Obama Admin Ends Efforts to Stop israel's Expanding Settlements

[Lostlover]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/0...ael-over-settlement-freeze-end-official-says/

So exactly, when do we freeze US money going to Israel?

 

[palemale]

I've always been very pro-Israel, but I am also pro-Palestinian statehood and believe the two state solution is the best chance for peace. That being said, the United States cannot want peace more than Israel and the Palestinians. At this point, the US negotiators should very publicly put their shit in a bag and say "good-bye, call us when you are ready to get serious." We should also cut any aid to Israel by an amount equal to the total expenditures the State of Israel makes to sustain the West Bank settlements.

 

[MoltenRock III]

I'm so damned sick of American billions of $$$ going to this Zionist asshole agenda.

Fuck 'em! Israel has nukes, let them defend themselves. They're all assholes, let them fight it out alone, and watch how fast they'll have to become conciliatory without Israel's big brother, the USA, to bully the rest of the world.

 

[Lostlover]

Obama should cut assistance to Israel ASAP!

Obama has egg on his face for trying to get Israel to meet preconditions to talk. He even offered them $3 billion to freeze construction on new settlements for 90 days.

Netanyahu should just say he's a religious extemist that believes Israel has an eternal deed to the land.

 

[frankfrank]

This settlement shit, and the explicit support for it from the U. S. going on decades now (while, sometimes giving Israel some fake "Tsk tsk, you really shouldn't do that, it's not polite!" lip service), is one of the recruitment posters for terrorism that we seem intent on showing off to the world.

 

[Lostlover]

This settlement shit, and the explicit support for it from the U. S. going on decades now (while, sometimes giving Israel some fake "Tsk tsk, you really shouldn't do that, it's not polite!" lip service), is one of the recruitment posters for terrorism that we seem intent on showing off to the world.

And let's stop pretending like they respect us. They refused the $3B or $33M/day for extending the settlement freeze to placate extremists in Israel. And I think with the way Israel behaves, in a sea of dictatorships, shows you that democratic governance doesn't equate to sane or rational international diplomacy.

If it weren't for the democraty in Israel, I'd have no qualms lumping them together with Syria or Jordan. They all pretty much deserve one another.

What bothers me with america's diplomacy is that the policy represents a small radical minority's views thus hurting the little guy, the Palestinians. How sickening is it that the second biggest country in the world allows an extremely small country to humiliate a landless people?

 

[nafhoosier]

Obama should cut assistance to Israel ASAP!

Okay, fine.

But if we do that, also cut assistance to:

Saudi Arabia
Turkey
Syria
Jordan
Egypt
Lebanon
Venezuela
Pakistan
India
and last but not least,
China

Find a reason NOT to cut off aid to all of those countries and then we'll talk

 

[bankside]

As far as Israel's plan to expand settlements, it's really just the right-wing in Israel that wants this and Netanyahu's right-wing party hardly represents most Israelis.

And yet, it would appear that what the right wing wants, Israel does.

 

[bankside]

Yes, and then there was another chance when Tzipi came within a hair of holding power.

Israel's greatest weakness is susceptibility to the charge that it has ambitions other than self defence. These charges are unsustainable if Israel would only stay on the other side of the line, as in Gaza. I would have thought the right wing would understand the opportunity coming from a retreat. But then, it is not the hawks that are the problem on the right, is it? It's the theocratic settler movement, which I shall consider distinct from the hawks who care more about defence than divine mandates.

 

[MystikWizard]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/0...ael-over-settlement-freeze-end-official-says/

So exactly, when do we freeze US money going to Israel?

Yet another major disappointing decision to me.

 

[Lostlover]

Yet another major disappointing decision to me.

Obama couldn't budge Israel to stop building on Palestinian land. Sounds more like the admin is finally seeing that Israel is going to keep building. Can't really blame Obama.

 

[rareboy]

And yet, it would appear that what the right wing wants, Israel does.

Sounds eerily like the US, doesn't it?

 

[EastMed]

Ah come on now, you know Israel has the interests of the US at the heart of its policies.
(Excuse me please while I go and throw up).

 

[kallipolis]

Ah come on now, you know Israel has the interests of the US at the heart of its policies.
(Excuse me please while I go and throw up).

There is a rich irony, to your use of irony, in that the Middle East interests of the United States are the result of Israel's determination to survive mass extermination by its neighbours.

The 1930s/1940s attempt at mass extermination ensures that Israelis are not going to rely on other nations, to support their right to avoid a repetition of the earlier experiment in genocide.

I doubt whether cutting funding of Israel, will bring the Israel hawk to heel, any more than creating a sovereign Palestinian state, will terminate the determination of neighbouring Arab states, and Iran to eradicate Israel from the face of this planet.

 

[EastMed]

There is a rich irony, to your use of irony, in that the Middle East interests of the United States are the result of Israel's determination to survive mass extermination by its neighbours.

The 1930s/1940s attempt at mass extermination ensures that Israelis are not going to rely on other nations, to support their right to avoid a repetition of the earlier experiment in genocide.

I doubt whether cutting funding of Israel, will bring the Israel hawk to heel, any more than creating a sovereign Palestinian state, will terminate the determination of neighbouring Arab states, and Iran to eradicate Israel from the face of this planet.

It's too late for a sovereign Palestinian state.

 

[nafhoosier]

It's too late for a sovereign Palestinian state.

Why?

It's not too late. They can have it if they really want it.

It all comes down to a complex combination of Hamas lowering its hate and recognizing Israel's right to exist and Israel itself electing the right leaders willing to negotiate (which the current government fails at right now).

 

[kallipolis]

It's too late for a sovereign Palestinian state.

If you say, so. Others do not share your visionary insights.

 

[palemale]

There is a rich irony, to your use of irony, in that the Middle East interests of the United States are the result of Israel's determination to survive mass extermination by its neighbours.

The 1930s/1940s attempt at mass extermination ensures that Israelis are not going to rely on other nations, to support their right to avoid a repetition of the earlier experiment in genocide.

I doubt whether cutting funding of Israel, will bring the Israel hawk to heel, any more than creating a sovereign Palestinian state, will terminate the determination of neighbouring Arab states, and Iran to eradicate Israel from the face of this planet.

A credible threat to cut funding might scare enough Israelis into voting against the right wing nuts, and instead swing power back to Kadima and Labor. Of course, isn't Labor in the current government (no wonder they have lost so many seats over the years)?

 

[kallipolis]

A credible threat to cut funding might scare enough Israelis into voting against the right wing nuts, and instead swing power back to Kadima and Labor. Of course, isn't Labor in the current government (no wonder they have lost so many seats over the years)?

In theory your proposal is credible and worth proving.

In practice I doubt whether the Israeli hawks are easily persuaded by such tactics.

 

[palemale]

In theory your proposal is credible and worth proving.

In practice I doubt whether the Israeli hawks are easily persuaded by such tactics.

If memory serves me right, the party with the largest number of seats in the knesset is Kadima, which is a moderate party and not a member of the governing coalition. I believe they have one or two more seats than Netanyahu's party. Thus, I suspect a small shift in votes might result in a change of government.