U.S. 'appreciates' Netanyahu delay of East Jerusalem demolitions

"Its a great start to demolish 22 homes out of the illegally built 89 structures and to restore the national treasure of a parkland. The only problematic aspect of the plan is the message to Arabs. I cannot fathom why an Arab who builds illegally in a green zoned area, should get any compensation whatsoever, or whether he should be taken into account in any future plans." Funny how you talk about illegal Arab settlements, yet say absolutely nothing about the illegal settlements still being built by Israel for Israelis. And let's not forget how Netanyahoo said that the "freeze" was a one time thing only, and that it would be temporary. Yeah, but Israel wants peace. If you actually believe that crap, I have some swamp land to sell you. "In no other country in the world would a Government bend over backwards and lay out the red carpet to law breakers who build illegally." I guess that means that those settlements I previously mentioned should be taken down yesterday.

Confucius say get Good Diplomats,ignore bad Friends, make friends with enemies, not go to war (evelibody loss in WARS). Take lesson from the SENSIBLE EHUDS. Ehud Barak"if Israel not make Peace with Palestinians, Israel become BINATIONAL or Undemocratic apartheid State" Veli clever. Ehud Olmert " If the 2 S Sol. collapsed ,ISRAPAL will have stuggle for Equal Voting Rights to all citizens, and no Jewish State "FINISH"Caput. Veli Veli Clever EHUDS. Bibi now have 2B Veli veli veli clever, make peace, and stay in country, not take boat to Ame lica later when evli thing lost.

I would think that even the earth on which we walk on IS ANTIQUATED,it looks like soon there would be an Archeological Professor of some sort will declare all the Middle East as a treasure trove, and we will all have to live in the Antartic.

... that the great steaming turd served by Netanyahu was war. "We hate cold turds," said the state department spokesman.

Yes Don Lary , I completely Agree with you. One thing bader me This part of the land belong to palestinian not to Israel.It has been and it will be palestinian no matter what. Or I M wrong?

There are no 2nd chances in nuclear warfare. Iranian leaders are on the record repeatedly calling for Israel's destruction and for genocide against its Jewish (aka "zionist") people. At the same time these leaders sit on the worlds 2nd largest reserves of oil, but say they want nukes for "peaceful purposes". You have to be pretty stupid not to see that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. You have to be a total Chamberlain to think that negotiations will stop them. As many pacifists have said, sometimes you must go to war to preserve world peace. As

Caving into American demands that the demolition of illegally built arab homes in Silwan be delayed, Netanyahu has shown a serious lack of backbone. The Israeli government showed great determination bordering on zeal when it sent the bulldozzers in to demolish thousands of LEGALLY built Jewish homes in Gush Katif just a few short years ago. Israel touts itself as being a "democracy", yet its pro-arab, anti-Jewish policies bespeak totalitarianism at best and despotism at worst. It seems that the despicable leftist, pro-arab double standard which began immediately following the 1967 Six Day War has gained momentum with each passing year. Thousands of Jewish lives have been lost because of our "catering to arab sensitivities".

U.S. 'appreciates' Netanyahu delay of East Jerusalem demolitions Dear Uncle Sam, don't hold your breath. Israel has a single goal at this point in time. It is an Arab Free Jerusalem. An Arab Free Judea and Samaria. And, an Arab Free Israel.

Israel should demolish all the illegal settlements that it has built on Pals land in the last 30 yrs first. The residents of Silwan been there before Israel occupied the territories in 1967

apartments. This land does not belong to Palestinians and never will. These people are incompatible with Jewish people ideals and tenets. This is a Jewish homeland, not a 'Palestinian' homeland. Let them move to Gaza.

buddy.. i think it was your zionist government which bend over backwards and lay out the red carpet to law breakers who build illegally, not only that but your supereme court personally issued the order for demo in 2005 however it was not demo... you might want to know why??.. bcuz 7 jewish families lived in that one building.. even your government went against the supreme court order and tried their max to legalize the illegal building.. not only that.. your mayor which you speak of, blantly said not to follow the supreme court order.. how bout that for your answer. i think for any jew or israeli. as long as you speak blantly zionism or jewish supermacy to whole world they will accept but GOD forbid if you say anything (whether you are jewish or not) you are anti semetic and they will throw into fire themselves.

Illegal is illegal? Just like Israel's settlements in the West Bank. But whereas Arabs' illegal homes may be bulldozed, Jews' illegal homes are guarded by IDF soldiers and funded by the state. One law for Jews, another law for everyone else. You keep your petty little racist laws.

More land theft again, and the US appreciates it! Just another joke from the US appreciating Israel's crime.

have the zionists asked the origine palestine population for permission to settle in palestine since the 19th century? if not then they intruded palestine with their invasions/aljyas. who is illegal and who is legal in palestine? who builds legal and who builds illegal in palestine? who is breaking the law and who is living according the (international) law in palestine/canaan. and who behaves like the law of the jungle/strongest with help of the police and army with the most and the best weapons/arms? and who is being helped by the most powerfull country in the world without whose help the zionists could not exist and why? there is no "chosen" people as there is no herrenrasse/masterrace in this world. all peoples and all human beings are equal everywhere and always!

In a democracy like Israel the answer is the residents of Silwan should vote their mayor out of office. I really don't know, but, sadly, I would hazard to guess they won't get to vote for Nir Barka in the next election and didn't get to vote for him in the last. I hope I'm wrong. Going to check it out now.

illegal...!!!! You should start demolishing all the settlement which built illegal on occupied land. (international law)

" U.S. 'appreciates' Netanyahu delay of East Jerusalem demolitions", wow just goes to show israel runs america, otherwise america would have said, "excuse me?, you do what we have stated", ahhhh hypocricy and the conspiracy theory.

Pals in EA never get permits to build and they are left no other choice. In contrast, if settlers build illegaly by Israel's own laws they will be proctected by IDF to stay. It's the Apartheid, stupid.

vh: "as the only existing binding treaties like san remo or the mandate do not divide jerusalem ?" They also do not grant the state of Israel any sovereignty over any of Jerusalem. At which point you have to ask yourself what is the source of the authority that allowed the state of Israel to declare that it was annexing Jerusalem, thereby imposing its sovereignty over that city. Answer: There is no source for that authority i.e. Israel unilaterally annexed Jerusalem at the point of a gun. That's illegal, victor, and it was illegal before the state of Israel was even declared.

If the Arab population state that part of the land is'G-d given' ,why does that not have equal merit.A religeous Arab will go along with that.,a religeous Jew would use the same argument,and most 'secular' Jews (and outsiders ) would find the arguments on both sides ridiculous. Sooner or later before we kill each other(or after) we still have to sit down rationally and agree on compromise,..so why not now.? THINK OF HUMANITY NOT YOURSELF

If we insist on calling East Jerusalem 'ours' then we are 'responsible' for the wellbeing of ALL who live there.We can NOT deny ANYONE their roof over their head.How can we say we'll demolish someone's home because they dont have a permit,which WE deny them? And to give the excuse of building a park as reason to leave ANYONE homeless.... If we NEED this park,then we should build those people alternative decent homes,and it should be their choice as to whether they wish to stay or be rehoused. Not to mention the untold harm we do ourselves in the eyes of the rest of the world,and the ongoing effect this has on our Jewish brethren outside Israel. Where has our sense of justice gone?It has deserted us.(to keep the settlers onside?)

Israel is a grotesque mockery of a democracy. That French ambassador was right.

On the 657 buildings in Silwan - 650 of them are illegal. Tear them all down and send the illegal squatters to their own country - Jordan. Just as international and Israeli law allows.

that is his problem! like so many ignoramuses who quote it in regard to israel . read my previous post on san remo 1920 !

Living in Syracuse may be the reason you mistakenly place cities far from Jerusaalem as being within the city's boundaries. I am also sure that if Syracuse had a park and you put up a home there and kept adding to it so your children and their spouses could live with you, the city fathers, to say nothing of the people who used the park, would be happy to have you there. The area, called Silwan, was a park even under the Ottoman rulership which ended after World War 1.

... should include a reenactment of a Palestinian home being demolished by an Israeli bulldozer while tourists observe and munch on falafels from stand of the Palestinian homeowner. Sounds like a fair trade to me!

What about all the illegal structures known as the settlements? But then those are for "chosen people". Nevermind, there is no aparthied, the whole world is just paraniod and crazy. Only the chosen ones are sane amd lawful.

I am certain that since you are that well read, you can list all the places that used to be Palestinian villages and towns in what is now Israel proper (the country with borders legally recognized by the rest of the world, so there is no confusion). Still, there has been a lot of building there, and no questions were asked of the old owners. So maybe you can see that new conditions have to apply in both cases if one is to be fair. Or maybe fair policy is a one-sided privilege when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian dealings?

well then, why do they have no permits? and better yet, how come YEMENITES have more claim in east Jerusalem than these Palestinians -that you seem to say have sprouted out of nowhere- in EastJerusalem???? if historically yemenites have a quarter in Jerusalem, then why are they called Yemenites? and most of all, why can't all people of Jerusalem live as equals in that city or in amywhere in Israel and the rest of that mess of the middle-east?

To Israelis: I despise you and despise your country. You should be sent back to the dark ages as that?s where you and your apartheid practices would find acceptance and comfort. There is no hope that yours would ever become a civilized country. Do whatever you wish to others as your hypocrisy is unmatched.

Number 18 was being sarcastic- but the truth is we are the Chosen People. We are the true sons of Abraham who were given this land. So i kindly request of the sons of Esav and Yishmael to leave us alone in this G-d given land. Israel is the promised land. The whole land is our heritage and every place in Judea and Samraia should be on the heritage list. There are are no shortage of Arab lands and although we destroy their Pan-Arab dream -we are here to stay.

Not a single Arab family living in the Kings Garden was displaced by the wars thrust upon the Jewish people by the Arabs. You should read up on the history of Jerusalem -Silwan of today was the old Jewish yemenite village (from 1882), the Moslem Quarter of today was the hub of Jewish life with 21 synagogues and 6 Yeshivot before the pogroms and riots and the area known today as Sheih Jarrah was the old Shimon Hatzaddik neighbourhood, just to name a few. You might as well add most of Abu Dis that was Jewish land bought from 1920-1924 including the land under the University of Al Kuds. All this and more can be proven with real authentic documentation. So Rami -first read and then comment.

park or no park. Illegal is illegal. What a shame!

It is good to see that those who think you must take from another people to enrich your own "tribe" are unable to do so. How long before the Israeli right finds a way to continue these policies though?

it is because they were dispossessed from their original homes in what is now Israel proper. give them back their real homes, then they would gladly leave these allegedly Illegal homes to go back where they really belong. how is that for an answer?

that's the only reason that those people are "law-breakers"... the system FORCES THEM to break the law because the law is discriminatory and colonial.

Andrey - this is how it goes : Jewish buildings are retroactivly legitimized, Arab buildings are demolished. This is the unwritten (oral ?)law in Israel.

...Also, why is it that even the most Israel-friendly states do not have their embassies in Jerusalem? Because the eastern part was occupied in 1967. As to who collect garbage, my friend is a Palestinian who lives in Beit Hanina (occupied E.Jeru.) and tells me that his family pays thousands of Shekels in Arnona (Israeli taxes) and the Israelis only collect the main garbage dumpster on the Jer.-Ramallah road. Since building highway 401 (I believe Begin road) on stolen Palestinian land, most Israelis never use the Jer-Rammallah main road and take this "Israeli only" road from the Illegal settlements (like Nevi Yakov) to Israel. The municipality of Jerusalem does not any longer care about fixing the plants and improving the road (Jerusalem-Rammallah main road). You have to be as WELL-INFORMED as I am before use speak from, what I think, is an ideological Zionist standpoint.

I would add "cannot get a permit to build legally either." Now I wonder who controls the issuance of those permits. I know. It's the D1vine one who is just looking after the interests of his chosen people.

It is apartheid because they always demolish Arab buildings, and never give them permits to build legally. Yet if you are Jewish, buildings will be legalized and also new ones built with even donated money from the US on land that isn't even proven to be legally theirs. Keep living in your delusional world Andrey, but the rest of the world knows apartheid when they see it. You complain about how Jewish land owners were treated in Arab countries, but in Israel you do it everyday. If Iran was doing this today to the Jews there it would be all over your press.

Likewise, no Israeli beyond the Green Line should receive any consideration for their illegal occupation, other than a map showing the way back to Israel.

in jerusalem? what is the basis for your assertion thta e jerusalem is occupied? as the only existing binding treaties like san remo or the mandate do not divide jerusalem ? or is the garbage in your post not well informed ?

in jerusalem? what is the basis for your assertion thta e jerusalem is occupied? as the only existing binding treaties like san remo or the mandate do not divide jerusalem ? or is the garbage in your post not well informed ?

We look forward to the day when Abu Mazen (or Khaled Meshal) declares that the Palestinians will be building a tourist park in Acre commemorating Salahudin's victory. The displaced Jewish families will get jobs as popcorn vendors.

Ari, Wailing Wall tunnel has nothing to do with the City Of David. This is ''Hasmonean Tunnel" 1-2 ages BC. As for City Of David, the ceramics found and organic residuals were dated 10th - 6th Age BC. "Bullot" - ceramic stamps on the letters found in the site - about 50 samples contain the names, mentioned in Bible -"Shmariahy Ben Shafan" and others. Ignorance is a bad weapon in your struggle against the Juwish people

The more Israel steales the more countries don't like to support Israel. It's time the whole world starts to boycot Israel. I'm sorry for the hard working people but it's your government. Israel stands for Apartheid, a doubtfull Mossad and a weak army.

David a prophet who all religions respect Him,was a holy person who were helping homeless people,gives them food and take care of them but now israel my country breakes innocent palestinians homes and let them to live on streets with nothing..shame on you netanyahu..

East Jerusalem Palestinians do not consider this guy to be their "mayor" because they consider themselves to be under occupation. By the way, all countries, including USA, agree with E.J. Pals and place their embassies in Tel Aviv. The "mayor" should first demolish Ma'aleh Adonim, Navi Yakov,etc. because they are built in East Jerusalem on occupied Palestinian lands (according to international law and the 4th Geneva Convention). They are all ILLEGAL and built without a proper "permit." "What goes around comes around." "Mayor" my a**!

The march of time or the palestinians stagnation ! If the palestinians are serious in wanting peace, we would have had peace before yesterday. So why wait for anything ! East Jerusalem, is perhaps one of the most important places on earth. It needs the attention that it deserve. Politics is the art of waiting & especially with the palestinians ! The palestinians are mixing politics in every aspect of theirs & other peoples lives ! Give the Palestinians a chance, they would stop the earth from spinnig ! The mayor of Jerusalem is right ! It might also help the Palestinians make up their minds !

"The Palestinians whose houses are demolished will be able to operate tourist-related businesses in the park. " Great -so they can sell ice cream to tourists who are sitting on the rubble of their homes. That should keep them happy!

Thank G-d we have a mayor who is prepared to show true sovereignty over the old yemenite village(Silwan). Its a great start to demolish 22 homes out of the illegally built 89 structures and to restore the national treasure of a parkland. The only problematic aspect of the plan is the message to Arabs. I cannot fathom why an Arab who builds illegally in a green zoned area, should get any compensation whatsoever, or whether he should be taken into account in any future plans. In no other country in the world would a Government bend over backwards and lay out the red carpet to law breakers who build illegally.

no, it isn't appartheid. illegal structures have to be either legalised or demolished. the first solution would be preferable if the arabs wouldn't escalate, so it is better to demolish.

and no israel want's PEACE pull the other one this Country is fast becoming a joke and only has itself to blame when attacked you treat people like this and expect them to live side by side with you peacefully what a joke Israel has become. The world is starting to see what you are upto and the word that come to mind is apartheid. Israel has become a people who are heartless/paranoid with no remorse and humanity wake UP and look inside yourselves. This isnt the way to treat fellow human beings.

Even though the "City of David" site is well organized, there is nothing at all which indicates King David ever lived there and the guide was absolutely unable to provide me with archeological answers. I was not convinced at all by the excavations, which I also found soulless, nothing like the beautiful tunnel running along the Wailing Wall underground.

in this country wherever you stick a finger in the ground you hit some antiquities or archeological elements. So if we follow some people logics, we can't build anything anywhere before calling the competant authorities. And then they come and if by chance they find the trace of a human bone one got to wait for the rabbi to declare it cosher or not cosher, in the first case nothing can be done until the arrival of the Messaiah and the revival of the dead (Ezekiel chap. 27). now if by chance it was a stone you hit, the archeological authorities will have to decide wether to open on the spot an archeological site or not because by definition most stones are old (stone age). it may take years to decide. Conclusion, if you want to build some thing in Israel, do it on the dunes or even safer in the sea, or still better some where else.