Left I on the News

UPDATED AGAIN

When it's an Israeli settlement [colonization] "freeze":

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday evening that Israel would impose a 10-month freeze on construction in West Bank settlements.

Well, it's only ten months, but still a freeze, right? Wrong:

Netanyahu said the construction freeze would not be implemented in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem...The freeze will also not apply to construction that has already been authorized or to work on public buildings conducive to normal life in the territories.

Expect this announcement to be greeted rapturously in the halls of Washington and by the U.S. corporate media.

Update: In related news, I'm going on a hunger strike. Except for french fries. And everything currently in my refrigerator and cupboard. And breakfast.

Back to serious but cynical speculation. Why ten months? What a curious time frame. 6 or 12 months we might understand, but 10? Here's my speculation. There are currently 3000 housing units under construction in the West Bank (not including East Jerusalem, i.e., the ones included in Netanyahu's "freeze"). I bet they figured out that ten months is precisely the time they need to finish those 3000. If I'm correct, that means there's even less to this "freeze" than it appears, and there wasn't much to begin with!

Update 2: I was right - the ten months corresponds exactly to the time that the ongoing 3000 units are expected to take to build. Meaning that the "freeze" amounts to precisely...nothing. On the other hand I was wrong - the reception in Washington, as reflected by public statements, has been less than rapturous.