Weberman may actually walk...according to jury alternates

The Hasidic leader on trial for molesting a young girl could actually beat the charges if the jurors are as split on his guilt as the alternates released yesterday.

“I didn’t have enough evidence to nail the person. No video, no DNA,” said one of the alternates, who were excused as the jurors began deliberating.

“There wasn’t enough evidence for me. Both sides were a little shady,” said the middle-aged juror, who declined to reveal her name.

Nechmya Weberman, 54, allegedly forced himself on the girl, starting at age 12, for three years while she was being sent to him for counseling, prosecutors charge.

The two-week Brooklyn Supreme Court trial has provided a rare glimpse into the cloistered world of the Satmar sect, an ultra-Orthodox community of which both Weberman and the teen are members.

Two other alternate jurors said they would have voted to acquit Weberman of some of the 60 counts he faces.

“I still think there is enough evidence to convict — some of the charges, at least,” said a male juror in his 30s.

He would have convicted Weberman of sex abuse and child endangerment but not on the top count of sexual conduct against a child, he said.

Weberman could face 25 years on the top count alone.

Arrogant Satmar Weberman blows his whole defense... in big trouble

Alleged monster Weberman

Article by Andrea Peyser of the New York Post, Friday edition

This is not kosher.

Nechemya Weberman lumbered into a Brooklyn courtroom yesterday as big as a rabid bear in an oversized black coat and matching yarmulke, side curls tucked behind his ears.

The slimy bastard, 54, is charged with repeatedly and monstrously sexually assaulting a young girl he controlled by counseling the child in the office of his Brooklyn home deep inside the Orthodox Satmar religion, a cult-like sect more secretive than Scientology.

It’s a place where laws governing girls’ dumpy dress code are enforced by the masked men of the “modesty police’’ — a terrorist group that might well be called the Jewish Taliban.

He played your jolly old Yiddish uncle on the witness stand. With an arrogant smile, he described running a kind of Hasidic shelter for wayward girls under his own roof, doling out beds to at least three young ladies — including his niece — who had refused to cover themselves like mummies, just like Mom.

All were welcome, the less clad the better.

Weberman was having a high time until prosecutor Kevin O’Donnell asked him flat-out, “You’re a well- respected man. In the Satmar community, [the accuser] is considered a piece of dirt?’’

With a smirk I’d like to rip off his fat face, Weberman demolished his alleged victim without as much as a forbidden kiss.

“There are people who are better than her, right,’’ he said.

Later, he explained that this child was “fresh’’ and “immodest’’ unlike other girls. “That’s why these were girls who were better than her.’’

What would Moses think?

The accuser, who turned 18 yesterday, had the grave misfortune of loving and revering this human piece of filth.

And her parents paid for it.

Weberman agreed on cross-examination that he took his accuser to upstate Monsey, charging $150 an hour. It was a 14-hour trip but he charged only $1,500. What a guy!

When they got home at midnight, the girl’s mother freaked out, yelling that they’d violated the rules of yichud that prohibit men and women from being together alone in the same room, or even a car.

Weberman was sore at the mom’s tantrum, and threatened to stop counseling the daughter.

The mother should have said fine. Instead, she wrote Weberman an apology note. His power over these people was frighteningly vast.

I’m ashamed to be of the same faith as this evil, malicious creep. But then, it seems that fanatics have taken full control of the Satmars, making all of them look to outsiders like incurable freaks.

It also didn’t help that in the morning court session, two Hasidic hotties came out to praise Weberman as the greatest thing since matzoh brei.

One of them, Baila Gluck, 23, took the witness stand — in Weberman’s defense! — and told about the three years she spent as a teen living in a fold-up bed in Weberman’s home office.

“He was Hasidic, but he was different,’’ she said approvingly.

Before she was a live-in, Gluck got a visit from Vaad Ha’Tznius, the Gestapo-like fashion police, rifling through her clothes and warning her to keep in line, or else. They took her cellphone.

After that, the girl ran away, couch-surfing and sleeping in cars, until Weberman took her in.

Weberman, who is not licensed as a therapist, for years took in counseling clients recommended by Vaad Ha’Tznius idiots. He took on all the girls.

Another man took the boys, the prosecutor suggested.

But the Satmars continue to love him. As a freelance charlatan, Weberman is not bound by confidentiality rules, and can tell anyone anything that happened in a therapy session without fear of legal recourse, it came out in court.

He also is not obliged to tell authorities about sexual abuse within the community, which is why the police-averse Satmars use him to keep kids in line.

UPDATED THURSDAY 10:31PM

He left himself wide open.

A Hasdic leader, on trial for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl, took the stand in his own defense yesterday — and ended up admitting that he raided his community nonprofit to pay for everything from his kid’s tuition to frilly lingerie.

Leaving himself vulnerable to a barrels-loaded cross-examination by Brooklyn prosecutors, accused child molester Nechemya Weberman denied sexually abusing a Williamsburg girl who had been sent to him for counseling sessions from the age of 12 to 15.

Defense attorney Michael Farkas asked him: “Mr. Weberman, have you ever inappropriately touched [the alleged victim]?”

To which Weberman answered, “Never ever.”

But once prosecutors got a crack at him, rather than hammer away at the sex-abuse allegations, they got the Satmar counselor to admit to a host of financial misdeeds.

“You used this not-for-profit for your own personal gain?” Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnell asked.

“Yes, I did,” Weberman said.

The 54-year-old Weberman, a well-respected member of the Satmar sect, also copped to using money from his nonprofit organization, B’lev V’Nefesh, to pay for his own child’s tuition at the United Talmudical Academy, the very yeshiva that threatened to expel his accuser if she stopped seeing Weberman for counseling.

“So you’re getting a salary and paying your children’s tuition?” asked O’Donnell.

“I did if I needed to,” Weberman replied.

The most salacious details Weberman revealed about the nonprofit, which he claims to use to pay for housing and sabbath dinners for the poor, was that one of the nonprofit’s credit cards was used to buy lingerie.

“Doesn’t the organization buy lingerie?” asked O’Donnell, naming BMG Corset and Lingerie Shop in South Williamsburg, as well as other “unmentionables” stores.

“Maybe some other people in the organization did,” Weberman said.

The trial has provided a rare glimpse into the normally closed-off world of the Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox — and into the sometimes-squabbling sects within.

Besides using the nonprofit as his personal piggy bank, Weberman also used Vaad Ha’Tznius, the so-called modesty committee that enforces the strict dress codes of the Hasidic community, as his referral agency in the past.

“The Vaad Ha’Tznius would have people see you for counseling so you could make money?” O’Donnell asked.

“Yes,” said Weberman, who has 10 children and 18 grandchildren.

When asked if any of his children were no longer Satmar, he said, “No, thank God.”

His other lawyer, George Farkas, called prosecutors’ focus on the nonprofit an attempt “to paint this man as a dirty, money-grubbing Jew.”

Weberman also described his first counseling session with the victim — who turned 18 yesterday.

“She said, ‘Why should I trust you? Why should I talk to you? You look like a Hasidic f--k. You look like my father,’ ” Weberman testified.

The teen said Weberman was the first one who listened to her and she wanted to continue seeing him, he testified.

Earlier in the day, the defense called a woman who lived in Weberman’s office for two years.

Baila Gluck, 23, a pretty brunette who was raised Satmar, testified that she and several other young woman stayed in Weberman’s office at various times.

“Do you recall an occasion when [another girl] walked into the room and you were sitting on his lap and the defendant had an erection?” O’Donnell asked.

“No. That never happened,” Gluck answered.

Weberman was the defense’s last witness. Both sides will sum up today.

Weberman takes stand to defend himself

With a costumed crowd pressing against velvet ropes begging to be let in, the Brooklyn criminal courtroom resembled a nightclub Wednesday.

The iconoclastic garb of the Satmar Hasidic Jewish sect was unmistakable as members showed up to support Nechemya Weberman when he took the stand to defend himself against charges that he sexually molested a beautiful Satmar teenager while he was supposed to be her therapist. Lubavitcher and Modern Orthodox Jews showed up to support the woman, sequestered in another room, quietly celebrating, if you could call it that, her 18th birthday.

Ladies in wigs and hats, with long skirts and arms and legs covered, sat apart from the men in dark suits, wearing yarmulkes, their hair in forelocks, as the jury as diverse as Brooklyn itself stared out over the insular community and got a lesson in Hasidism 101 from the testimony.

Like the fact that what you wear is no joke, as the alleged victim found out when she began to break the dress code with short skirts and sheer tights, and when she began to share pop songs like “Love Can Kill You” and sneak off to Hollywood movies.

The recalcitrant teen had come to the attention of an internal committee of men called the Va’ad Hatznius, which helps enforce modesty rules — among 613 commandments Satmar members believe must be followed.

According to the testimony of another young woman who'd taken the stand Wednesday morning, you don't want to mess with Va’ad Hatznius.

“Isn't it true that masked individuals came into your bedroom in the middle of the night and seized your cell phone?” no-nonsense prosecutor Kevin O'Donnell asked Baila Gluck. “And that this is the type of action Va’ad Hatznius takes when Satmar don't follow the rules? And wasn't it traumatic for you?” Yes. Yes. And yes.

But it was nothing like the trauma Weberman's accuser said she suffered as he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex and recreate scenes from porn movies. She had been ordered by her religious school's principal, Weberman's cousin, to go to Weberman for therapy, which he had no license to provide. And her parents were forced to pay for it.

If she didn't get therapy, she would be thrown out of the school, Weberman admitted. Though Weberman adamantly denied ever molesting her, the girl says the abuse went on for three years.

A young Satmar woman dressed modestly but wearing green nail polish against her husband's wishes told the Daily News, “I don't have time to come here, but I'm compelled to listen for myself. I need to know the truth.”

The victim of molestation for five years as a child, Debbie Teller set up the website adkanenough.com — Enough is Enough — to post names of sex offenders in the Orthodox community worldwide. Since the Weberman trial began, her site’s visitors have spiked by the thousands.

Sex abuse isn't greater within the Hasidic community than outside, said social worker Carole Sher, who helps run the SOURI Hotline, Support Orthodox Victims of Rape and Incest.

But there's been a lot of covering up in the past. But now with more receptive rabbis and greater communication, that's changing.”

The Brooklyn jury learned that if a Jewish person reported another Jewish person to the police, they would be labeled a “moser” — informer — and ostracized as strongly as a Mob rat.

With the Internet, the thin black line of silence in the religious community has been erased, agreed Joey DiAngello, perhaps one of the most colorful people attending the trial.

Born Yoel Deutsch into the Satmar sect 32 years ago, DiAngello, a heavy-metal drummer with Slayer and Iron Maiden tatoos on his arms, told The News he was raped at the age of seven in a mikvah, or public bath. He's set up the Facebook pages War on Vaad Hatznius and Survivors for Justice.

“I've gotten tweets from people calling me a self-hating Jew, but I really want to help Jewish kids in the same situation I was in,” he says. “It's like metal. I have something to say, and if you don't like it, I'll turn it up even louder.”

WEBERMAN TESTIFIES:

A prominent Hasidic counselor said he “never ever” sexually assaulted a beautiful Brooklyn girl, and testified he didn’t know anything about lingerie bought by a charity he founded.

Nechemya Weberman, taking the stand in a child-sex-abuse case, acknowledged Wednesday that he founded a charity and used it to pay for his salary and his kids’ education.

Weberman stands accused of forcing a Brooklyn teen to perform oral sex, as well as watch and reenact porn, over a three-year period, beginning when she was 12. 

The 54-year-old defendant testified he did not inappropriately touch the alleged victim, who turned 18 Wednesday.

Prosecutors also raised the specter that Weberman may have sexually abused other teens — allegations that were also denied in court.

Presenting himself as a “rabbinical counselor,” Weberman, said he started a not-for-profit organization called B’lev V’nefesh, Hebrew for “in heart and soul,” around 2000. He said it was used to raise money for those who can’t afford his services.

He was then confronted with financial records showing that the charity’s credit cards were used at BMG Corset & Lingerie, The Lingerie Shop and other undergarment stores.

“Me, myself, I’m not aware of this,” Weberman said. “This is the first time I heard about it.”

The charity — whose only principals are the defendant and his wife, Chaya Golda — was also used to pay tuition for the private Satmar yeshiva their kids attended and for Weberman’s salary. In one month, expenses came close to $12,000, a prosecutor said.

“Did you use this not-for-profit for your own personal gain?” Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnell asked him.

“Yes, I did,” Weberman replied.

Also Wednesday, a woman named Baila Gluck, 23, testified about residing at Weberman’s home office for a couple of years as a teen. She stayed in the same apartment as the alleged victim in the case being tried had claimed she was forced to perform oral sex and reenact porn starting in 2007.

Gluck said after she had no place to stay following troubles at home, “He offered (for me) to come live at his house.” She added that during her time there, two other girls occasionally stayed in the flat.

One of those girls has told authorities she caught Weberman and Gluck in a compromising position. That person refused to testify for fear of retribution, a source said.

But Gluck, asked if one of the girls ever walked in and saw her sitting on Weberman’s lap while he had an erection, replied “No.”

She also denied being taken by Weberman to buy lingerie and bras and also a claim that she told the other housemate, when discussing the counselor, “I had to do what I had to do to get by.”

Weberman, a father of 10, spent about four hours on the stand and was the final witness in the high-profile trial.

The defendant, a well-regarded member of the Satmar sect, was once the driver of Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, he testified.

The insular group split into two after its leader’s death in 2006 and the counselor agreed he’s one of only a handful of people who are respected by both warring factions.

Children who had issues following the sect’s strict rules would be referred to him by schools or rabbis, he said, and he would then charge their parents about $150 an hour to counsel them.

In her testimony last week, the alleged victim testified she objected to the sect’s stringent dress code, which required thicker tights than she cared to wear.

When he first counseled the teen who brought the charges against him, “She was very quiet, looking down, closed in,” Weberman said. She slowly opened up, he added, discussing religious questions and problems she had at school and her home.

“At the beginning, we spoke a lot and I spent a lot of time with her to understand what bothers her,” he said. Weberman acknowledged the sessions cost her parents tens of thousands of dollars.

He was asked by his lawyer about the aim of the counseling sessions.

“To save her life,” Weberman replied.

Clueless Satmar Rebbe attacks Netanyahu's "involvement" in US elections

The clueless Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum addresses the crowd at a gathering for Satmar Hasidic Jews in New York December 4, 2012. Thousands attended the New York State Armory in Williamsburg to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the rescue of their founder, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, from the clutches of the Nazis at the mass gathering. They  never thank the Zionist ,(who was the actual messenger from G-D) that saved him.

In his annual keynote main address to his followers, the Satmar Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum delivered a fierce attack against the Prime Minister of Israel for getting involved in the recent American elections.

Not mentioning his name but clearly referring to the “head of the heretical regime” the Rebbe said about the Prime Minister that: “His azut [impudence] has no limit and he does not pay attention to the general rules of diplomacy”

The yearly celebration event commemorating the day the previous Satmar Rebbe – Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum escaped from the Bergen Belsen concentration camp was held Yesterday evening at the New York State Armory in Williamsburg. The event has become the central most important event in the yearly calendar of the Satmar sect of Chasidim and is attended by thousands of participants.

In an arrangement mediated last year by the office of New York State Governor Comuo both Satmar factions headed by the brothers Grand Rebbe Aaron and Grand Rebbe Zalman Leib, the event this year led by Rabbi Aron was held for the first time in Williamsburg with the other factions’ competing event led by Rabbi Zalman Leib held in the Crown Heights Armory. According the agreement, next year the venue for both factions will be swapped, according to a signed agreement between the factions.

Both events were attended by many local politicians and community leaders from many major Jewish organizations who had to shuttle between Crown Heights and Williamsburg, to pay respect and honor both Rebbes. Among the many politicians attending were newly elected Congressman Jeffries, State Senator Eric Adams and Candidate for Mayor Bill Thompson and many others as well. Leaders of many other Chasidic courts including members of the Agudath Israel leadership were feted as honored guests.

The exploding Orthodox Jewish population particularly the Satmars in Brooklyn has generated a fierce battle among political aspirants to gain their votes in local and national elections.

Beside a letter of greetings from the Governor all speeches including that of the Rebbe were delivered in Yiddish.

Rebbe Aaron claimed that considering the previous riots in Crown Heights and the killing of Yakov Rosenbaum the actions of Netanyahu in opposing Obama who is black endangered the lives of Jews.

“We should try a little to imagine if the the result of the election would have been different and the President would have had a downfall in the election and it would have been revealed for the entire world that Jews were involved in the actions that he should lose, what hate for Jews this would have brought forth here in this country.” The Rebbe claimed.

“We can say that the head of the heretics [PM Netanyahu] simply endangered Jewish blood. Klal Yisroel [the Jewish people] have not forgotten the riots in Crown Heights and Reb Yakov Rosenbaum may G-d avenge his blood, To provoke so many goyim [non-Jews] is a limitless danger, besides the politics that is being conducted against all the heads of the nations of the world with impudence and frightening provocations against the nations.”

The Rebbe also criticized Jewish religious leaders for staying silent, “It is a great astonishment on his [Netanyahu’s] religious partners who agree, and go along with him either by their silence and not only by silence they support him with a full mouth.”

Hisses from Orthodox women: First defense witness in Weberman molest case

Protests against Aaron Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbi's, video disparaging remarks against Weberman's victim

The "brilliant" Obama consults with Al Sharpton about tax rates

President Barack Obama met with several MSNBC hosts this afternoon at the White House to discuss tax rates, according to Huffington Post reporter Jennifer Bendery. The reporter wondered if an "MSNBC love fest" was going on at the White House.

Here's Bendery's reporting, in a series of tweets:

Just passed Al Sharpton walking into the WH.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Also, Al Sharpton is so unbelievably tiny now. I actually gasped when I saw him pass by just now. Hope he's ok.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Rachel Maddow is now in the West Wing. How do I know this? I just walked in with her.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Never met Maddow until now. We kind of look alike, esp today. My intro: "Are you my long lost sister?" Her: "Glad we both got the memo."

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Maddow, heading into West Wing, said she was here for a "hippie cabal." Asked if I was coming. NO, DAMN IT, I WASN'T INVITED.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

So... in the last hour, I watched Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton and Lawrence O'Donnell all walk into the West Wing. MSNBC love fest?

Suicidal liberal Jews celebrate Palestinian sovereignty

B'nai Yeshurin

A large New York City synagogue cheered the decision of the U.N. creating the state of Palestine, according to press reports.

Congregation B'nai Jeshurun​​, a large synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is well known for its charismatic rabbis, very musical prayer services and its extreme liberal positions on social issues.

But on Friday, when their rabbis and lay leaders sent an e-mail enthusiastically supporting the United Nations vote to upgrade Palestine to a state observer, the statement was more than even some of its famously liberal  parishioners could bear.

"The U.N. vote yesterday is a great moment for us, as citizens of the world," the e-mail that was sent to all members of the congregation, said. "This is an opportunity to celebrate the process that allows a nation to come forward and ask for recognition."

The statement, in a time when the U.N. vote was rejected by the governments of the U.S. and

Israel, as well as many of the leaders of American Jewish organizations, reflects a split between

American Jews and willingness to disagree publicly with Israel.

Clergy in several Jewish congregations have, in various ways, acted favorably on the U.N. vote. But B'nai Jeshurun is ​​remarkable for its size and importance and the congregation's reaction was swift. Allan Ripp, a member, said he and his wife were horrified.

"We are in a kind of shock," he said. "It's not like we do not support the two-state solution, but say this like a warm hug, is like a high-five to the PLO, and that has left us dumbfounded

Mother of Victim testifies at Weberman trial

Mother of victim

Testimony continued Monday in the sex abuse case of a prominent ultra Orthodox leader in Brooklyn’s Satmar community.

The mother of the now-17-year-old accuser testified that she trusted counselor Nechemya Weberman. But the woman testified that she had no idea that her daughter was locked in a room alone with a man, which is a clear violation of Satmar law.

The mother testified that it was always a struggle to keep her youngest daughter out of trouble at her Satmar school because the girl fought modesty rules.

It was the school that ordered the girl to continue counseling with Weberman, 54, or be kicked out, WCBS 880′s Irene Cornell reported.

The school reportedly considered the accuser an angry, damaged child with pure hatred in her heart, Cornell reported.

The mother testified that her daughter is lovely, respectful, understanding and smart.

On cross-examination, the mother was reluctant to admit that she told her daughter that Weberman was responsible for getting her boyfriend arrested on statutory rape charges.

Weberman’s defense team last week argued that the sexual abuse charges were brought by the accuser as revenge for betraying her trust, Cornell reported.

The mother eventually testified that she told her daughter that she suspected Weberman was involved in getting the boy arrested but that she had only recently come to that conclusion, Cornell reported.

Weberman is on trial for allegedly molesting the girl from the time she was just 12 years old in 2007 through 2010.

On Friday, the alleged victim testified that he showed her pornography and forced her to re-enact the sex acts in an isolated room, according to the New York Daily News.

On the witness stand, she testified that Weberman was respected as a leader whom everyone knew and was a member of the modesty committee that enforces morality rules, the Daily News reported.

The victim testified earlier last week that Weberman kept molesting her despite her resistance.

“He proceeded to kiss me. He touched me…I yelled for him to stop. He said, ‘You see, if you yell stop, I stop. I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not doing anything you don’t want me to do,’” the victim said Tuesday.

At one point, the teen said she stopped eating for three days. The accuser said she was so depressed she couldn’t even talk to Weberman.

The teen also described another incident in which she claimed Weberman came to her home.

“He got into bed with me and I wanted to die,” the teen stated in court last Tuesday.

She said she eventually was able to tell a school counselor what was taking place.

On Thursday, defense attorney Michael Farkus claimed the now-married accuser fabricated the charges to get back at Weberman for betraying her confidence.

The defense pointed out that one day after she told Weberman she was romantically involved with a boyfriend, which is strictly forbidden in the Satmar community, her father had the boy arrested.

What the jury did not hear in court was that the father followed Weberman’s suggestion to install a hidden camera to spy on his daughter’s romantic encounters with the boy, Cornell reported.

The charges against the young man were later dropped.

Also during the trial last week, nearly 100 observers had their cell phones confiscated after some were caught snapping photos inside the courtroom.

The angry judge scolded the observers, saying a crime was committed inside the courtroom when people took cell phone pictures of the sex abuse accuser as she testified.

Three ultra Orthodox men, identified as supporters of Weberman, were arrested on charges they photographed the accuser as she testified.

They were arraigned Friday evening and face contempt charges for taking pictures in a courtroom without a court order.

Weberman has pleaded not guilty to charges of committing a criminal sex act, rape, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse.

Yegutkin guilty of 75 counts of sexual abuse.

Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the conviction of Emanuel Yegutkin, 33, for sexually abusing three young boys over the course of 10 years. 

Yegutkin was convicted before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Dineen Riviezzo on 75 counts of charges including three counts of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree, The top charge, Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree carries a maximum sentence of 25 years.

Yegutkin will be back in court on December 17 to announce a sentencing date.

District Attorney Hynes said, “This violent sexual predator faces the remainder of his life behind bars.  This should serve as a clear message that those who would sexually abuse children in this county will be punished severely.”

Yegutkin was a principal of a private Jewish high school in Brooklyn.  He became a close friend of the victims’ family after attending the school where the victims’ father worked, and visited their home frequently.  The victims did not attend Yegutkin’s school.  From 1996 to 2005, Yegutkin sexually abused two of the boys when they were ages seven to 15-years-old, and in 2008, exposed the third boy to pornography. Yegutkin was arrested in January 2009.

At trial, the three victims testified against Yegutkin.  The trial began on October 18th.  The jury, consisting of seven men and five women, were in deliberations since November 29.  They came back with a guilty verdict today, finding Yegutkin guilty on all 75 counts.

France and Britain recall ambassadors to Israel, because Israel will allow Jews to build in their own land!

France and Britain have warned Israel that they are ready to recall their ambassadors, over Israel’s decision to build more Jewish homes in Jerusalem, according to press reports.

Everyone expected that a move from Israel to build new settlements in previously off limits territory just outside of a Jerusalem area known as E1, will bring international condemnation. However, few have guessed it would send ambassadors from European nations fleeing Israel.

According to a recent report from an Israeli newspaper, that's exactly what diplomats from France and Britain are thinking. Specifically, the newspaper report cited senior European diplomats as saying that the two countries are considering "the unprecedented step of recalling their ambassadors." One diplomat told the newspaper: "This time it will not be just words. Real action will be taken against Israel."

Benjamin Netanyahu, to begin construction in the 4.6 square mile E1 area, a move that many believe will ruin the chances of a two-state solution and cause conflict in the region.

The sobering news comes just three days after the widely publicized and controversial decision by 

The strip of land outside Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 war from Jordan. The strip of land connects the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem. However, the new 3000 unit project that will be built on that land will also cut off Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem, “making a contiguous Palestinian state backed by the United Nations last week, practically impossible," according to experts in the region.