Bibi is Out of Touch with the Housing Market
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu apparently hasn’t heard that this isn’t a great time to be building new housing. Also, if he’s going to get back into real estate development, he really needs to remember that it’s all about location, location, location:
Israel has moved ahead with a plan to build a new settlement in the northern West Bank for the first time in 26 years, pursuing a project the United States has already condemned as an obstacle to peace efforts.
…
David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley regional council that oversees Maskiot, confirmed to Reuters he had issued the tender last week for contractors to launch infrastructure work.
“It’s a process that will take months, to prepare infrastructure before we can build. We are proceeding in an orderly fashion,” Elhayani said.
Elhayani insisted that the construction is being carried out completely legally.
“There is full consensus among Zionist parties that the Jordan Valley must remain under Israeli control within the framework of any diplomatic deal,” he said. “The Jordan Valley is necessary for the sake of national security, and woe to the administration that strays from this path.”
Check out Marc Ambinder for a fuller account and analysis of the meeting between Netanyahu and Barack Obama, but it seems pretty clear that the U.S. position will be to assert, when pressed, that settlement building isn’t such a hot idea. But as far as actually pressuring Israel on policy, the administration is likely to focus on its ‘please don’t bomb Iran’ message. A worthy message, but not the only one that needs sending.
