"The Jerusalem planning and building committee approved on Wednesday a plan to build a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem of Shuafat, Israel Radio reported. The plan includes three new five-story buildings, which will be erected on a 5,000-meter plot, and will be funded by American-Jewish millionaire Irving Moskovich, rightist activist Arie King told Army Radio.

The Netanyahu's government and Ehud Barak's behavior in East Jerusalem resembles that of gangs and theft in broad daylight," Hadash chairman Mohammed Barakeh said in response to the decision."These decisions are not conditions to begin negotiations, but rather tools of destruction which crush every glimmer of hope for peace," he added.

Earlier the committee approved the construction of four residential buildings on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, which are expected to enter construction before the end of the month. On Sunday, left-wing party Meretz appealed against the request of HaMa'ayan, a firm supported by the Elad settlement organization, for the construction in East Jerusalem, resulting in a decision to hold another vote of the city council.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1140378.html

Its obvious that Israel is rushing to colonize and steal what remains of Arab East Jerusalem, regardless of what Obama says but refuses to act,and yet the Americans wonder where all this hatred for America comes from. IMHO, it doesn't take a genius to see that all of the increased mostly Islamic terrorism in the world can be traced back to the Israelis' persecution of the Palestinians, with American complicity, which includes America's Jews in Israel and their heavy money hand on the US government.

I want to throw up when I watch these commentators on American TV talking about the need to fight Islamic terror around the world but never talking about what has caused this terror to spread. They refuse to admit that it's Zionism and its bloody killing and persecution of muslims in Palestine that is the rallying cry for muslim extremists today. Take a look at the internet and see how Americ's link with Israel is at the center of terror against the US. As long as America keeps helping the Jews starve women and children in Gaza and steal their lands in the West Bank, the US will be fighting a war against a world-wide movement it cannot win. When will America realize that it cannot help the Jews perform these atrocities and then pretend to be shocked when many in the Islamic world see it as no friend.

I agree with Panang. The American people have to realize that their political leaders' unconditional and often slavish support for Israeli activities in the area for the past fifty years has made the USA a target of suspicion iand anger in the entire third world, not just Arab countries. Obama sounded good when he first took office about trying to correct that situation but he has since been largely neutralized and silenced by the Israelis and their allies in the US government and media who know how to spread the money around and threaten politicians who don't tow the line that everything Israel does, including stealing lands, is to defend itself. If you want to know why all of the Osama followers hate the US, look no further than Washington DC's support for virtually anything Israel does.

"Why do they all hate us?" I agree with the above.

The disappointment that Obama has caused after raising such expectations cannot be over-estimated. And Jerusalem may well be the flashpoint.

Even those involved in the human rights campaign sometimes fail to realise the religious significance of Jerusalem (or Al Quds in Arabic). For most of us, the ethnic cleansing of places like Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan is an issue of justice; but for Muslims (and this means ordinary, moderate ones not fundamentalists of whom there are mercifully few in Palestine), Al Aqsa, the need to preserve its physical structure (which is being undermined everyday) and the right to worship there is equally important.

I hope Obama understands even if neither Clinton nor Biden do, that a peaceful solution (more unlikely as every day passes) is wholly dependent on the liberation of Al Quds.

"A U.S. peace envoy's suggestion that Washington could penalize Israel financially to force it to make concessions to the Palestinians drew Israeli ire on Sunday. "Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel," George Mitchell said on U.S. television on Wednesday after being asked about the kind of pressure that could be brought to bear on Israel.

Over the past two decades, Israel has received U.S. guarantees covering billions of dollars in loans, underwriting that has enabled it to raise money overseas more cheaply. Although such guarantees have slipped in importance and Mitchell made clear in the U.S. public television interview that no sanctions against Israel were being considered, his remarks added more discord to Israeli relations with President Barack Obama's White House.

In a statement late on Saturday "in reaction to media inquiries after Mitchell's interview," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office blamed the Palestinians for a peacemaking impasse which the envoy, due back in the region later this month, has been unable to break. "Everyone knows that the Palestinian Authority refuses to renew peace talks, while Israel took significant steps to restart the process," the statement said.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, visiting U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain rejected Mitchell's remarks. "Any attempt to pressure Israel, to force Israel, to the negotiating table by denying Israel support will not pass the Congress of the United States," said Lieberman, an independent. Republican Senator McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, added: "We disagree, obviously, with that comment and I am sure that you will see the administration in the future say that is certainly not the administration's policy.

Israeli media seized on Mitchell's remarks as reminders of a low point in U.S.-Israeli relations -- President George Bush's withholding of $10 billion in guarantees in 1991 after Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir refused to freeze settlement expansion. "Mitchell's threat," said the main headline of Israel's mass circulation Maariv newspaper, which described the envoy's comments as a "bombshell."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/01/10/...hell&st=cse