Netanyahu threatens Iran, leads in polls and West Bank settlements keep growing

Likud Party Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu head in the polls appeared on Israel's Channel 2 TV programme late on Saturday night.

Netanyahu sais he intends to sabotage Tehran's nuclear efforts once and for all.

"[Iran] will not be armed with a nuclear weapon… It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true,"

Meanwhile the Israeli controlled Gaza Strip crossings still remain closed and the humanitarian aid permitted to enter the besieged strip is way below the survival levels. Israel has conducted retaliatory strikes and pounded what they claim are tunnels used for smuggling from Egypt.

Israel says the Palestinians have fired at least five rockets since the end of the war in Gaza on January 18.

Two rockets were launched at around 6:50 am on Saturday morning . One landed in the Sdot Negev Regional Council and the other landed somewhere in the Eshkol Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries or damage although Haaretz report that Three rockets struck the Eshkol region, two of them landing in open fields and the third on land close to two kindergartens.

On Saturday morning, a Grad rocket exploded in an open area south of Ashkelon. There were no injuries in this incident either.

Ma'aleh Adumim - huge new setttlement reday for massive expansion

Ma'aleh Adumim (derived from the book of Joshua (Chapter 15, verses 6-18)) is 7 kilometers (4.5 miles) east of Jerusalem and links the Jordan Valley and Judean Desert to , Jerusalem. Historically, foreign powers ruling the area - from the Romans to the Jordanians - attempted to secure this route and considered Ma'aleh Adumim strategically crucial to the defense of Jerusalem. After the Yom Kippur war the Israeli government decided to allow the establishment of a "residential camp" for workers in the area, (know today as "Founders Hill"), and a Jewish settlement has subsequently developed in the region. (History since then )
Click here for Ma'aleh Adumim Maps

The total area boundary of Ma'aleh Adumim (a City since 1991) covers 50 square kilometers (31 square miles) and is planned to have 10,000 residential units in the western zone and 5,000 more residential units will be built to the east of the city's industrial sector, in the Tibek Kuteif area. The industrial sector of Ma'aleh Adumim covers an area of 7,750 dunams (1915 acres). Population end 2007 was 33,000 according to Central Bureau of Statistics and is expected to be 45,000 in 10 years.

See Haaretz Israel plans to build up West Bank corridor on contested land Last May, the Judea and Samaria Police headquarters (and as such not subject to planning permissions) was built on a hiltop, where it had moved from the neighborhood of Ras al-Amud. See here how all this work has been done in what is called the E1 region, whilst the US has remained ignorant / silent / unconcerned / ignored

A small complex inside a huge area, a very large system of roads has already been completed, including an overpass, highways (some three lanes wide), traffic circles, lighting, observation posts, fences and a dividing barrier on the highway. The cost of this construction is estimated at NIS 100 million - US$25 Mn.

For the Israeli security establishment, the police station is just the first step in a grander plan to secure Israeli control over the Ma'ale Adumim-Jerusalem corridor and to defend the capital from the east. The official municipal boundary of Jerusalem, drawn up in 1967, is "out of date" and has become blurred by the spread of Palestinian suburbs where Jerusalem meets the West Bank, according to Amitai Levy, the Border Police commander.

In addition, a road was built from the village of Hizma al-Za'im east of Jerusalem that is meant to allow Palestinian traffic from Jerusalem to Ramallah, bypassing the A1. The contractor who built the road, which has not yet been opened to traffic, said on a Channel 10 interview two months ago that approximately NIS 120 million - US $30 Mn. had been invested.