Next On The Chopping Block: Jerusalem?

This story appeared at Arutz 7 today.

A stream of recent reports indicates that Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu is suspending construction and growth in the capital city of Jerusalem, in contradiction of his statements.

The latest report came from reporter Ariel Kahane in Makor Rishon. He wrote Monday that Netanyahu turned down plans to build 130 units in Har Homa and 30 more in Pisgat Ze’ev. Both are large neighborhoods built on land liberated by Israel in 1967.

Kahane notes that Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Attias (Shas) presented the plans to Netanyahu some ten days ago. The plans also included 20 units in Ramot, and in the end, this was the only plan for which Netanyahu allowed Atias to issue a tender. Ramot is older than both Pisgat Ze’ev and Har Homa.

By withholding the tender for Pisgat Ze’ev, home to some 40,000 Jews, Netanyahu essentially overturned a mini-security cabinet decision to continue to build there.

900-Unit Project Stopped
Four months ago, it was similarly reported that though Netanyahu promised never to stop building in the capital city, he had frozen a much larger construction project in Pisgat Ze’ev. The project was to provide another 900 housing units in the neighborhood.

Asked about the above report at the time, Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said, "No comment."

If this is in fact true (a "no comment" is an admission of guilt where I come from), what will be the public reaction when the Netanyahu government begins talking about giving back the Golan Heights and dividing Jerusalem? It is coming. Who is going to stop it? The Yesha Council? We know they will be nothing but complicit. It will be up to the people to stop it. It will be up to the people of Israel to continue to build in the face of the government's orders to stop; in Yesha, and Jerusalem. It will be up to the people to demand the end of the Netanyahu government, the end of the secular control of Israeli life, and the beginning of Jewish leadership for the Jewish state. Respect for the Torah, government institutions that reflect our law, and remembering whom we serve...this is the path to our survival; not giving up our lands to those who would murder us, not kowtowing to a world community that willingly let us go up chimneys and, with its foot dragging on Iran, is showing it will gladly do so again.

A wise man once said that he would rather have a strong Israel that the world hates, than an Auschwitz the world loves. I couldn't agree more. It is not the White House, the EU, or even the Arabs that are our worst enemies; it is those who claim to lead us, and those that continue to allow them to lead, that do us the most harm. It is time for the Jewish people to break this cycle. Everything depends on this.