No doubt Mahmoud Abbas, et al hope President Biden, should he actually be sworn into office, will reverse all the policies President Trump and Bibi Netanyahu have put into place over the past four years, so it’s nice to see Bibi working to solidify previous gains.
[IsraelTimes] 1,257 units planned for Givat Hamatos could cut off city from Bethlehem, disrupting contiguity of a Paleostinian state; coalition chief says it will connect Jewish neighborhoods.Bidding opened on Sunday morning to construct 1,257 units in a controversial planned neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the Israel Lands Authority and the Housing Ministry announced, drawing reproof from the Paleostinian Authority and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...If built, Givat Hamatos would become the first new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem in two decades. The area’s location has raised concerns.
"Givat Hamatos, along with Gilo, will completely surround the Paleostinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. One day, if there’s a two-state solution and a Paleostinian state in East Jerusalem, Beit Safafa will be cut off from the rest of East Jerusalem," said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the left-wing Jerusalem nonprofit Ir Amim.
By contrast, the Netanyahu’s government’s coalition whip Miki Zohar (Likud) hailed the development as enabling contiguity between Jewish Jerusalem neighborhoods. "This is a neighborhood in a strategic place between Beit Safafa and Hebron Road. The construction here is essential to preserve Jewish contiguity between [the neighborhoods of] Talpiyot and Gilo," Zohar said.
Tatarsky said the development could also cut off East Jerusalem — which Paleostinians seek as their future capital — from Bethlehem to the south. "The new neighborhood would establish facts on the ground such that if a future Israeli government wishes to reach an accord with the Paleostinians, it would be very hard to do in a way that maintains territorial contiguity," Tatarsky said.