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Clinton: Israeli Home Demolitions 'Unhelpful'
Israel has issued orders to destroy many Palestinian homes in Jerusalem
RAMALLAH, West Bank - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday promised vigorous and personal involvement in stalled Mideast peace efforts and criticized Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem as "unhelpful."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas walk together under a mural of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock Mosque, prior to a meeting at Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Wednesday, March 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
Clinton also displayed strong public support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian Authority is the "only legitimate government of the Palestinian people," she told a news conference, standing next to Abbas.
The Palestinian president has steadily lost support at home, particularly after a year of inconclusive peace talks with Israel. At the same time, his Islamic militant Hamas rivals, who seized Gaza from him in 2007, are widely seen as emerging stronger from Israel's recent military offensive against them.
On Tuesday, Clinton met with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. The hardline leader opposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and supports the expansion of Israeli settlements on war-won land claimed by the Palestinians, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
In recent days, Israel has issued orders for the demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem, saying the homes were built illegally.
Palestinians say they cannot receive proper building permits from Israeli authorities, and the planned demolitions are means to assert Israel's control over the disputed city.
"Clearly, this kind of activity is unhelpful," Clinton said, adding that she would raise it with the Israeli government as well as municipal officials in Jerusalem. She said such actions violate the "road map," a U.S.-backed peace plan.
'Demographic war'
Clinton spoke shortly after Israel issued a new order to demolish five residential buildings containing 55 apartments, said Hatem Abdul Qader, a Palestinian official on Jerusalem affairs.
"It's an open demographic war," he said. He said lawyers have challenged the orders, halting the demolitions until March 10.
Stephan Miller, a spokesman for city hall, said the buildings under demolition notice were empty and had been built illegally.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area. But the annexation is not internationally recognized, and the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as capital of a future independent state.
Palestinian leaders are watching closely for signs of change in U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians were disappointed with the previous U.S. administration's failure to take Israel to task for accelerated settlement construction in 2008, at a time when the two sides were holding U.S.-backed peace talks.
Settlement expansion makes it increasingly difficult to establish an independent Palestinian state.
Abbas said Israel cannot be considered a peace partner if it keeps expanding settlements and demolishes homes in east Jerusalem. "The Israeli government has to respect its obligations under the road map and the two-state solution and completely stop all that is related to settlement and demolitions," he said.
'Vigorously engaged'
Clinton signaled that she'd be heavily involved in the region, and said her special envoy, George Mitchell, would return soon.
"The Obama administration will be vigorously engaged in efforts to forge a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and all of the Arab neighbors. I will remain personally engaged," she said. "This is a commitment that I carry in my heart, not just in my portfolio."
Her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, was also a frequent visitor, but made no headway in solving the conflict.
Clinton suggested Wednesday she is not considering imposing solutions, saying it's up to the two sides to reach an agreement. Clinton said she intends to hold "very constructive talks with the new Netanyahu government."
Netanyahu is still trying to form a coalition, and seems headed for a right-wing government, after being rebuffed by the centrist Kadima Party of outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Clinton said that working toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel "seems inescapable."
Abbas and Clinton, meanwhile, talked about the future of Hamas-ruled Gaza. After the Hamas takeover, Israel and Egypt closed the territory, a policy tacitly supported by the international community, which shuns Hamas as a terrorist group.
Clinton: Palestinian state creation 'inescapable'
However, the blockade has come under renewed scrutiny following Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas, which ended in an informal cease-fire Jan. 18. Some 15,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the war, meant to halt Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel, and international aid officials say Gaza's borders need to reopen to make reconstruction possible.
"We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza," Clinton said, but stopped short of calling for a full opening of the crossings.
Abbas called for an opening of Gaza's borders to pave the way for reconstruction.
Currently, Israel allows several dozen truckloads of aid to get into Gaza every day, but bars the entry of concrete, pipes and other materials that would be crucial for reconstruction. Israel argues that such shipments could be seized by Hamas and used for building bunkers or rockets.
- Posted in
38 Comments so far
Show AllThe Israelis seem vaguely familiar, I remember seeing in a movie once a powerful group of people put an ethnic/religious minority in a walled settlement, something called a ghetto....they seized their property, I forget what happened after that, but it wasn't very nice....they were called N...Nu...Nuzi... ah Nazis.
tang 11::41 Or ........ NNNN....... NNeee... Neocons
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions:
http://www.icahd.org
And thus begins the escapades of yet another American administration powerless in the face of Israeli control over our government.
"Unhelpful?" How pathetic. It's the strongest criticism our government can emit from its lips, while its hands write Israel another check.
We're all Israeli stooges, America. So sad, but so true.
Rule, we're actually "stooges" to the ruling-elite 'corporate financial Empire' that has captured almost full control of our country behind the facade of its two-party, 'Vichy' sham of democracy --- and supported by the Empire's equally 'Vichy' media.
I would argue that this disguised and hidden ruling-elite Empire is the proximate cause of all our 'sorrows' (domestic, economic, and foreign policy) as Chalmers Johnson noted in his fabulously honest book, "Sorrows of Empire" --- or as Hannah Arendt presciently warned in the era of the Nazi Empire, “Empire abroad (always) entails tyranny at home.”
AIPAC (or as I refer to it: American-style Imperialism Political Addiction Committee) is not the only, nor likely the biggest, problem regarding our government not acting in our own interests. AIPAC does not represent the interests of the vast majority of anti-war, pro-peace, progressive/liberal, and compassionate American AND Israeli citizens --- but represents only arrogant, and ultimately unsustainable Empire (here and there).
If Ms. Clinton were to be constructively honest, she might say something like "the path of Empire is never good for any country or people; my own country and people or yours", and to start candidly counseling what the most famous Jewish intellectual on Empire, Hannah Arendt said, or what our most famous American Jewish intellectual, Noam Chomsky has to say about the deadly, and ultimately existential, path of empire (both domestically and internationally) leading to imperialist wars, ruined economies, and tyrannized citizens.
But Ms. Clinton, I know Ralph Nader. And you are no Ralph Nader, madam. You would need more honesty and courage to address the evils of Empire, as he does --- or to even dare to whisper its name. And while the vote is still to be recorded in history books, it's looking more and more likely that your boss does have the courage and conviction to address the empire problem --- as he has started to do with the imperial looting of our 'commonwealth' heading for UBS's secret vaults.
The problem, at heart, is that we are all precisely in the kitchen with that unmentioned elephant, Empire, and none dare speak the truth of our pathology, our tumor, our metastasizing cancer. And so we beat around the bush (like poor dumb George) and just "go along to get along" with Empire. But the truth is, there is no "getting along" with empire-thinking --- it must, like a cancer, be diagnosed and treated.
It’s hard to imagine, in this very modern 21st century, that we are still looking toward the end of the last of tribal ‘empire-thinking’.
We are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-racial, even post-racial, sectarian, mixing-pot-world of democracies on a small fragile planet --- and yet, we are still not beyond the danger of existential death at the hands of ancient and irrelevant tribal ‘empire-thinking’.
As only Kurt Vonnegut’s sense of ironic black humor might envision, “It is as if the whole human race was about to sit down to a celebratory picnic for successfully reaching our 21st century, when we are all unexpectedly killed by one remaining giant dinosaur.”
The last people in the world who should want to stay in (or ever promote) a world of tribalism, are the Muslims and Jews ---- based on how they have been abused by various nationalist and other modern Empires.
Fighter pilots have a saying that, “speed is life”. But, for all the rest of us, “inclusiveness is life” --- and tribalism is death by the oldest lie of empire.
Racism is another deadly old lie of empire.
Nationalism is a somewhat newer lie of empire, but just as deadly in the 20th century.
While, economic ideology is the newest, and current, lie of empire (which is causing our economic collapse).
But all the lies and deceptions of empire-thinking lead ineluctably to the very same grave --- so choose your empire poison, stupidly. Or choose your inclusiveness, wisely.
What is the big bad about "Tribalism"?
It is used in a derogatory way but why? By some who think they are civilized and promote empire sometimes without knowing it? Empires are threatened by tribes who want to be left alone... Like in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
If we have family and friends we have our tribe.
I have a little American Indian Blood and I am proud of it.
Also, Hillary saying Israel is "Unhelpful" is a start in the right direction.
Her job as a diplomat is to be nice but firm and it looks like she could be laying out the foundation of a change in US/Israeli relationship. If they remain "unhelpful", the next shoe to drop could be the free Billions in cash and weapons every Year.
We'll See
True. A tribe is simply an extended family. To many people in the world the extended family is very important as a source of succor, sympathetic understanding, access to land ownership, small business enterprises and marriage partners. In parts of the world where industrialization and urbanization is still not well established and bourgeois democracy barely beginning, tribes, clans, families are the support systems and unions for people of like cultural/political/religious understanding.
Rainborowe
Calling the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of families from their homes "unhelpful" is an outrage - but northing new - Condi, and Madeline before her said the same sort of stuff about Isreal's "settlement building". So, there is no reason to think it is any sort of start in the right direction.
---USAn---
Wow! She actually used the word "UNHELPFUL"?
Boy, THAT'S a welcome and long-overdue about-face! I'm sure it really shook up the Israeli High Command! I thought she'd stick to, say, "counter-optimal".
Abraham Foxman's gonna peel her like a banana!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Unhelpful? No it is downright illegal! And whe should have used that word rather than unhelpful.
Double plus ungood...!
She'd do well to keep the fate of Andrew Young in mind:
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Young to serve as Ambassador to the UN, the first African-American to serve in the position. Young's controversial statements made headlines almost from the start. In August 1979, he appeared on Meet the Press and said that Israel was "stubborn and intransigent". Young met secretly for meetings, in violation of American law, with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which culminated in Carter asking for Young's resignation. Jimmy Carter denied any complicity in The Andrew Young Affair.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Young#UN_Ambassador
Definitely a shameful moment for an administration known for such moments.
At least Carter did an about face later in his career and took a tougher stance toward Israel, a stand which made him subject to the over- and ill-used charge of anti-Semitism from Zionist goons such as Dershowitz.
Still, your admonition is valid.
q
Hamas was the democratically elected government for the Palestinians. It's interesting how my country will deal-diplomatically-with Israel, which has committed many acts of terrorism against a population mainly composed of children-but they refuse to deal with Hamas. I guess being the United States you get to pick and choose who's a terrorist and who isn't. How convenient. Not for the Palestinians, of course.
True. The United States and Israel (with American money, naturally) have a long history of arming and supporting the opposition in Palestine. It was just that kind of support that gave rise to Hamas, when the Americans and Israelis were arming and funding them as opposition to the PLO. Now, our support is behind Abbas, the opposition to the democratically elected Hamas. To make it palatable, they say it's because Hamas is a terrorist organization. It seems clear to me that the real reason is to sow chaos and disorder amongst the Palestinians to keep them weak.
In short, divide and conquer.
"Hamas was the democratically elected government for the Palestinians. ..."
Thanks for saying it. I was going to remind us all too that GW insisted on a democratic election, and was sure the PLO government with his chosen minions would win. The election was monitored and there was no cheating. Except when HAMAS won ... then the results were not accepted.
This is called DEMOCRACY only if the "right" people win. If they don't, then it is called "seizing power by HAMAS."
Ho-Hum ... We are phucked ... and what a ride this is turning out to be. Trotting blindly down the old daisy trail with a shift at the crossroads to the right to look at the view at the precipice where the lemmings gather to show the semi-conscious sheople, including our "leadership," the way home.
And Hillary, oh, Hillary, whatever happened to your IDOLization of Eleanor Roosevelt and her courage and sense of justice on behalf of the "little" people ... all over the world. She slaved over the writing of the Declaration of Human Rights. Now Israel and the United States piss on them all the while declaring themselves Righteous. Barf.
When is an agreement not an agreement intended to be honored? When Israel signed the resolution of sharing the land of Palestine with the Palestinians after Israel was recognized as a nation within a nation in 1947.
Right & Barf.
/cm
It all falls under the heading: "Whose your daddy now?" and for the White HOuse and Congress, their daddy is the neocon with Hillary Hitler driving the train. She road it to the Senate, now she will ride if over the innocent children of Palestine. And to think there was a day when I asked why did Hitler, and so many others, hate the Jew so?
thong-girl
Re Neocons and Nazis, they go back a long ways, to the very beginning in fact. A few months after Nazis came to power, the intellectual grandfather of the Neconservative movement, Leo Strauss attacked them *from the right*, that is for their deviation from "from fascist, authoritarian and imperial principles".
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/07/letter_16.html
Here's the 'Straight Dope' on this nutcase:
straightdope.com/columns/read/2483/whats-the-story-on-leo-strauss
Yeah, she said they were "unhelpful", but this is Hillary Clinton were talking about here.
Hey kids, can you say Zionist??
'Unhelpful' is the euphemism our Gorgon of State uses for Genocidal War Crime.
What else should the world expect from this Zionist Jingo Belle?
.
Clinton met Israeli looters on Tuesday after pledging additional tax tributes
to Israel and their Palestinian Quisling - bar Abbas.
Wow....it's good that you like to see the cup half-full.
I'm a realist, and I say there won't be any change just as there has never been since about the time the US and it's goons created Israel way back when.
Hilary appointed U.S. Secretary of State?
Unhelpful.
I like your "jingo belle" thing.
It would be mature, rational, compassionate, and honest to stop the generalized criticism of Israeli people and/or Jewish people anywhere on national, religious, ethnic or any other divisive basis, and have a bit more constructive dialog, discussion, and intellectual debate about how to address this serious and potentially deadly problem for all of us --- on our fragile little planet.
As Pogo famously said, "We have met the enemy", but they is NOT us, the people, average people, peace-loving people in any land, but rather Empire, empire-thinking, empire-deceit, empire-divisiveness, along with imperial hubris, imperial wars, and imperial anti-democracy.
Solidarity of people of good faith holds the answers, while empire hold the swords.
I don't think of CommonDreams as a place to battle, but a place to discuss, debate, and work toward our common dreams of peace and equality for all people --- which of course suggests that any nightmarish dreams of empire not pertain or prevail.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Alan,
Very well stated. Good comment.
Yes, I second that.
amacd, I would love to agree with your thought: "the people, average people, peace-loving people in any land" but this is not evident in Israel, where once again they have elected a thug who only wants to be even more brutal and believes in peace not at all.
There is in fact an interesting article at AlterNet today on the growing acceptance among Israelis for the idea of "transfer." You might find it illuminating: http://www.alternet.org/audits/129853/disturbing_idea_of_expelling_arabs_from_israeli_territory_gains_ground/
On the other hand, I do appreciate your sentiments and only wish they were true.
The Palestinian Authority is the "only legitimate government of the Palestinian people,"
The term of President Abbas ended January 9, 2009. A new election is required for him to be "legitimate", but that is unlikely to happen. This, after complaining that Hugo Chavez's referendum allowing him to run for president an indefinite number of times was undemocratic.
CD you are right when you write: “A new election is required for him to be "legitimate", but that is unlikely to happen.” Abbas’ government is not legitimate, I think the Fayyad is also only interim PM too because one third of the Palestinian parliament and one fourth of the board of ministers are serving time in Israel jails : http://www.captivedeputies.com/
There is a game where people have to put their hands and feet on different positions on a mat until they are bent out of shape in the most ludicrous and unrealistic positions. It is unseemly which makes it funny. Here it is no game and one wonders how any thinking American cannot feel guilt and shame when they hear these sound bites of Zionist support.
The US foreign policy line expressed first by Condi now morphed into Clinton without a road bump, is so eager to bend over backward for Israeli impossibilities that amount to ethnic cleansing and colonial tyranny that they no longer appear capable to think straight let alone stand straight.
The threat of Iran? Hamas the surrogate? Abbas and the PA is the only government?.... Tearing down Palestinian houses in Jerusalem is “not helpful”, while building in the west bank is “not mentioned”…. The liturgy of dumb ass licking statements and omissions that comes from this woman while holding hands with the killer of Palestinian babies Livny, gives me that crawling feeing that Israel has a green light to dig the grave of Palestinian hopes for justice deeper, I don’t know about you?
If that is diplomacy, I’ll be Damned. Is that woman playing the good cop while George Mitchell pretends to be the realist bad cop? It is all a game, a show while nobody cares a jot for the core of the injustice that these elitists abide. No, Damn that women, Damn them all for their hypocrisy and inhumanity.
Also, it's pathetic at best that US politicians continue to shun Hamas and instead attempt to ostentatiously apply CPR to the politically moribund Fatah and its Vichyesque leader, Abbas.
Imagine European ambassadors visiting the US after the Civil War, and insisting on conducting official business with Jefferson Davis rather than "recognizing" the despised "Union" government.
Amerika has become a very Tower of Babel when it comes to preaching the virtues of "democracy"-- except when it disagrees with the outcome of certain democratic elections; then it's OK to use any means necessary to undermine and destabilize the "wrong" democratically-elected government. It's our way of being "helpful".
· Yr Obd't Servant
How Is It That Some Survivors Of The Holocaust Are OK With Israel's Massacres Of Palestinians
"Further evidence that Zionism is racist."
"Why?"
"Colonialism turns its practitioners into racists."
"The answer being?"
"Jewish colonizer sitting down with colonized Palestinian for the purpose of figuring things out."
"Based on?"
"One equals one."
"Anything else?"
"Until Israel agrees to this, the Obama adminstration cancels all military and financial aid to the settler-state."
"And then what sort of Mideast?"
"Just and peaceful."
"RAMALLAH, West Bank - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday promised vigorous and personal involvement in stalled Mideast peace efforts and criticized Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem as "unhelpful."
ANTI-SEMITE!
Two state solution? What a joke -- watch this 2 minute video by the AFSC: "Land in Fragments".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewF7AXn3dg
The land occupied by the Zionist regime has one future.
To be cleansed of every last Arab.
Every trace they ever lived made to vanish from the pages of time.
Palestine, Palestinian will first become words used only in the past tense, then words older people have to explain the meaning of to the young.
And then finally, but soon, the words, the memory, all traces will be gone forever.
After 60 years, the pure nature of this is clear.
Goodbye Palestine, while I still have a chance. I've wept for you so much.
I am sorry the Jewish Country killed you, exterminated you. You had what they wanted and all of you had to die.
I hope your murdered babies might live in heaven.
Actually I don't share your pessimism, the steadfastness that the Palestinians had shown in Gaza during the last Israeli assault, and their steadfastness during the last two decades tells a different story. I believe that finally justice will prevail, but one has to fight for it, this is what the Palestinians are doing although they are committing lots of mistakes but they are gaining experience and eventually they will emerge victorious.
I have one other comment on the article which claimed "At the same time, his Islamic militant Hamas rivals, who seized Gaza from him in 2007, are widely seen as emerging stronger from Israel's recent military offensive against them."
Hamas didn't seize Gaza, Hamas was Democratically Elected Party and so formed the Legitimate Government of Palestine, it was Fatah together with the USA and Israel who tried to overthrow it but Hamas realized it and so and seized the power at least in Gaza. Mahmoud Abbas term in office was finished in the 9th of January during the Israeli attack, so Lawfully speaking, it is Abbas who has no legitimacy to power neither is the government he made in the West Bank, Legitimacy lies with the Government of Gaza. We as people should stop the propagation of lies and reveal incorrect recording of events so that the whole world knows the truth of what's happening and decide for themselves.
Bill
When Sen. Hilary waxed enthusiastic about the Wall, half of it inside the West Bank so incorporating more potentially terrorist Arabs, one knew that she was, at core (forget about heart), a racist in her utter insensitivity to the tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs separated from fields, hospitals, mosques, markets, and, above all, THEIR water, by Israel's confiscatory wall. She has consistently manifest that racist insensitivity since, now taking her cue from her racist leader who, likewise, cannot see beyond primitive rockets hitting a human being maybe once in a thousand, as if the rockets are not a consequence of an 18-month act of war blockade that is stunting the development of children and killing those in need of modern medical facility care which the lack of power has denied them and starving 1.5 million human beings and of a series of Israeli provocations to break Hamas' unilateral cease fire culminating in the Nov. 4th bombing of Rafah, killing six that ended the ceasefire and "justified" the all-out attack on morning marketplaces to effect the subjugation of Gazans once and for all. all holds barred, including, as usual, the illegal use of US weapons provided on condition that they be used only defensively.
Racist? I grew up in Tennessee; I know what racism is. To deny another group the rights you claim for yourself, the respect you claim for yourself, the dignity you claim for yourself, is racism. For 61-plus years now, from Truman caving on the partition of Palestine to put most of its people under Jewish rule in an ethnocracy, not a democracy as they claim, we have financed, armed, and enabled Israel's deliberate racist campaign to displace the Arab population of Palestine determined at the First Zionist Congress in Vienna in 1897 and systematically carried out the moment the partition was announced and since. That is, by definition, racist.
Clinton's assertion that a peace agreement most come not by imposition but by negotiated agreement between the parties, one the fourth largest military power, racist, and dismissive of any Palestinian rights, the other subject, with slingshots and homemade rockets and shamefully abandoned by the world community only confirms her indifference to basic justice. You do not get justice by asking the thief to sit down with the victim, constrained in no way, to agree on what part of his loot he will give back, if any. Hilary is a lawyer; she knows that.
Why is Abbas the legitimate government of Palestine? Of course, he is not, but by designating Hamas a terrorist organization, Washington disqualifies the elected government of the Palestinians we insisted they have an election after Arafat was murdered to determine. Terrorist? I do not remember Fitzpatrick's exact definition of terrorism which quickly fell into disuse because it was recognized as defining the U.S. as a terrorist nation, but it was essentially a group that seeks to undermine the legitimate government of another country by force and fear. So who is the terrorist here? The U.S. and Israel promptly set out to undermine the Hamas government of the Palestinians through a blockade, cutting of funding and loans, denial of tax funds Israel collects, and a major sabotage effort, in cahoots with Fatah, to overthrow the Hamas government in Gaza, which backfired, of course, and led to Fatah operatives being killed, jailed, or driven out. Hamas denies Israel's right to exist; of course, it has no RIGHT to exist at the expense of denying Palestinian Arabs self-determination, theft of about 80 per cent of Palestinian real estate, and oppression of its indigenous population. Hamas threatens to end the Israeli ethnocracy. WORDS. In action, Hamas proposed a ten-year truce, open to extension if Israel would end its blockade, end the Occupation, and fairly address its responsibility to ethnically cleansed refugees, clearly a recognition of Israel's existence and continued existence. (Maybe treat Israeli Arabs equally is part of that offer too.) Israel would have none of it. It wants land without Arabs, not peaceful coexistence. So who is the terrorist? Those who would overthrow the elected government of the Palestinian people, in the fairest Arab election ever, by force? Or those who will not agree that Israel has a right to what it took by force and holds illegally but are willing to live beside them peacefully on condition that their human dignity be respected and freedom granted?
If you look closely, the U.S. of A. is the leading terrorist nation in the world today, from Colombia to Haiti to the Middle East and Africa, with Israel a close second, busily assassinating Iranians as we speak.
Perhaps the wily Obama anticipates Mitchell and Freeman giving him the truth and Hilary graciously acquiescing in Mitchell's judicious determination and Obama then insisting that the Israelis get the hell out of all of the Occupied Territories, turning over settlements to Palestinian refugees, and allowing refugee returns or providing full and fair compensation for stolen land, structures, and personal possessions or be faced with a worldwide boycott, sanctions, and divestments. My guess is that it will work the other way: WE will effect the boycotts, etc., and Obama will read the writing on the wall and give the reeling Israelis a push.
By the way, why do we not read of a million Israelis having left Israel in the last four years, of half-empty settlements despite many being given away, of Israel counting as citizens the ashes of Americans who would be buried there?
Bill
When Sen. Hilary waxed enthusiastic about the Wall, half of it inside the West Bank so incorporating more potentially terrorist Arabs, one knew that she was, at core (forget about heart), a racist in her utter insensitivity to the tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs separated from fields, hospitals, mosques, markets, and, above all, THEIR water, by Israel's confiscatory wall. She has consistently manifest that racist insensitivity since, now taking her cue from her racist leader who, likewise, cannot see beyond primitive rockets hitting a human being maybe once in a thousand, as if the rockets are not a consequence of an 18-month act of war blockade that is stunting the development of children and killing those in need of modern medical facility care which the lack of power has denied them and starving 1.5 million human beings and of a series of Israeli provocations to break Hamas' unilateral cease fire culminating in the Nov. 4th bombing of Rafah, killing six that ended the ceasefire and "justified" the all-out attack on morning marketplaces to effect the subjugation of Gazans once and for all. all holds barred, including, as usual, the illegal use of US weapons provided on condition that they be used only defensively.
Racist? I grew up in Tennessee; I know what racism is. To deny another group the rights you claim for yourself, the respect you claim for yourself, the dignity you claim for yourself, is racism. For 61-plus years now, from Truman caving on the partition of Palestine to put most of its people under Jewish rule in an ethnocracy, not a democracy as they claim, we have financed, armed, and enabled Israel's deliberate racist campaign to displace the Arab population of Palestine determined at the First Zionist Congress in Vienna in 1897 and systematically carried out the moment the partition was announced and since. That is, by definition, racist.
Clinton's assertion that a peace agreement most come not by imposition but by negotiated agreement between the parties, one the fourth largest military power, racist, and dismissive of any Palestinian rights, the other subject, with slingshots and homemade rockets and shamefully abandoned by the world community only confirms her indifference to basic justice. You do not get justice by asking the thief to sit down with the victim, constrained in no way, to agree on what part of his loot he will give back, if any. Hilary is a lawyer; she knows that.
Why is Abbas the legitimate government of Palestine? Of course, he is not, but by designating Hamas a terrorist organization, Washington disqualifies the elected government of the Palestinians we insisted they have an election after Arafat was murdered to determine. Terrorist? I do not remember Fitzpatrick's exact definition of terrorism which quickly fell into disuse because it was recognized as defining the U.S. as a terrorist nation, but it was essentially a group that seeks to undermine the legitimate government of another country by force and fear. So who is the terrorist here? The U.S. and Israel promptly set out to undermine the Hamas government of the Palestinians through a blockade, cutting of funding and loans, denial of tax funds Israel collects, and a major sabotage effort, in cahoots with Fatah, to overthrow the Hamas government in Gaza, which backfired, of course, and led to Fatah operatives being killed, jailed, or driven out. Hamas denies Israel's right to exist; of course, it has no RIGHT to exist at the expense of denying Palestinian Arabs self-determination, theft of about 80 per cent of Palestinian real estate, and oppression of its indigenous population. Hamas threatens to end the Israeli ethnocracy. WORDS. In action, Hamas proposed a ten-year truce, open to extension if Israel would end its blockade, end the Occupation, and fairly address its responsibility to ethnically cleansed refugees, clearly a recognition of Israel's existence and continued existence. (Maybe treat Israeli Arabs equally is part of that offer too.) Israel would have none of it. It wants land without Arabs, not peaceful coexistence. So who is the terrorist? Those who would overthrow the elected government of the Palestinian people, in the fairest Arab election ever, by force? Or those who will not agree that Israel has a right to what it took by force and holds illegally but are willing to live beside them peacefully on condition that their human dignity be respected and freedom granted?
If you look closely, the U.S. of A. is the leading terrorist nation in the world today, from Colombia to Haiti to the Middle East and Africa, with Israel a close second, busily assassinating Iranians as we speak.
Perhaps the wily Obama anticipates Mitchell and Freeman giving him the truth and Hilary graciously acquiescing in Mitchell's judicious determination and Obama then insisting that the Israelis get the hell out of all of the Occupied Territories, turning over settlements to Palestinian refugees, and allowing refugee returns or providing full and fair compensation for stolen land, structures, and personal possessions or be faced with a worldwide boycott, sanctions, and divestments. My guess is that it will work the other way: WE will effect the boycotts, etc., and Obama will read the writing on the wall and give the reeling Israelis a push.
By the way, why do we not read of a million Israelis having left Israel in the last four years, of half-empty settlements despite many being given away, of Israel counting as citizens the ashes of Americans who would be buried there?
Excellent post--thank you!
Not helpful.
Why are the people who are demolishing homes, taking land, taking water, occupying another nation with no end in sight, arresting them at will, incarcerating them by the tens of thousands, besieging them, why are the people doing all of this things getting the beneift of the doubt?
Ever since when is the benefit of the doubt given to the people who are taking the homes of others who have been made refugees or stateless or both?
Ever since when is one a terrorist when he's fighting a foreign military power on the land he was born and raised?
Not helpful.
Your entire life comes crashing down and the whole mess is simply not helpful.
If people like Obama can't bring even himself to get over the fears and insecurities that have always prevented the US from solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict then there's no hope for any of this.
It's inexcusable how the US has utterly failed to establish a legal guideline that can at the very least be used for the protection of an occupied nation.
Nevermind ending the occupation, what's needed now and that has been needed for at least the last 30 years is a legal guideline that can be useful in ensuring the rights and safety of a people being submitted to a military power.
Not helpful.
As if it's the first time Palestinian homes have been demolished. Over 400 villages and towns and over 35,000 homes and business erased from the face of the earth, and that b.it.ch thinks that one more home, one more village is simply not helpful.