentally deranged Jordanian soldier shot and killed seven Israeli teenage girls” on March 13, Netanyahu used the tragedy as an excuse to begin the building process. Ross cautioned the Prime Minister that government’s actions looked like a deliberate attempt to “cut Arabs off from Jerusalem,” but preparations for construction continued even though the Hebron Agreement prohibited both sides from creating new facts on the ground. This was part of the “consistent pattern” in which, “having moved toward an understanding, Netanyahu then drew back … to placate his right-wing base.”
(footnotes/citations here)
