Ryan Jones, Israel Today — Israel's government on Sunday voted to officially reject last week's UN General Assembly vote recognizing "Palestine" as a sovereign state, and took several punitive measures such as withholding tax revenues and approving more Jewish "settlement" housing.
The resolution passed by the Israeli cabinet insisted that despite what a majority of the UN member states say, the Jews have a legal and historic claim in Judea and Samaria, and those territories will remain disputed.
"The Jewish people have natural, historical and legal rights to its homeland with its eternal capital Jerusalem," the resolution stated. "The State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people has rights and claims to areas that are under dispute in the land of Israel."
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told his fellow ministers that he would be withholding more than $100 million in tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in response to the UN vote.
[...] Netanyahu indicated that he is still ready for a negotiated peace settlement that includes the real establishment of a Palestinian Arab state, but only after Israel's conditions are met:
"There will be no Palestinian state until Israel is recognized as a Jewish state alongside a resolution to end the conflict."
The Palestinian leadership has for years rejected Israel's demands that it recognize Israel as the one and only Jewish state and that any signed agreement mark the official conclusion of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Netanyahu and other Israeli officials warned that last week's Palestinian stunt at the UN would severely complicate the ability to ever reach such final status peace deal, and would therefore indefinitely prolong the conflict. » Read More
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