Yesterday the UK Foreign Office called in the Israeli Ambassador for a dressing-down after Foreign Secretary Hague condemned the Israeli announcement of plans for 3,000 more homes in the Disputed Territories and the intention to approve planning and zoning for the area of E1 (an area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim).
It seems that Hague’s unambiguous condemnation of Hamas for forcing Israel to embark on Defensive Pillar was too good to last - the FCO Arabists bayed for red meat and promptly got it.
Just who does Hague think he’s kidding?
Before the Palestinians played the UN card last week Israel warned that it would have consequences.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3475/united-nations-resolution-palesti...
As Alan Dershowitz (and many others) has pointed out, the Palestinians’ move was an abrogation of the Oslo Accords which said that the final status of the Palestinian territories was to be decided in bilateral negotiations.
And did the Palestinians come to peace talks when Israel froze settlement building for ten months from November 2009? Not only did they not come, they refused even to recognise Israel.
It is the duplicity of the Palestinian leadership which undermines the peace process.
Far from being a 'provocation' (as some have termed it), Israel’s response was perfectly reasonable.
So was the decision to take this month's tranche of customs revenues,– which it collects on the PA's behalf and transfers monthly - and use it instead to pay off debts of the PA to the Israel Electric Corporation and other Israeli bodies.
And much of the media commentary on E1 was misinformed, suggesting that Israel’s plans would ‘cut in half’ the Disputed Territories. Fortunately CAMERA has exploded this myth:
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2012/12/e1_fallacy_returns.html
No surprise - Yachad is propagating the "cut in half" lie:
http://www.yachad.org.uk/
I spoke about these issues on 'Any Answers' on Saturday. You can hear me on this link at 19:00:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p2vtg
(The segment on Israel starts at 16.10)