Boim Blesses Rice but Says Construction to Continue at Har Homa

Ze'ev Boim

Well here's some heartening news out of Israel. Somebody is standing up to Condi Rice and the PA and telling them to go pound sand. Miss Rice seems to have her panties in a wad though.
FROM ISRAELNATIONALNEWS.COM:

Boim Blesses Rice but Says Construction to Continue at Har Homa

by Hana Levi Julianif
(IsraelNN.com) Israel will not be dissuaded from proceeding with a plan to build 300 housing units in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, regardless of any objections the U.S. or the Palestinian Authority might have, said Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim on Saturday.
Boim said in a speech at a regional security conference in Manama, Bahrain that there was no reason not to carry out the project, despite warnings from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the project might jeopardize talks with the Palestinian Authority.

“The Har Homa neighborhood is located within Jerusalem’s municipal borders where Israeli law applies,” he pointed out, adding there was nothing to prevent construction there, “just as there is nothing preventing construction anywhere else in Israel.”
Rice condemned the project Friday at a news conference following a meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Brussels. “We are in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence with the parties and this doesn’t help to build confidence,” she said.
“There should not be anything which might prejudge final-status negotiations. It’s even more important now that we are on the eve of the beginning of the negotiations. I made that position clear,” she added.
Boim acknowledged the criticism by Rice, who was largely responsible for organizing and pushing the Annapolis conference at which Israel signed a joint declaration with the PA to renew Roadmap talks, through to completion. He added, however, that the decision whether or not to build in Jerusalem is an internal matter, not one that belonged in the global arena.
“Secretary of State Rice should be blessed for her efforts in the relaunching of the peace process, but it cannot be that on every occasion this [peace process] will be tied together with the cessation of construction in Jerusalem,” he said.
PA negotiator Saeb Erekat, who called Rice earlier in the week to formally complain about Israel’s decision to go ahead with the plan, called on the U.S. Saturday to force Israel to halt expansion of existing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. The PA has been insisting that construction in eastern Jerusalem falls into that category.
“We loudly ask the U.S. administration to act as the judge and compel Israel to implement its commitments which the Roadmap plan specified,” said Erekat on Voice of Palestine radio. The first step of the Roadmap plan, which specifies that Israel freeze construction of new outposts as well as natural expansion of existing towns in Judea and Samaria, also calls for the PA to cease all terrorist attacks on Israel and dismantle terrorist infrastructure in its areas.
Rice is expected to return to the region on December 19, according to PA officials, who said U.S. President George W. Bush is also expected to visit January 9 to 11. White House spokesmen would not confirm the dates.