November 6, 2012
JERUSALEM – While thousands of homes are uninhabitable in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Obama administration diplomats have been monitoring Jewish housing construction projects in two Jerusalem neighborhoods, informed Israeli officials told WND.
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| Eastern Jerusalem |
The consular staff visited Gilo and Pisgat Zeev, two entirely Jewish neighborhoods in the eastern sections of Jerusalem.
The Palestinians seek a state that encompasses undefined areas of eastern Jerusalem. Israeli prime ministers have been adamant that the major Jewish neighborhoods of Gilo and Pisgat Zeev will remain within Israeli jurisdiction in any future deal.
WND first reported in 2009 that the Obama administration had set up an apparatus to closely monitor Jewish construction in Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank to the point of watching Israeli moves house-to-house in certain key neighborhoods, according to Israeli officials.
In March 2009, Obama’s then-Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, oversaw the establishment of an enhanced apparatus based in the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that closely monitors the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods, incorporating regular tours of the areas, at times on a daily basis, the officials said.
Previously, under the Bush administration, the consulate kept a general eye on Jewish Jerusalem and West Bank construction, receiving much of its information from nongovernmental organizations.
“Mitchell’s apparatus takes things to a whole new level. They are watching very closely,” said an Israeli official.
Yesterday, a senior Palestinian Authority negotiator told WND that Obama quietly pledged to the Palestinians a campaign at the United Nations to renew U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for a Palestinian state to be established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.
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