JERUSALEM – The Obama administration has set up an apparatus to closely
monitor Jewish construction in Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank to the point of
watching Israeli moves house-to-house in certain key neighborhoods, WND has learned.
Obama has called for a complete halt to what he refers to as settlement activity, meaning Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem or the West Bank. Obama's edict extends to natural growth, or accommodating for the housing needs of existing local settler population centers.
The demand is an apparent abrogation of a deal Israel struck with the Bush administration to allow natural growth.
For the past few months, Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, has protested to the highest levels of the Israeli government about evidence found of any Jewish housing expansion in those areas, informed Israeli officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition that their names be withheld, said that last March Mitchell oversaw the establishment of an enhanced apparatus based in the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that closely monitors the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods, incorporating regular tours of the areas, at times on a daily basis.
Previously, under the Bush administration, the consulate kept a general eye on Jewish Jerusalem and West Bank construction, receiving much of its information from nongovernmental organizations.
"Mitchell's apparatus takes things to a whole new level. They are watching very closely," said an Israeli official.
Jewish leaders in the West Bank said the consulate takes no pains to hide their activities.
"They come out. They tour our communities. They try to interact with our leadership," David Ha'ivri, spokesmen for the Shomron Regional Council in the West Bank, told WND.
"They drive around the towns, check up on what's going on. They try to mingle with us to get more information on what we're up to and what we're doing," he said.
Ha'ivri said the consular officials present themselves as advisers to the U.S. consul-general.
"But we know they are really spies for the Obama administration," he said.
Jerusalem officials affirm the consular staff report to Obama's envoy, Mitchell. Read more here ...
Source: WND
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