As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with United States President Barack Obama Tuesday, several dozen nationalists from Samaria protested in front of the United States consulate in eastern Jerusalem, blowing shofars (rams' horns) and holding signs saying “When Obama gets mad, Bibi trembles.”
The nationalists were concerned that the meeting in Washington will involve U.S. pressure on Israel to extend the Jewish state's self-imposed ban on construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria. The ban was initiated late November 2009 as a response to U.S. pressure, and was supposed to enable negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The Knesset faction chairmen of all five coalition parties, as well as the National Union (NU) which is not in the coalition, gathered Monday for a an emergency session as Netanyahu was about to take off for the U.S. visit. The chairmen of the Likud, Israel Our Home, Shas, UTJ, Jewish Home and NU parties, signed a joint declaration that they “strenuously oppose an extension of the building freeze past 18 Tishrei, September 26.”
"Ending the freeze at the date that was set is the minimum needed for keeping Israel an independent state and for safeguarding its vital interests,” the legislators said. “We will use all of the parliamentary tools at our disposal and the full extent of our political influence so that this commitment is honored and implemented.”