FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)The U.S.-Israel bond is unbreakable, but the United States will keep both sides accountable for their actions, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said.
Biden’s address Thursday at Tel Aviv University, intended to have been an expression of friendship, was altered in part by Israel’s announcement that it planned to build 1,600 new housing units in disputed eastern Jerusalem.
Biden started by reaffirming the “unbreakable bond” between Israel and the United States, as he had done after his arrival earlier this week. The bond was “impervious to any shifts in either country and in either country’s partisan politics,” he said to applause.
He said it was critical for the international community to understand the bond.
“Every time progress is made, it’s been made when the rest of the world knows there’s no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security, none—no space,” the vice president said.
Biden was blunt, however, when it came to his anger at being blindsided by the announcement of the housing starts, when he was in the West Bank meeting Palestinian leaders.
“That decision undermined the trust required for negotiations,” he said, and under instructions from President Obama, “I condemned it immediately and unequivocally.” He added, to applause: “Sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truth.”
Biden accepted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s explanation that he also was caught unaware by the announcement and praised Netanyahu for offering to establish a mechanism to prevent future surprises.
Biden said such actions will have consequences.
“The United States will continue to hold both sides accountable for any statements or any actions that inflame tensions and influence these talks,” he said.
West Bank Closure Extended as Muslims Called to Mount
The Israeli army extended its closure of the West Bank as the Palestinian leadership called for Muslims to gather at the Temple Mount.
Israel sealed off the West Bank on March 11 at midnight for fear of Arab rioting. The closure was set to be lifted Saturday night but was extended until at least Tuesday.
The extension followed clashes over the weekend between Arabs and Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem.
Under the closure, Arab men under the age of 50 were prohibited from attending prayers last Friday on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In response, dozens of Arab youths rioted near the Damascus Gate. A soldier was injured and three Arab demonstrators were arrested.
Police used tear gas and stun guns to quell a riot by Palestinian youths at the Qalandiyah checkpoint in northern Jerusalem on Saturday.
Police believe that the long-scheduled rededication of the restored Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter scheduled for Monday could lead to more Arab rioting.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Authority official in charge of the Jerusalem portfolio called on Palestinians to come barricade themselves in the Al Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount beginning Monday. The Islamic movement also called for its followers to gather at the Temple Mount.
The call was in response to a request, denied by police, by rightists to hold a march in the area. The rightists also have threatened to lay a cornerstone for a Third Temple in Jerusalem.
During the closure, those who need to pass for humanitarian reasons, including medical patients on their way to Israeli hospitals, will be permitted to cross subject to the authorization of the Civil Administration, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Gender-Segregated Bus Lines Protested
Demonstrators held signs reading “Israel is not Tehran” during a protest against gender-segregated bus lines in Jerusalem.
About 1,000 people gathered in Jerusalem’s Paris Square, near the Prime Minister’s residence, Saturday night to protest the so-called Mehadrin lines, which run in the capital city’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and require women to sit in the back of the buses.
Other signs called the bus lines “not kosher” and called for “Democracy, not theocracy.”
A busload of haredim gathered for a counter protest, according to reports, carrying signs that said “Stop harediphobia” and “separation is a blessing.”
The anti-segregation protest was organized by a coalition of feminist groups.