The diplomats are up to their usual nonsense in the Middle East. They ignore the core problems and instead focus on extraneous matters to show that they're doing something about the problem. The Quartet is demanding that Israel freeze settlement construction, which is essentially a freeze on the construction of new housing in the disputed territories - including Israel's capital Jerusalem. Vice President Biden says that the housing plan undermines the peace process.
Why freeze the construction? Because the Palestinians might riot.
Here's the newsflash.
They're already rioting and calling for an intifada, not because of the housing construction (the smarter Palestinians know that construction means Palestinian jobs), but because the Palestinian leadership is lying about Israel's intentions for the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock and al Aqsa Mosque. They've been lying through their teeth that the dedication of the restored Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem is the first step to taking over the Temple Mount. The Hurva was destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948 after they captured the Old City and the Jewish Quarter - desecrating Jewish sites throughout the captured territory.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigor Lieberman correctly notes that you can't make an artificial peace and that Israel simply does not have a partner in peace when you've got terrorist groups that seek nothing less than Israel in pieces.
Israeli authorities are limiting access to the Temple Mount because of fears of resumed rioting as has happened in past Fridays following incitement to violence by the imams at the Friday sermons at the al Aqsa mosque.
Israel also responded to yesterday's kassam attack that killed a Thai worker just outside Gaza. They carried out several airstrikes against terrorist targets, including smuggling tunnels. Another kassam was fired into Israel today, but no one was injured.
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