Israel Doubles Down on New Settlements

Netanyahu is fairly out in the open about telling us to fuck off these days:

The Jerusalem municipality's representative on the Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee, Yair Gabai, said Wednesday that all committee deliberations over expansion of construction have been frozen following the recent tensions between Israel and the United States over construction in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.

"Unfortunately, since [U.S. Vice President] Biden's visit all the committee's sessions have been put on hold until further notice," Gabai said.

The Interior Ministry confirmed Gabai's statements, saying that "the prime minister has decided to form a committee of chairmen to improve the coordination between the various government offices over all matters relating to construction and building permits."

Despite this, the Jerusalem municipality has given final approval to a group of settlers to construct 20 apartments in the compound of the Shepherd Hotel - a controversial hotel in east Jerusalem - Haaretz learned on Tuesday.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington smoothing over ties with the United States over the latest settlement-related tensions, and hours before the premier was to meet with President Barack Obama in Washington.

It should be made clear that this isn't just them quietly ignoring our wishes and building settlements anyway... this type of thing is done specifically to show up the Obama and let him know who calls the shots.

If only we had some way to counter their bullshit...

The third "ask" that AIPAC supporters will make of Congress on Tuesday is to once again pass the $3 billion in U.S. aid provided annually to Israel. "It's a very tough ask this year," Aserkoff admitted, noting the U.S. domestic budgetary and economic challenges. Among other major purchases, the Israeli government has announced plans to replace its aging fleet of F-16 fighter jets with new, American-made F-35 fighters, a major cost that Israel hopes will be substantially borne by American taxpayers.

Yeah, I think we could do some good things with that 3 billion dollars, and they could do without a new fleet of F-35s. A slightly lesser quality fighter plane doesn't make make you less able to dump chemical weapons on civilians, so I'm sure their government won't mind.