Background: Been there, done that: declarations accompanying decisions ineffective

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
22 November '10

Minister of Education, Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) explained in an interview broadcast this morning on Israel Radio that he would support extension of the freeze if two conditions were met:

#1. There was a clear statement by the U.S. that they would not require the freeze be extended beyond 90 days. This with the understanding that the U.S. is not changing its underlying position regarding construction.

#2. That Israel declares when the freeze is extended that it does not include Jerusalem and that the U.S. is aware that this declaration was made. This with the understanding that U.S. policy is that construction beyond the Green Line in Jerusalem is the same as in the West Bank.

This is not the first time that a Likud Government has tacked a declaration onto a major decision in order to gain the approval of the Government. This is how it approved the April 30, 2003 Roadmap (A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict).

As foreign minister in the Sharon Government, Binyamin Netanyahu focused most of his efforts on drafting an Israeli response to the Roadmap.

And while he was already the treasury minister at the time of the May 25, 2003 vote, the “14 Point Response to the Roadmap” that was cited in the decision was very much his project.

The inclusion of the 14 Point Response to the Roadmap was cited by many ministers, including Netanyahu, to justify their vote in support of the decision.

While the existence of the 14 Point Response to the Roadmap was acknowledged in passing by the U.S., it had absolutely no impact on how the United States, the Quartet, or pretty much anyone in the world related to the implementation of the Roadmap.

In point of fact, it turned out that Israel itself, at times, declined to mention the existence of the 14 Point Response to the Roadmap when discussing the Roadmap.

[In a somewhat bizarre historical footnote, the Government of Israel to this day has declined to officially publish the text of the 14 Point Response to the Roadmap. It was leaked to IMRA when the Government refused to publish it and then was published, in turn, by Haaretz.]

It should be also noted that the official position of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is that there was not a freeze on construction in Jerusalem during the freeze period. In stark contrast, Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias (Shas) has frequently complained that, in fact, while an official freeze was not declared, there was a freeze in practice in Jerusalem.

In the absence of a clear written American understanding regarding Jerusalem construction – or alternatively the announcement of a schedule of Jerusalem building activities accompanying the “no freeze in Jerusalem declaration” – there is no reason, a priori, to believe that the same undeclared freeze in Jerusalem construction will indeed not go into effect for the new freeze.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.