US Ambassador: Settlement expansion is 'stupid, infuriating' and Diplomat Nides's settlement statements highly undiplomatic - editorial and US Senate votes to end Daylight Savings Time and Watch: Wild Boar Attacks Little Girl in Haifa, Eats her Shalach ManosBy David Israel -
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US Ambassador: Settlement expansion is 'stupid, infuriating'
Biden administration's ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, slams Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria during event with Peace Now.
The US Ambassador to Israel excoriated Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria, calling it "stupid" and "infuriating", during an online webinar with the left-wing Peace Now organization's American branch.
Ambassador Thomas Nides appeared live on the webinar hosted Tuesday night by Americans for Peace Now, calling for steps to make Israel a "more equitable place" and strongly emphasizing his support for Palestinian statehood as part of a two-state solution.
"My north star is… I am focused on strengthening a democratic, Jewish state - however, to do that, we must have a two-state solution."
"If we lose sight of the two-state solution, if we talk about a one-state solution, if we talk about anything but the two-state solution, it is not good for the Palestinians, it is certainly not good for Israel, it is not good for the Jews – it is not good for anyone."
"In every speech and in every conversation, I talk about the need to focus and make sure we don't lose sight of the two-state solution."
"We can't do stupid things that impede us for a two-state solution. What I mean by that is, we can't have the Israelis doing settlement growth, both in east Jerusalem or the West Bank," Nides continued.
"I can't stop everything, just so we're clear, I have to pick my battles," Nides added, mentioning his intense pressure on Israel not to develop the E-1 project which would link Jerusalem with Ma'aleh Adumim, one of the largest Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria.
"E-1 was a disaster, I went full bore on E-1."
"I'd be lying to you if every single house… in east Jerusalem or the West Bank I could stop… and I'd be useless as an ambassador."
"I have to pick and choose what I focus on."
"I'm a bit of a nag on this, including the idea of settlement growth – which infuriates me, when they do things – just infuriates the situation, both in east Jerusalem and the West Bank."
By taking sides, Nides is ignoring the nature of his job and is making the situation worse, not better.
By JPOST EDITORIALPublished: MARCH 17, 2022 19:26 Updated: MARCH 18, 2022 08:10
US AMBASSADOR Thomas Nides arrives at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on December 5, 2021, to present his credentials.(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)Advertisement
US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides this week used the word "infuriating" to describe settlement growth and condemned the Palestinians' pay-for-slay principle for, among other things, giving "the haters" an excuse to oppose the Palestinian Authority.
His comments, made during a talk with Americans for Peace Now, were not the language of a diplomat. And they were not conducive to the elusive peace he professes to seek.
Like any speaker, he obviously chose his words for his specific audience, however Nides went a step further. It was clear he identifies with the aims of the Left and the truth is that his sympathies are no secret. He has in the past said he would not travel to the settlements because "I'm trying not to do symbolic things that just makes it worse."
When speaking to a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem last month, Nides said the American role "is to make sure that people do not do stupid things."
This week, Nides was even less diplomatic and even more patronizing. "We can't do stupid things that impede us for a two-state solution," he told the virtual event on Tuesday. "We can't have the Israelis doing settlement growth in east Jerusalem or the West Bank. I'm a bit of a nag on this, including the idea of settlement growth – which infuriates me, when they do things – just infuriates the situation, both in east Jerusalem and the West Bank."
US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides on December 2, 2021 (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Nides said that he "would be lying" if he said that it was possible to avert "every single house that is built. I can't stop everything, just so we are clear." But it's obvious he would like to halt building over the Green Line – building by Jews, that is.
The US ambassador said that he had fought to prevent the advancement of a 3,500-apartment project in the Ma'aleh Adumim area known as E1, saying it would be a "disaster."
"It is a very important area which if [built] could cut off any possibility of a capital for the Palestinians," Nides said, ignoring a glaringly obvious point. Building homes for Jews in the corridor between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim does not prevent the Palestinians having a capital, but it would stop them being able to turn Jerusalem into their capital. The Palestinians already have a de facto capital in Ramallah which is under full PA control and it houses, among other things, the Palestinian parliament.
Nides's ultimate aim of changing the status of Jerusalem from the capital of the State of Israel to a capital for Israel and the Palestinians was evident in other comments too. He said he recognizes that "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," but added that "the final status of Jerusalem would have to be decided by the parties." He also repeated the Biden administration's pledge that it would reopen a consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinians that had been a de facto embassy for the PA until former president Donald Trump closed it in 2019 and consolidated all the diplomatic and consular services in the newly inaugurated Jerusalem embassy.
Israel vehemently opposes reopening the consulate for the Palestinians in the Israeli capital. It is unprecedented for one country to maintain two diplomatic missions in the same city. A US office offering consular services in Ramallah would be far more accessible for the Palestinians living in the PA territories.
Addressing concerns for a possible escalation in violence when Ramadan and Passover coincide next month, Nides spoke out against the PA policy of paying monthly stipends to terrorists and their families – but not for the moral reasons that should come to mind.
"These martyr payments... have caused an enormous amount of problems," Nides said, adding that they give the "haters" an excuse not to support the PA based on the argument that it is "paying for people who killed Jews." In other words, paying the families of terrorists is not innately wrong for rewarding terror and encouraging more attacks, but because it serves as an excuse for the "haters."
By taking sides, Nides is ignoring the nature of his job and is making the situation worse, not better. The US ambassador needs to remember the role of a diplomat and he should act as an ambassador in good faith
US Senate votes to end Daylight Savings Time
US may end practice of moving clock forward in spring and back in fall, after Senate votes unanimously to end DST.
David Rosenberg
The US Senate voted Tuesday to approve a bill that would end the practice of Daylight Savings Time, permanently fixing the clock and ending the twice-a-year shift.
The upper chamber of Congress voted unanimously to back the Sunshine Protection Act, drafted by Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) in 2019 and originally co-sponsored 15 senators from both sides of the aisle.
The bill will now be sent to the House of Representatives for a vote.
If passed and signed into law, the Sunshine Protection Act would fix the clock beginning in November 2023, ending the practice of moving the clock forward one hour every spring and back one hour every fall.
Senator Rubio cited the needs of industries including the transportation and air travel sectors in drawing up long-term schedules for the delay in implementation.
First implemented in the early 20th century, Daylight Savings Time was adopted by the German and Austro-Hungarian empires during World War I, based on projections that the practice would reduce energy consumption, thus freeing up coal for the war effort.
The US adopted the practice two years later, but did not standardize its use until 1966, with some states observing DST and others refraining from implementing it.
In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, setting time zones and a uniform biannual change to the clock, though some states continued to exempt themselves from the practice.
Watch: Wild Boar Attacks Little Girl in Haifa, Eats her Shalach Manos
Hila Morag, an 11-year-old fifth-grader from Haifa, had a bewildering encounter with a wild boar when she was playing with her two friends Alma Tal and Sophie Bravo at a playground in the Carmelia neighborhood of her city.
She was sitting with her classmates in Ropes Park when suddenly a wild boar started running in their direction. The girls began to run in panic to escape from the animal, and Hila dropped her schoolbag. The boar stopped running, tore up the bag, and started eating its contents.
Efrat Morag, Hila's mother, told Colbo News: "My daughter was at a school Purim party yesterday and received mishloach manot that she kept in her bag. This morning she met with three girlfriends and they went to play in the Ropes Park in Carmelia. Suddenly they saw a huge boar approaching who had apparently smelled the food in the bag. He started running towards her, and two of her girlfriends got really scared and ran. Hila threw away her bag, probably out of fear. In retrospect, it turned out that this was the right thing to do because the pig went straight for the bag."
According to Hila's mom, the boar "ate everything – the money, the mishoach manot, the clothes she kept in there, the toothbrush. It was definitely a traumatic event for her. I was with her on the line, she was hysterical and crying. I took all three girls home. The bag was torn to pieces. I came there afterward and photographed what was left of the bag."
Hila Morag's torn schoolbag. / Courtesy of Efrat Morag
In recent years, Haifa residents have become accustomed to the presence of wild boars in their urban landscape. In some cases, encounters with the wild animals ended in their being in dangerous proximity to passers-by, causing panic and even severe bruises. It doesn't help that according to the Wildlife Protection Law in Israel, the wild boar is defined as a "protected wild animal" and hunting, harming, or trapping it without a written permit from the Nature and Parks Authority are strictly prohibited.
As of 2013, the average number of complaints from Haifa neighborhood residents to the municipal hotline regarding wild boars has been about 1,500 per year or about four complaints per day.
In 2020, during the Corona lockdowns in Israel, stray wild boars were observed in even higher numbers than in the period before the closure.
