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Quote Of The Day...

"My fellow citizens, , we cannot escape history.We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us.

The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.We- even we here- hold the power and bear the responsibility."

-Abraham Lincoln

Netanyahu And Lieberman Tell Obama: 'Jerusalem Is Not Negotiable'

"Don't Tread On Me"
The Obama Administration apparently crossed a red line when Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was summoned to the US State Department over the weekend and was told that the Obama administration demanded that Israel put an end to construction work at the site of the historic Shepherd's Hotel in east Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu rejected this smarmy attempt at coercion out of hand:

"What does [US President Barack Obama] think to himself? That after I built 20,000 homes in Jerusalem during my last term I'm going to stop the building of 20 more?" Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly said Sunday in closed conversations, according to Channels 10 and 2.

Earlier, during Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu remarks took a much softer tone, but the gist of his statement was similar. "Jerusalem is the "unified capital of Israel and the capital of the Jewish people, and sovereignty over it is indisputable," he said.

Hundreds of apartments in the west of the city were purchased by Arabs and we didn't get involved. There is no prohibition against Arab residents buying apartments in the west of the city and there is no prohibition barring the city's Jewish residents from buying or building in the east of the city," Netanyahu added. "That is the policy of an open city that is not divided."

"We cannot accept the notion that Jews will not have the right to buy apartments specifically in Jerusalem. I can only imagine what would happen if they were forbidden from purchasing apartments in New York or London; there would be an international outcry. This has always been Israel's policy and this is the policy of the current government," the prime minister continued.

Later Sunday, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the administration was trying to reach an agreement with Israel on settlements.

"The negotiations are intense. They are ongoing," she said in New Delhi.

You summon the Ambassador of a foreign government to the State Department to inform him that his government may not build housing in its own sovereign capital and that's referred to as 'negotiations'?

The site itself is interesting. It was originally given by the British to Nazi sympathizer Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, who spent WWII recruiting European Muslims in Bosnia to fight for the Nazis, translating Mein Kampfinto Arabic and planning a concentration camp with the Nazis for Palestine's Jews near Nablus.

The Husseini clan then sold it to Jewish businessman Irv Moskowitz in the 1980's, and the site was recently rented the site to the Jerusalem border police as a base.

The municipality of Jerusalem subsequently approved the small housing development..after which Palestinian capo del Ramallah Mahmoud Abbas made a formal protest.

Even more interesting is that anyone, Jew, Druse, Christian or Muslim can buy the proposed apartments. The Israeli High Court ruled some time ago that anyone can legally buy property anywhere in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile the Obama Administration is not saying a word about the massive amount of illegal construction performed by the Arabs all over Judea and Samaria. They're specifically targeting Jews...and yes, there's a word for that. And it's not 'negotiations'.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman weighed in on this topic as well, an dbeing whom he is, was a bit more blunt than Netanyahu:

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the US demand was "odd."

"Thousands of Arab families build houses in Jerusalem, in the neighborhoods of Neve Yaakov and French Hill, and I've never heard any comment on the matter from the United States or Europe," Lieberman said. "I'm trying to put this delicately: It would be very strange if Jews were discriminated against in Jerusalem of all places, especially in light of the fact that it is not an isolated site; this is the heart of the city, very close to the Government Compound and Israel Police Headquarters."

Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said, "A demand to cease construction in a neighborhood situated only several meters from the Hebrew University proves how dangerous it is to be dragged into a debate on settlement freeze, which will lead us to a total demand to freeze our normal lives throughout the entire State of Israel."

Of course, it's not odd at all if you look at who Obama is and who his associates are.

One thing the Obama Administration has done with it's anti-Israel policies that it probably didn't intend is to unite the Israeli public behind Netanyahu. According to most polls, Israeli approval of Obama is around the 6% mark and over 80% of Israelis approve of Netanyahu's handling of the Obama Administration's demands thus far.

Jews in America may very well be a different story. But in the very near future, those who haven't already woken up will have to make a choice between supporting Israel's right to live in freedom and dignity or being loyal adherents of the Obama Administration. They won't be able to do both.