BREAKING:

Netanyahu approves plans to expand Golan Heights settlements, aiming to double its population. pic.twitter.com/fQyGw4jI4Q

— Globe Eye News (@GlobeEyeNews) December 15, 2024

Money to go toward education, renewable energy, establishment of a student village, and a plan for absorbing new residents in Israel’s northern region

The plan only pertains to the Israel-held part of the Golan.

The cabinet gave unanimous approval Sunday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s NIS 40 million ($11 million) plan to double the population in the Golan Heights.

Around 50,000 people live on the Israeli-controlled side of the heights, evenly split between Jews and Druze.

The money will go toward education, renewable energy, the establishment of a student village, and a plan for absorbing new residents, said the Prime Minister’s Office.

"Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening the State of Israel," Netanyahu was quoted in the statement as saying, "and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish and settle it."

The plan only pertains to the Israel-held part of the Golan.

And now for the usual complaints from the usual complainers:

Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat Frational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
slammed the new plan Sunday as "sabotage" against Syria.

In a statement, Riyadh’s foreign ministry expressed "condemnation and denunciation" of the plan, which it called part of a "continued sabotage of opportunities to restore security and stability in Syria" after Islamist-led rebels overthrew president Bashir al-Assad earlier this month.

Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
asserted that the Israeli declaration was a "new episode in a series of Israeli aggressions on Syrian territories and a blatant violation of international law."

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