UCI on TwitterUS Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned Israel's approval of 1,600 new housing units for young haredi families in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, saying that the timing of the decision undermines the peace process the United States is attempting to revive.
Biden, visiting in Israel, issued a harshly worded statement criticizing the Israeli move, saying its timing was especially troubling by coming on the eve of a new round of US-mediated peace talks.
“The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now,” Biden said.
“We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them,” he added, warning that “unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations.”
Moments earlier, US President Barack Obama's top spokesman, Robert Gibbs, condemned the announcement from the White House.
In Jerusalem, the Interior Ministry stressed that the plan approved on Tuesday had “been in the works for over three years.”
Interior Minister Eli Yishai's media adviser stressed that “The Committee meeting was determined in advance and there is no connection to US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel… Yishai updated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the foregoing earlier this evening.”
The public has 60 days in which to formally file their opposition to the plan, a ministry spokeswoman said.
In Ramallah, Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat also slammed the move, saying it was destroying trust needed to go forward with the new round of indirect peace talks, which the two sides agreed this week would take place under the mediation of US envoy George Mitchell.
“With such an announcement, how can you build trust? This is destroying our efforts to work with Mr. Mitchell,” Erekat said. “It's a really disastrous situation. I hope that this will be an eye-opener for all in the international community about the need to have the Israeli government stop such futile exercises.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Biden took pains to praise Netanyahu for steps he has taken to make a more conducive atmosphere for talks with the Palestinians.
“A peace agreement will require both parties to make some historically bold commitments,” Biden said. “You have done it before, and I am confident for world peace you will do it again.”
Abe Selig contributed to this report.
Tags: Human Rights , Israeli Politics , Palestinian Terror State , US Politics
Jew Hater Biden with a Muslim Obama should be told to go TO HELL!~ Israel doesn’t need USA,that falling a part..Israel needs to follow Gods road map and that have nothing as Europe with USA planning to Israel.
read the BIBLE!!!
How dare they tell to Israel where to build and what to do?!!!! Let see how they tell to Iran…Of course Iran is not giving a F…k what Obama say or want.
The only disastrous situation that Pals are occupying our Land! Jordan is a Palestinian ,so get the hell out of Israel.
There is nothing ,not a shred that Israel was belonging to those dogs!!! NOTHING! Jerusalem City of David,was build by David. The only time in History when Israel was occupied by arabs hundreds years ago for 22 years!!!! Jordan occupied West Bank During 1948 Independence War…and east Jerusalem!!! Never Again!!! NEVER!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB9pd9CbFGY
Shame on Biden and Obama for their anti-semitic outbursts. Thank G-d Israel is a democratic Jewish state and is fully within its rights to permit its Jewish citizens to live anywhere within its sovereign capital city!
Thank G-d the U.S. is also a democratic nation and its citizens are fully entitled to vote the political bigots out of office at the next available opportunity!
Obama, Biden, Mitchell and all the other grandstanding busybodies should just shut up! How dare they meddle into Israel’s internal affairs?? The Palestinians haven’t shown even an intention to talk peace. Israel must not make any more sacrifices. Just keep building and strengthening our country.
Way to go, Ben ! If Biden read “Stealth Jihad” by Robert Spencer the VP would have a better handle of what the Palestinians and Islamics are all about. Give them an inche and they want a yard.
Viva Nethanyhu
R Fantelli
Paxton MA
I prefer to note that the other people’s comments have been right on target. Obama disgraced himself and the US by bowing down before the King of Saudi Arabia; his VP disgraces himself by arguing for Jewfree areas in Jerusalem.
Israel is a sovereign country , the Obama administration has no right to tell Israel what to do.
It would be foolish for Israel to help create another Arab state. They are already 22 Arab States, why don’t they absorb the so called Palestinians. ? Israel has absorbed 700.000 Jews from arab countries when they were expelled by the Arabs countrie, when Israel was created.
Only Jews are Palestinians, a name given to them by the Roman when the conquered ancient Israel, to humiliate the Israelites. Enough already stop being ghetto Jews, you have country now.
Love and Shalom from a Holocaust survivor
Poor Jew-baitin’ Joe…once again, those wascally Iswaelis are spoiling his hopes of sharing a Nobel with B.O. for having subjugated those stiff-necked Jews.
May Israeli officials continue to snub, ignore, humiliate, and mock those politicians who have the hubris to think they can dictate foreign and domestic policies to Israel.
The leaders of Juden Strasse (otherwise known as J Street) and other leftist “Jewish” organizations need to be put back in their places (like the shteytl, for instance). Since the creation of Eretz Yisrael, life in the Diaspora has been good for wealthy American Jews – good enough to make them forget 1900 years of persecution, brutality, and Holocaust. Because they feel so secure in the Galut, they are willing to compromise Israel’s security to bring about a Utopia where religion, national borders, and personal wealth are all but eliminated. And Israel is their sacrificial Lamb, as always!
Jews – beware the Leftist Jews among you – they are traitors to every Jew that ever walked the face of the earth.
Biden has harsh words for Israel for building homes for its citizens. It does not create a trusting relationship for peace talks. Where was his and President Obama’s harsh words to the Palestinians for their rocket attacks on Israeli children, women and men? Was that creating a trusting relationhip? Preaching hatred of Jews, and openly threatening to destroy the Jewish state of Israel is setting an atmosphere for peace.
Condeming Israel for “disproportionate” response, when they retaliate to halt rockets fired from civilian areas, and collateral damage occurs. What is the U.S. forces in Afghanistan doing in combatting Terrorists? Are they using “proportionate” responses only?
Biden came to ghetto Israel and with “love” in his black heart and tried to convince the Jews of Israel to take another “shower” for their own good.
The Jews, wisely not trusting the IslamoNazis’ U.S. contingent (the HUSSEIN obama team), so far have just said, “No”! And, par for the course, the IsalmoNazis lapdogs had a tantrum and condemned the Jews for not going quietly for another “train” ride and “shower”.
What is very telling is Biden’s remarks in the last paragraph of this article, “A peace agreement will require both parties to make some historically bold commitments,” Biden said. “You have done it before, and I am confident for world peace you will do it again.” Biden is correct. Israelis have been making moronic concession moves on the chess board since at least Olso, which have nearly put them in checkmate and resulted in nothing but the PEACE OF THE GRAVE for them.
Biden leaves Israel with “you will do it again”. He appears confident that Israeli Jews will eventually board the HUSSEIN obama “express train” for that comfortable relocation and soothing “shower” after the long journey.
Watch out Israel! The Angels of Death are hovering over the houses of Jews and not the IslamoNazis, this passover.
After making the statement that there is no “daylight” between the US and Israel Biden shows how much daylight there is enoygh to drive a Merkava tank through. The nerve of Israel building homes in their capital city? The chutzpah of Biden criticizing a soverign nation while being its guest! In the US Biden is well known for his chronic foot in mouth disease. Send the shmuck back to the US.
Mensch puts his finger on the proper protocol in this situation. Having insulted and defamed the Jewish People and the sovereign State of Israel, Biden should have been asked to leave the country and not to return until he issues a formal apology!
From “Audacity of Hope” to “Audacity of Hate” in just a little over a year. Shame on this current White House occupant, trying to tell another sovreign nation where they can or can not live. Next these haters of G-d’s Chosen People, will try and tell them how much oxygen they can have just for breathing.