JERUSALEM — The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded that such talk is evidence of Palestinian insincerity, saying that the moratorium was a gesture aimed at making it easier for the Palestinians to enter direct talks. Since they waited nine months before taking advantage of it, walking out on the talks now would prove that they were not serious about peace.
Efforts by the Obama administration to get Netanyahu to extend the freeze by three months have so far been rejected....
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has often said that once building began again, he would end the peace talks. But Tuesday, he spoke to US Jewish leaders in New York and did not insist that the end of the construction freeze meant the end of the talks....
Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who was at the meeting with Abbas, said he was impressed by two things: that the Palestinian president referred to Netanyahu as “my partner’’ and that he appeared to be seeking a way to stay at the negotiations even if some settlement building began. On other issues, such as Jerusalem and naming Israel a Jewish state, Foxman said Abbas did not please him....
Who cares what Abe thinks about Abass?
WTF?
--more--"
UNITED NATIONS — Grasping for peace, President Obama challenged a pessimistic world yesterday to overcome decades of shattered promises and help Israelis and Palestinians close a historic deal within a year. “This time will be different,’’ he declared, offering a now-or-never choice between Mideast stability and perpetual bloodshed.
To a hushed audience of global leaders, Obama made Mideast peace the dominant theme of his yearly address to the UN General Assembly, a sign of the fragile state of the latest talks and the importance he attaches to their success. Nearly every other topic of his international agenda was shoved to the margins, save for a vigorous call for support of human rights....
Is Obama insane or just a really good liar?
LOOK in the MIRROR, pal!
The search for Mideast peace always tests the limits of US presidential power, and this time is no different. There were no signs of a breakthrough in New York and, unlike last year, no meeting among Obama and the key players.
Obama is serving as an invested broker in Mideast peace....
Yeah, INVESTING in his OWN POLITICAL FORTUNES!
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend, and Israel’s seat in the grand UN hall sat empty because it was a Jewish holiday.
Israel s***ting in AmeriKa's face again.
Obama challenged Israel....
Yeah, right!
And dish just ran away with the spoon!!!
In calling on the world to get more involved, Obama assigned responsibilities to nations beyond those at the negotiating table. He made a particular plea for “friends of the Palestinians’’ to support the creation of a new state providing political and financial support, and to “stop trying to tear Israel down.’’
That's challenging Israel, huh?
--more--"
UNITED NATIONS --Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday there will be no peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state stops settlement construction in areas the Palestinians claim for their future state.
"Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements," Abbas said in his address to the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting.
Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled only three weeks after starting in Washington in early September....
The Palestinian president demanded an end to Israel's repeated flouting of U.N. resolutions, its destruction of the historical identity of Jerusalem, and its blockade of the Gaza Strip which he said has created massive suffering for the people living there and prevented reconstruction.
On the settlement dispute, some in Israel have proposed, for example, that limited building will resume but not the relatively unfettered construction that prevailed before the Israeli moratorium....
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, home to 300,000 Jewish settlers, as part of a future state, and say that by expanding settlements, Israel is imposing facts on the ground that make it increasingly difficult to establish a viable country.
Yup.
Related:
There is even less green now.
At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces heavy pressure within his pro-settler governing coalition....
Hardline elements in the coalition could try to bring down the government...
Pro-settler activists hauled bulldozers, cement mixers and other construction equipment into the Revava settlement in the northern West Bank on Saturday.
Danny Danon, a pro-settler lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud Party, said activists would lay the cornerstone for a new neighborhood on Sunday, the last day of the slowdown, and planned additional construction Monday after the restrictions formally end....
--more--"
Related: Settlement deadline looms over peace talks (By Mark Landler, New York Times)
I don't read New York Times web updates from the Boston Globe.
And even when I when I get them in the printed paper the web rewrites them:
"End of Israeli building freeze threatens talks" by Ethan Bronner and Mark Landler, New York Times | September 27, 2010
JERUSALEM — Israel allowed a politically charged freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank to expire yesterday, but the Palestinians did not carry out a threat to quit peace negotiations, setting the stage for further frantic efforts to keep the talks alive.
American officials spent yesterday desperately seeking a formula to satisfy both sides — an effort that failed to produce a compromise from the Israelis but that may have persuaded the Palestinians to delay a decision on abandoning the talks....
All so OBAMA can LOOK GOOD POLITICALLY!
In the West Bank, meanwhile, jubilant settlers poured cement and released thousands of blue and white balloons to signal the resumption of construction.
What was cut from the rewrite:
"From this stage, I turn to Hussein Obama and tell him, the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel," Gershon Mesika, head of the Samaria regional council of settlers, said at the West Bank ceremony, using President Obama's Arabic middle name to emphasize the alienation he and other Jewish settlers feel toward him.
I suppose the article needed a rewrite, 'eh?
And if they FEEL THAT WAY they can STOP CASHING the U.S. AID CHECKS and SEND 'EM BACK!! We NEED the MONEY HERE!!!
Israeli officials said Netanyahu felt bound by his promise not to extend the moratorium beyond 10 months.
That would be a first.
He is also hemmed in by his right-leaning coalition government, which is strongly opposed to continuing the ban on construction in the West Bank territories that Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
“It is a read-my-lips moment,’’ said Michael B. Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States.
“This establishes credibility, not just for the Israelis but for the Palestinians. Establishing that the man is true to his word is going to be a very important asset going forward.’’
The Obama administration said in a statement that it would continue its diplomatic efforts to keep the talks going, and reaffirmed its opposition to Jewish settlements.
“Our policy on settlement construction has not changed,’’ said the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley.
The immediate question, though, was whether the Palestinians would keep negotiating. Much of the diplomacy in the past couple of days was aimed at Abbas to persuade him to find a way to do so....
Abbas told the pan-Arab daily newspaper Al Hayat in an interview published yesterday that if the building moratorium was not extended, his next step would be to consult with the Palestine Liberation Organization and Arab League leaders. That seemed short of actually ending the talks with Netanyahu, but it remained unclear how Arab leaders would react....
US officials have said in recent weeks that the Arab world is eager for the talks to continue.
But Arab officials have said numerous times that settlement building and peacemaking cannot go together.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the factions in the Palestine Liberation Organization, announced the suspension of its participation in the group in protest over Abbas’s participation in the talks.
A top aid to President Obama, David Axelrod, said on ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour’’ that he was hopeful a deal would be worked out to keep the talks alive....
Until November 3rd. Then who cares?
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kept up her last-minute efforts to find a solution, speaking twice by phone yesterday with Netanyahu, according to Crowley. She also spoke with Tony Blair, a former British prime minister, who serves as the representative of the quartet of Middle East peacemakers — the United States, United Nations, European Union, and Russia.
Some officials around Netanyahu have suggested building only in settlement blocks expected to stay in Israeli hands in an eventual two-state solution.
But NO PRECONDITIONS!
But the Palestinians have said the borders needed to be agreed upon first. Then, but not before, building could resume within settlements granted to stay within Israel in exchange for land elsewhere for the Palestinian state.
Netanyahu issued a request yesterday to the settlers and to all Israeli political factions to “show restraint and responsibility’’ regarding the end of the settlement freeze, meaning to avoid ostentation and provocation.
But celebrations held first at the settlement of Kiryat Netafim, where a cornerstone was laid for a new kindergarten, and then at the nearby settlement of Revava seemed anything but restrained.
Several thousand supporters were bused in, balloons were released, and speeches were made about Jewish rights and a policy that bars only Jews from building homes there....
Related: The Signs of a Supremacist State
In Gaza, the leaders of Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs that territory, urged Abbas, leader of rival Fatah party, to end the direct talks and concentrate on uniting the Palestinians.
“Resuming direct negotiations is a crime against the Palestinian people,’’ said a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum.
--more--"
And the analysis sets the agenda:
JERUSALEM — Less than a month after they began, Middle East peace talks are in trouble....
A magic formula may yet be found....
Whatever happens, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to risk a breakdown of talks so supposedly crucial, embarrassing the US leader at so inopportune a time, raises questions about whether he can deliver the much more far-reaching concessions Israel would have to make to end a century of conflict.
Why did Netanyahu do it?
********
The governing coalition is where an overwhelming majority opposes extending the freeze. That includes Netanyahu’s own Likud Party, the senior coalition member, as well as partners such as Yisrael Beiteinu, the hard-line party led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, himself a settler.
Whether those parties would bring down Netanyahu now is an open question. Disgruntled prosettler parties have done so in the past, over lesser affronts to their cause: to Yitzhak Shamir in 1992 and to Netanyahu himself in 1999. Both times they ended up with a moderate government they liked even less, but neither outcome produced much game-changing introspection.
Still, it seems as if Netanyahu could have protected himself against political extortion by securing the support of the centrist Kadima Party, which is about equal to Likud in its number of parliament members.
This is beginning to get sickening, folks.
Its leader, Tzipi Livni — despite an acrimonious personal relationship with the prime minister — said again this week that she would support peace moves, and that she would find it difficult not to back Netanyahu at least tacitly when he is taking risks for peace.
Ultimately, Netanyahu appears to have gambled that he did not need to upset his partners — and a core constituency like the settlers....
In governing circles, the thinking, or hope, is that while Obama may be angry, he will take no punitive action that would alienate US supporters of Israel with midterm elections two months away.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that George Mitchell, special Middle East peace envoy, would depart Washington yesterday evening and meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials later in the week. He said that the administration is disappointed, but that it remains focused on its long-term objective.
“Obama took a big risk, and if these talks collapse before November, it will hurt him politically,’’ said Alon Liel, a left-leaning analyst and former senior diplomat. “Israel is a strong country militarily and economically and cannot be pressured too much. Obama has gone above and beyond, and there’s a limit.’’
Then THEY DO NOT NEED any more American TAXPAYER money!
Related: Abandoning Obama
Israel has! Say goodbye to Congress, Democrats.
In other words, why risk alienating a powerful group like US supporters of Israel?
Especially when they control the Congress and corporate media.
Gaining currency is the notion of an undeclared slowdown in which settlement expansion is theoretically possible but practically impeded by administrative machinations.
More Israeli games I'm sick and tired of.
--more--"
And the agenda-pushing Zionist AmeriKan media carries it through:
--more--"
RAMALLAH, West Bank — President Obama’s emissary, George Mitchell, is making a last-minute attempt to rescue the negotiations....
The European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, announced she’s heading to the region “as a matter of priority’’ after talking to Mitchell and international Mideast envoy Tony Blair. Starting today, the EU foreign policy chief will meet with Netanyahu, Abbas, and Mitchell over two days to try to prevent the collapse of negotiations. She reiterated in a statement that the European Union regrets Israel’s decision not to extend a 10-month-old moratorium on West Bank housing starts that expired this week....
Abbas’s bitter Hamas rivals, who seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, would benefit from the talks’ failure as a reflection of their position that nothing can be gained by negotiating with Israel....
No, ISRAEL DOES because then they can KEEP on TAKING LAND and BULLDOZING Palestinian homes!
"Hamas overwhelmingly won Palestinian Parliament elections in 2006.... Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in early 2006.... In 2006, Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections"
That's seizing, huh?
Then Bush and Obama both seized power.
--more--"
Sick of the bull, yet?
"US presses Israel for renewal of freeze on settlement building; Netanyahu is said to be seeking key security gains" by Mark Landler, New York Times | October 1, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is trying to cajole the Israeli government into a 60-day renewal of the freeze on Jewish settlement building by offering it security guarantees, ranging from military hardware to support for a long-term Israeli presence in the strategically sensitive Jordan Valley, according to lawmakers and other officials briefed on the proposals.
Why don't you try the OTHER WAY and CUT THEM OFF COMPLETELY?
I know you will get hammered in the papers and by Repuglicans, but why no go for it?
FREE YOURSELF from the BLACKMAIL!
But with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so far resisting the administration’s entreaties, the United States is also weighing a fallback plan, officials said, that could involve reaching out to the Palestinians with a pledge to formally endorse one of their central demands for the borders of a future Palestinian state.
The US proposals to Israel came amid a frenzy of diplomatic horse-trading, with the administration maneuvering to keep the talks alive while Netanyahu appeared to be trying to extract a high price for acquiescing on settlements....
We call that BLACKMAIL or EXTORTION where I come from.
The administration’s focus remains on Netanyahu, whom US officials hope they can persuade to renew the freeze, with the understanding that Washington will ask for no further extensions....
Because the elections will be over!
The White House denied yesterday that President Barack Obama had sent a letter with proposals to Netanyahu. It declined to comment further on the negotiations.
That means it is true.
But Wednesday, White House senior Middle East advisers Dennis Ross and Daniel Shapiro briefed Democratic representatives on Capitol Hill about what Ross described as a “string of assurances in return for a two-month moratorium,’’ said people who were in the meeting.
These would include additional military equipment — missile systems, aircraft, and satellites — a pledge to help Israel enforce a ban on the smuggling of weapons through a Palestinian state, and a promise to help forge a regional security agreement that would defend Israel against the threat posed by Iran.
Oh, so they are going to SUCK US into ANOTHER WAR, huh?
I would rather SIT THIS ONE OUT, thanks!
Netanyahu has brushed aside these offers, officials said. For him, said an Israeli official, the political necessity of standing firm on settlements outweighs any security incentives offered by the United States.
And he will still get them anyway.
“These are wonderful proposals, but because of the political realities, we can’t even have this discussion,’’ said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity....
Translation: ISRAEL CONTROLS AmeriKan foreign policy!
US Representative Gary L. Ackerman of New York, who was in the briefing, said the length of an extension is another sticking point: The administration is pushing for two months, while Netanyahu has indicated he is not willing to go beyond one month, if he agrees at all....
When are the U.S. elections again?
--more--"
RAMALLAH, West Bank — US and European peace envoys pleaded with Israel....
It is PRETTY OBVIOUS who is ON TOP when it comes to the globalists and Zionists!
After days of shuttling and with no signs of a breakthrough, White House emissary George Mitchell left the region to consult with Arab leaders ahead of a crucial meeting of Arab League foreign ministers next week....
Mitchell met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel earlier yesterday. In public comments before the meeting, the Israeli leader said only that he has a “mission of peace.’’
The European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, also met Netanyahu in an attempt to bridge the gaps between the sides. “I have urged Israel to continue the moratorium and allow the talks more time to make inroads to progress,’’ she said after the meeting....
According to the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, the United States also promised to support an Israeli demand to leave troops along the eastern border of a future Palestinian state after a peace agreement, a demand the Palestinians have said they will not accept....
You would never have known they murdered one of our citizens in the flotilla raid.
--more--"
"Palestinian leaders support halt in talks" by Ethan Bronner, New York Times | October 3, 2010
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Obama administration envoy to the region, George J. Mitchell, met repeatedly in recent days with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in hopes of keeping the new talks alive. But he left Friday, having made no progress.
Mitchell remains in the region, talking with Arab leaders before an Arab League meeting planned for Friday in Libya, where the issue of direct talks with Israel will be debated....
Barring a last-minute deal, the talks seemed to be in deep trouble. Abbas was due to see King Hussein of Jordan today and then Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, as efforts to find a solution continue....
Netanyahu argues that the future of the settlements should be part of a mix of issues to be discussed in the coming year of talks, not a precondition for talks. The Palestinians say the Israelis agreed to end settlement expansion in a 2003 road map for peace and have failed to live up to that commitment. They add that settlements violate international law and are eating up the land on which the Palestinians plan to build their state....
And EVERY DAY that goes by MORE LAND is TAKEN!
The Obama administration has offered Israel security guarantees and military hardware in exchange for a one-time 60-day extension of the building freeze.
We USED TO CALL THAT a BRIBE!
But so far Netanyahu has turned that down, saying that sticking to his word on a one-time freeze was more important than the elements of the American offer....
--more--"
CAIRO — Egypt and Jordan, key US Mideast allies, yesterday backed the Palestinian refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as it continues to build West Bank settlements, but they urged more efforts to salvage peace talks mediated by Washington....
--more--"
"Seeking to sustain peace talks, Israel considers settlement stay" by Dan Perry and Josef Federman, Associated Press | October 7, 2010
RAMALLAH, West Bank —The future of President Obama’s ambitious Mideast peace effort remained uncertain as the United States pressed ahead....
Israel’s normally talkative leadership has been almost completely silent in recent days....
Not giving you any anonymous quotes, huh?
Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, has been shuttling between the sides in an effort to find a magic formula — sparking a variety of contradictory media reports about sweeteners the United States is prepared to offer Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu....
Officials said the Israeli wish list included additional American military support, US guarantees to veto anti-Israeli resolutions at the United Nations, and guarantees that Washington would not impose an accord on Israel or force a full withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
But no preconditions.
And I do not know about you, but as an American I am OFFENDED by ISRAEL'S DEMANDS and their "wish list."
F*** that stinking s***hole of a STAIN on the PLANET!
Aaron David Miller, a Middle East analyst and a former official at the US State Department, said guarantees offered by Obama included vast military hardware, support at the United Nations, an extended Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley, and regionwide security assurances from Arab states.
Along with pizza, popcorn, and a slice of the moon.
And as soon as you agree Israel will add another condition!
But several of the Palestinian officials said they had been told by the Americans that the Jordan Valley pledge was not included in the package.
Miller said US officials expected a deal with Netanyahu shortly and hope to use the 60-day window to work out the borders between Israel and a future Palestine.
And for POLITICAL PURPOSES!
Keep the hope of talks alive!
Miller refused to say where he got his information, though he remains in contact with key policymakers.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has pointed out several times that once a border is drawn, the settlement issue becomes irrelevant, because it would be clear to both sides that there would be no Israeli settlements in a Palestinian state.
Tell Israel to draw one up then!
--more--"
"US sees door ajar for Mideast talks; Arab League may not push walkout over settlements" by Mark Landler and Ethan Bronner, New York Times | October 8, 2010
WASHINGTON — After days of intensive diplomacy by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the administration’s special envoy, George J. Mitchell, the administration now expects the Arab League’s meeting in Libya to produce a stream of vitriol against Israel....
In Washington, the Israeli finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, acknowledged that the United States had offered Israel incentives; other officials said those range from military hardware to support for a long-term Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley....
Most of the US diplomacy this week has focused on the Arab world....
Because the Israelis told us to f*** off.
--more--"
SIRTE, Libya --Arab ministers agreed Friday to give the United States another month to try to persuade Israel to renew curbs on West Bank settlement construction and keep Mideast peace talks from collapsing.
Just what Obama needed!
The one-month grace period followed a frantic effort by the Obama administration to broker a compromise as the sides faced rising friction over the stalemate. Underscoring the potential for violence, Israeli troops killed two senior Hamas militants in the West Bank....
Israel can't go too many days without drawing Palestinian blood.
It is almost as if they have an addiction to the stuff.
Foreign ministers from the 22-member Arab League warned Israel of the dangerous consequences of continuing settlement construction in the Palestinian territories and east Jerusalem....
Like what?
But the ministers also said they would resume meetings in a month to study alternatives and decide on next steps, giving the United States some breathing room....
And OBAMA heaves a SIGH of RELIEF!
Delegates who were at Friday's meeting said the ministers made their decision after Abbas explained that he faced stiff opposition to returning to the peace talks in the Palestinian territories. They also said some of Friday's discussions centered on the need to delay a final decision until U.S. congressional elections in early November so the Obama administration would not face as much political pressure.
That just CONFIRMS my LEAD QUOTE!
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Mideast envoy George Mitchell called Arab leaders throughout the week, urging them to persuade the Palestinians not to walk away from the talks....
The two Hamas gunmen, killed in a raid in the West Bank city of Hebron, were involved in the shooting deaths of four Israelis near the city on Aug. 31, just as new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were getting under way, the Israeli military said.
Related: West Bank Paradise
Notice the deceptive reporting?
And cui bono?
Media aligned with Hamas in the Gaza Strip also said the men were behind the Hebron shooting.
Soldiers with jeeps and an armored bulldozer surrounded the militants' hideout before dawn. The military said the men rebuffed calls to surrender and began shooting at the troops outside. The soldiers then returned fire, killing both militants, the military said.
If Israel's military said it you know it's a lie!
And look what was cut from the web version:
Meanwhile, a settler leader struck a rock-wielding Palestinian youth with his car yesterday in disputed East Jerusalem as tensions rose over stalled peace talks.
If a Palestinian had done that it would have been the lead.
--more--"
Israeli soldiers detained Palestinians during a raid in Hebron yesterday in which two senior Hamas militants were killed. (Reuters)
That is a WAR CRIME!
You are NOT SUPPOSED to PHOTOGRAPH BLINDFOLDED PRISONERS!
Related: News analysis US given a month to save Mideast talks (By Isabel Kershner, New York Times)
I don't read New York Times updates on general principles.
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Washington has “made various proposals’’ in its effort to keep the negotiations alive and that “we are considering them seriously,’’ but he did not elaborate. According to US and Israeli officials, the Obama administration has offered a package of security assurances and promises of military hardware in exchange for a 60-day extension of the settlement freeze.
What we call a BRIBE.
The Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, saying it discriminates against Israel’s Arab minority and denies the rights of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homes in what is now Israel.
Ah, the SWEET SMELL of SUPREMACISM!
They said it is sufficient that they recognize Israel’s right to exist, but not up to them to determine Israel’s character.
No, it is not.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Netanyahu of “playing games’’ by linking settlements and Israel’s national character.
“I don’t see a relevance between his obligations under international law and him trying to define the nature of Israel,’’ he said....
Nor do I! It is just DIVERSIONARY HORSE S***!!!
The fate of Israel’s West Bank settlements is one of the thornier issues in the conflict. About 300,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank among 2.5 million Palestinians. Another 200,000 Israelis live in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future independent state and say that continued settlement construction sends a message that Israel is not serious about reaching a peace deal.
Well, we all know that!
--more--"
JERUSALEM — Israel ended an unofficial construction freeze in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem yesterday, announcing plans to build 238 housing units. The move comes as hard-won peace talks are stalled over the question of whether Israel will extend its broader construction moratorium in the West Bank....
While East Jerusalem was not a part of the pivotal, 10-month construction moratorium in the West Bank, the Palestinians want it as their future capital, and the world views it no differently than the West Bank, as conquered territory that should not be built upon by the victor....
At a briefing with reporters in Washington, the State Department spokesman, Philip Crowley, called the Israeli announcement a disappointment, and said it was “contrary to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties.’’ He said the Israelis had forewarned the United States of the announcement.
Stop signing the aid checks.
American-brokered talks between Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, have been stuck since late last month, when Israel’s construction freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank expired. The Palestinians, backed by the Arab League, have given the United States this month to find ways to get Israel to keep the construction stopped. They are threatening to end the talks otherwise.
The Palestinians say they cannot return to negotiations without an extension of the freeze because they are watching their future state disappear under their feet; Netanyahu says the settlement construction, which has been going on for four decades and now houses hundreds of thousands of Israelis, should be among the issues on the table, not a condition for negotiations.
Virtually the entire international community opposes the settlements. The vast majority of governments accept what the United Nations and the International Court of Justice in The Hague have declared — that the settlements violate international law.
And yet NOTHING is DONE! No SANCTIONS, nothing!
Israel says they are lawful because the Palestinians were not sovereign in the West Bank when it was conquered from Jordan in 1967.
Do you ask a murderer or robber what is lawful? Does anyone care what they say?
The United States and Japan take no stand on their legality, according to embassy spokesmen in Israel, although they oppose them on policy grounds.
One set of balls in each Israeli palm.
In March, when Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Jerusalem, Israel announced plans for 1,600 Jewish units in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, embarrassing Biden and infuriating President Obama.
Related: Usraeli Food Fight
Israel Biden Their Time on Iran
Yeah, he looks real upset.
Israeli officials promised that there would be no more such surprises.
They lied -- AGAIN!
--more--"
"Israelis, Palestinians ponder alternatives; Stalled talks push sides to find ways to Mideast peace" by Dan Perry and Karin Laub, Associated Press | October 22, 2010
JERUSALEM — The impasse that has emerged over settlement construction has brought a difficult question to the surface: If the United States cannot compel Israel to extend a settlement freeze for a few months, how can the United States persuade Israel to make wrenching decisions over control of Jerusalem?
How about cutting off all aid?
Both sides say their first choice is still a full agreement, and the Obama administration is clinging to the hope that the peace talks will succeed....
Palestinians say the current situation cannot drag on indefinitely: They have a measure of self-rule in the main cities of the West Bank, but Israel controls the land in between and remains ultimately in charge, controlling the Palestinians through a complex permit system.
You know, the kind of thing Hitler set up for the Jews.
The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, has essentially broken off — a statelet run by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rejects the peace talks....
That is why the HOLD ONTO IT with ALL THEIR MIGHT!
The main alternative, according to officials, is to seek UN Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
U.S will veto on orders from the master.
While such validation would not immediately change the situation on the ground, it could boost Palestinian leverage vis-à-vis Israel. International recognition of Palestine’s borders could also further isolate Israel and limit the Jewish state’s diplomatic and military options....
Good!
Israel would surely oppose such a unilateral Palestinian move. But among many Israelis as well, skepticism about peace talks is accompanied by a gnawing sense that something must change: The occupation is ruining the country’s reputation, and there’s concern that without a decisive break from the West Bank, Israel will become, in effect, a binational state with a dwindling Jewish majority.
Sorry, already soiled and beyond repair.
Concerns about Israel’s future have driven even right-wing parties once opposed to territorial concessions toward more moderate positions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself endorsed — albeit grudgingly — the idea of a Palestinian state in 2009, and agreed to the peace effort President Obama launched last month....
Again, that is what this is ALL ABOUT!
--more--"
And check out this twisted piece of logic in the propaganda:
"Mideast keeps an eye on US elections; Israel, Palestinians worry about effect" by Amy Teibel, Associated Press | October 23, 2010
JERUSALEM — Israelis and Palestinians are closely watching next month’s US midterm race amid a sense — rarely discussed openly but very much on people’s minds — that the result could affect the US-led peace effort and President Obama’s ability to coax concessions from Israel.
Why must the American president GROVEL before that war-criminal wretch?
Animating the discussion is the startling fact that the United States has failed, despite emphatic public appeals by Obama and weeks of increasingly frustrating diplomacy, to persuade Israel to extend the settlement-building slowdown that expired on Sept. 26.
That caused Palestinians to suspend the US-brokered peace talks just weeks after they began.
The Palestinians are now hoping that Obama has reacted mildly to Israel’s rejection because of political considerations ahead of the Nov. 2 vote — and might be freer to apply pressure after the elections....
Now wait a minute. If he HAD a FILIBUSTER-PROOF MAJORITY wouldn't the time to have done something been BACK THEN?
What is going to happen after the elections -- as per the quote leading this piece -- is Obama is going to FORGET ABOUT IT!
Although Israeli officials avoid discussing the topic publicly for fear of alienating the Jewish state’s most important ally, there is a foreboding sense in Israel that punishment is on the way — especially if Obama emerges unscathed.
First of all, he and his party are going to LOSE BIG-TIME!
The second thing is the POOR, PERSECUTED JEWS are now going to be PUNISHED!
Well, good! Maybe they can start to empathize with those they have under their boot!
The third thing that comes to mind is the FIX IS IN! Republicans are going to ROLL BIG-TIME in about 10 days! I now believe they will ALSO TAKE the Senate!
It is what would be GOOD FOR ISRAEL, and with Joe Lieberman being the gate-keeping 51st and 60th Democrat(?) vote in the last two elections I am EVEN MORE SUSPICIOUS!
Nahum Barnea, a respected and widely read columnist, put it this way in yesterday’s Yediot Ahronot: “The problem is the disgust and rage that the Israeli refusal sparked in the administration — a rage that is being suppressed at the moment, but which will erupt in full force on November 3, after the elections to Congress. The Americans are seeking the logic behind the refusal . . . and are finding nothing.’’
Yediot Ahronot is Israel's Fox News.
I wish I could believe in his analysis, but....
But if recent polls are borne out and Republicans take one or both houses of Congress, a chastened president might be too busy or weakened to pressure Jerusalem much, the thinking goes.
And THERE YOU GO!
Why is it EVERY TIME we vote for "change" things CHANGE for the WORSE, America?
If Congress tilts Republican it could have a “positive impact’’ on Israeli concerns, said one adviser to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — an allusion to avoiding pressure for concessions.
Expect a REPUBLICAN ROUT come November 2nd.
With the Democrats weakened, Israel’s friends in Congress — both Democrat and Republican — “would be able to have a stronger voice if the administration should embark on a policy that is less favorable to Israel,’’ he added....
As if Democrats ever stood up to Israel. The 98-0 Senate votes and 430-5 House votes in favor of Israel's agenda kind of threw me.
Related:
"We in Congress stand by Israel," the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., assured Netanyahu at an all-smiles appearance before the cameras. "In Congress we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel."
But remember, vote Democrat because they will press Israel over peace and will push for a Palestinian st.... ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!
I'm sorry, readers; I thought I could make it through the whole sentence, but....
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Both parties are controlled by AIPAC so what difference does it make?
As we Americans saw in 2006 and 2008, not much when it comes to U.S. foreign policy and Israel.
