In what may be a significant change in course for his right wing coalition government Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced he is halting construction of Israel's settlements in occupied East Jerusalem late on Wednesday.
'Netanyahu freezes East Jerusalem construction'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frozen a project for the construction of some 900 apartments in East Jerusalem, Channel 10 television reported late Wednesday.
The report of Netanyahu's order to freeze the project came a day after he held talks in Jerusalem with U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. Netanyahu has been under tremendous pressure from the United States to freeze all construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
According to Channel 10, The houses were planned to be built in Pisgat Ze'ev, one of several Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem built beyond the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank.
These settlements are being built to fill in the last gaps in an unbroken ring of illegal Jewish settlements surrounding Arab East Jerusalem, where Palestinians aspire to establish their future capital of a independent Palestinian State.
Israel conquered East Jerusalem, including the historic Old City with its Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters, and the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War.
After conquering East Jerusalem, Israel annexed it in a move that is illegal under international law, and made Jerusalem Israel's capital, something and has not been recognized outside of Israel by any countries except Costa Rica and El Salvador. All other countries are unwilling to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital because of Israel's illegal annexation of East Jerusalem.
This settlement freeze removes the biggest stumbling block to resuming peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Many see Israel's continued settlement expansion as a bellwether of Israel's intentions for the occupied West Bank.
One major obstacle remains to the resumption of peace talks. Netayahu's new demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. This new demand seems to have been formulated to be unacceptable the Palestinians. Bibi's new demand is correctly viewed by many as a poison pill to wreck any peace talks. A new report that Fatah predictably will reject Netanyahu's demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state was leaked to the press today.
Report: Fatah to oppose recognizing Israel as Jewish state
I view Netanyahu's making this critical concession on settlement construction in East Jerusalem as an very encouraging sign that remaining obstacles to the resumption of peace talks may soon fall by the wayside as well. While I have no inclination to trust Bibi at his word, I have to applaud Bibi for having enough political courage to take this decision that is sure to incite discord within his right wing coalition with the expansionist Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu Parties, not to mention as sizable expansionist faction within Bibi's own Likud Party.