Background: Been there, done that – declarations accompanying decisions
ineffective

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 22 October 2010

Minister of Education, Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) explained in an interview
broadcast this morning on Israel Radio that he would support extension of
the freeze if two conditions were met:

#1. There was a clear statement by the U.S. that they would not require the
freeze be extended beyond 90 days. This with the understanding that the
U.S. is not changing its underlying position regarding construction.

#2. That Israel declares when the freeze is extended that it does not
include Jerusalem and that the U.S. is aware that this declaration was made.
This with the understanding that U.S. policy is that construction beyond the
Green Line in Jerusalem is the same as in the West Bank.

This is not the first time that a Likud Government has tacked a declaration
onto a major decision in order to gain the approval of the Government. This
is how it approved the April 30, 2003 Roadmap (A Performance-Based Roadmap
to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict).

As foreign minister in the Sharon Government, Binyamin Netanyahu focused
most of his efforts on drafting an Israeli response to the Roadmap.

And while he was already the treasury minister at the time of the May 25,
2003 vote, the “14 Point Response to the Roadmap” that was cited in the
decision was very much his project.

The inclusion of the 14 Point Response to the Roadmap was cited by many
ministers, including Netanyahu, to justify their vote in support of the
decision.

While the existence of the 14 Point Response to the Roadmap was acknowledged
in passing by the U.S., it had absolutely no impact on how the United
States, the Quartet, or pretty much anyone in the world related to the
implementation of the Roadmap.

In point of fact, it turned out that Israel itself, at times, declined to
mention the existence of the 14 Point Response to the Roadmap when
discussing the Roadmap.

[In a somewhat bizarre historical footnote, the Government of Israel to this
day has declined to officially publish the text of the 14 Point Response to
the Roadmap. It was leaked to IMRA when the Government refused to publish
it and then was published, in turn, by Haaretz.]

It should be also noted that the official position of Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu is that there was not a freeze on construction in
Jerusalem during the freeze period. In stark contrast, Housing and
Construction Minister Ariel Atias (Shas) has frequently complained that, in
fact, while an official freeze was not declared, there was a freeze in
practice in Jerusalem.

In the absence of a clear written American understanding regarding Jerusalem
construction – or alternatively the announcement of a schedule of Jerusalem
building activities accompanying the “no freeze in Jerusalem declaration” –
there is no reason, a priori, to believe that the same undeclared freeze in
Jerusalem construction will indeed not go into effect for the new freeze.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il