“President Obama should not interfere with the rights of the Jewish people to live in Jerusalem,” said Danon. “This … is a racist demand, saying that Jews cannot live in Jerusalem, only Arabs.”

He’s right. I wonder how Obama would react to demands from another country that African Americans not be allowed to live in parts of the US.

Meanwhile, just to give you an idea of Israeli feelings about this, Opposition leader Tzipi Livni – who today blasted the Prime Minister – had this to say.

Britain and France have also condemned the construction in Gilo, but in Israel – as Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni stressed to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner – there is consensus on the Jerusalem neighborhood.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:50PM: Israel’s plans to build 900 new residential units in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood are “unforgivable and dangerous”..according to the country who has constructed nuclear facilities for nefarious purposes.

6:05PM: China has criticized the Israeli government’s move to expand a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem, saying it poses new obstacles to the Middle East peace process.

Funny, because I was sure China’s idea of an “obstacle” was this:

5:52PM: In Newsweek, Dan Senor and Saul Singer, authors of Start up Nation- the Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, answer the questions:

How does Israel—with fewer people than the state of New Jersey, no natural resources, and hostile nations all around—produce more tech companies listed on the NASDAQ than all of Europe, Japan, South Korea, India, and China combined? How does Israel attract, per person, 30 times as much venture capital as Europe and more than twice the flow to American companies? How does it produce, for its size, the most cutting-edge technology startups in the world?

5:30PM: PA President Mahmoud Abbas has said a Middle East peace deal will not happen with him.

He’s right, but I posit it’s because he and his Fatah party are a bunch of terrorists.

And still on the subject..

Palestinian supporters of the Fatah movement loyal to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, seen, during a march in the west bank city of Nablus. Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009.

5:38AM: With many such as the Obama administration and EU up in arms about Jewish construction in Jerusalem, Israel National News notes the Jerusalem Municipality’s plans for construction on Arab housing.

The Jerusalem Municipality is plowing ahead with plans for construction of more than 5,000 housing units in Arab neighborhoods. These include the following:

• A master plan for the Tel Adasa neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, where 2,000 new housing units are planned.
• A master plan for the Arab a-Sawahara area for a new housing compound with 2,500 units that is currently being prepared for discussion at the local council and district council levels.
• A master plan for the Dir el-Amud and Al-Muntar areas in Beit Safafa in southeastern Jerusalem, currently in advanced planning stages.
• A construction plan for 172 housing units and public buildings at the Jabal Mukabar neighborhood, which has completed the mandatory waiting period and will soon come up for additional discussion and approval in the district council.

Meanwhile, with the mainstream media assaulting us with photos such as this, it is important to note that such homes are illegal, and were demolished pursuant to the Israeli legal system.

The municipality noted that it is also destroying illegal structures in the Arab sector. Three buildings were demolished Wednesday: a structure, 90 square meters in size, that was built  on public land in Isawiya; a structure in Wadi Hilwah, also built on public land, sized 32 square meters; and three temporary structures in Silwan that served as pens for sheep and horses. All of the structures were razed after courts ordered them to be torn down.

12:30AM: A closer look at Jerusalem’s 9-11 memorial.

“Nor has a single week gone by in which I have not reaffirmed my conviction that had he not lost his life on that terrible November night, within three years we would have had a comprehensive agreement for peace in the Middle East.”

Interesting theory, given that Rabin himself would have opposed many of the concessions Israel has subsequently stated it is willing to make.

Meanwhile, Clinton also said:

“We are either going to hurt each other or we are going to help each other,” he said of the two foes. “Divorce is not an option.”

Just as likely part of a conversation he had with his wife.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:10PM:Ynetnews reports:

An Iranian website reported Sunday that Iranian General Ali Reza Asgari who defected to the West is being held in prison in Israel.

According to the report, an investigation by Iranian security officials showed that “Asgari was kidnapped by the Mossad in cooperation with the British and German intelligence services, and was ultimately transferred to Israel.”

The report was published on the “Alef” news website, which is affiliated with conservative parliament member Ahmad Tavakkoli, one of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s main critics.

Alef is not a state website, but is considered a relatively credible source.

Hey, I think that guy works in the falafel store down the road..

9:42PM: Tel Aviv has banned horse-drawn carriages.

Yeah, I didn’t realize this was a pressing issue either.

6:35PM: Rutgers is sponsoring a terror-supporting organization.

4:45PM: Ha’aretz continues it’s anti-religious campaign with a report containing this inflammatory headline:

IDF Chief Rabbi: Troops who show mercy to enemy will be ‘damned’

Only if you read the report do you get an idea of the context of this purported statement.

The Israel Defense Forces’ chief rabbi told students in a pre-army yeshiva program last week that soldiers who “show mercy” toward the enemy in wartime will be “damned.”

Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki also told the yeshiva students that religious individuals made better combat troops.

Speaking Thursday at the Hesder yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron , Rontzki referred to Maimonides’ discourse on the laws of war. That text quotes a passage from the Book of Jeremiah stating: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”

In Rontzki’s words, “In times of war, whoever doesn’t fight with all his heart and soul is damned – if he keeps his sword from bloodshed, if he shows mercy toward his enemy when no mercy should be shown.”

In other words, the Rabbi is stating that troops should fight hard and show no mercy when no mercy should be shown. And while there is no elaboration on when this should apply, it seems the Rabbi is not making a blanket statement about troops never showing mercy.

Without having heard the Rabbi’s words, I am not qualified to definitively say what he meant. But it looks to me like Ha’aretz are trying to “spin” his words.

12:40PM: You may recall last week I posted about aspiring Rabbi/boxer Yuri Foreman who was out to become the first Jewish world boxing champion in 30 years.

Well, I’m happy to report he did it.

Coming soon: Fellow Orthodox-Jewish boxer Dmitriy Salita takes on British-Muslim Amir Khan for the WBA light-welterweight crown in Newcastle, England on December 5!

6:20AM: More footage from the 9-11 memorial dedication in Jerusalem last week, including a description of the design.

South African jurist Richard Goldstone lambasted President Shimon Peres on Thursday for a personal attack on him, which the president launched in response to a damning report he compiled on the Israel’s winter offensive in Gaza.

“I would say that the President’s comments are specious and ill-befitting the Head of the State of Israel,” Goldstone said in an interview with Haaretz.

“I am content to be judged by my actions over the course of my career both in terms of my professional judicial career and my voluntary service.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:25AM: The nutty pro-terror.

12:58AM: A new monument in memory of the victims of 9-11 has been dedicated in Jerusalem.

“All the feelings that we’ve been through came back to me, tears simply fell from my eyes,” said Miriam Avraham, who lost her daughter Alona in the New York City World Trade Center attack eight years ago. Abraham attended a ceremony dedicating a new Jerusalem monument in memory of the victims of the September 11 attack on the United States.

The monument, which was designed by artist Eliezer Weishoff at an estimated cost of NIS 10 million ($2.6 million) is nine meters high and is made up of a waving American is transformed into a memorial flame. This is one of the only monuments outside of the US that features the names of all the 2,980 victims of the attacks as well as their home countries. Five Israelis are among the dead.

Weishoff began thinking of a way to honor the memories of the terror attack’s victims eight years ago. He originally thought of designing a medallion. After receiving then Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert’s blessing and the approval of environmental organizations, the sculptor contacted the Jewish National Fund and built the monument together with the JNF.

“The concept was a burning torch with the American flag waving with its folds creating the upward flow of lines,” Weishoff explained, “I made sure that the New York City municipality sent us a piece of the ruins from the Twin Towers and we planted it as a basis for the statue itself.”

This is not the first time Weishoff’s work is dedicated to terror victims. He also designed the monument commemorating the three women killed in the Apropo coffee house bombing in Tel Aviv in 1997.

The Jerusalem monument is not the only one in Israel dedicated to the victims of September 11. Rishon Lezion, Ness Ziona and Beersheba all have monuments commemorating the victims.

G-d bless America and the free world.

A few observations on this anniversary of 9/11:

• Seven years on, and people still don’t get what this war is about. Heck, most people still don’t get that we are in a war at all.
• Nice to see how Google has commemorated this day:

• Al Jazeera (predictably) reports a poll which suggests that more than 50 per cent of people “reject the official belief that the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, were carried out by al-Qaeda.” Of particular interest:

Of the countries surveyed, Egypt and Jordan had the highest percentages of people who believed Israel was behind the attack, polling 43 and 31 per cent respectively.

Ain’t peace grand?

G-d bless America and the free world.