The Holy Innocents

This day, the 28th, let us remember all the holy innocents and how with aid of more than $7 million a day, we could stop this if we wished.

full article from Al Jazeera:

Israel housing ministry has approved plans to build almost 700 new apartments in three Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials as well as the United States were quick to condemn Monday's move as incompatible with efforts to restart the stalled peace process.

"The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in east Jerusalem and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it," Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said.

"The American administration needs to realise that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace."

The White House called for Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible and for Israel to halt the construction of new homes.

"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem," Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.

Israel plans settlement expansion (from Jerusalem Post) full story:

Israel housing ministry has approved plans to build almost 700 new apartments in three Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials as well as the United States were quick to condemn Monday's move as incompatible with efforts to restart the stalled peace process.

"The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in east Jerusalem and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it," Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said.

"The American administration needs to realise that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace."

The White House called for Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible and for Israel to halt the construction of new homes.

"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem," Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.

"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in east Jerusalem," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement, calling the city a "permanent status issue" to be resolved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

"Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations," he said. "Rather, both parties should return to negotiations without preconditions as soon as possible."

A State Department official told The Jerusalem Post that Israel had informed the Americans of the move ahead of its announcement, and that Washington had conveyed its displeasure at the decision.