Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiPalestinians Criticize US U-Turn on Settlements
THE PALESTINIAN Authority yesterday rejected the Obama administration's call for unconditional resumption of negotiations with Israel and castigated the US for dropping its demand for a freeze on Israeli settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
![[U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a joint news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before their meeting in Jerusalem October 31, 2009. (REUTERS/Dan Balilty/Pool)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/clinton_settlementsanger.jpg "clinton_settlementsanger.jpg")
Following meetings with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and Israeli premier Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said that Israel's refusal to agree to a settlement freeze, initially demanded by the Obama administration, should not be an obstacle to negotiations. She observed that Israel was proposing "unprecedented" concessions by offering to restrain growth in settlements in the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu has said he would complete construction on 3,000 housing units in the West Bank over the next nine months but has refused to accept limits in East Jerusalem. Israel's Peace Now movement says the average number of housing units Israel constructs every year is 1,400.
Mrs Clinton's words amounted to a blow to Mr Abbas, who called the US position "illogical". He has renounced armed resistance for negotiations as the means to achieve a state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian Authority media chief Ghassan Khatib expressed disappointment over the new position adopted by the US. He said: "The American administration [had] been making efforts to convince Israel to freeze settlement activity in order to be able to broach a meaningful peace process." He said negotiating in parallel with settlement activity had failed.
"The Palestinians are trying to avoid repeating [this] mistake . . . conducting negotiations while settlement expansion is taking place would be like an indirect encouragement and a legitimisation of illegal settlement activity."
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat argued that Israel was pre-empting the outcome of negotiations by creating "facts on the ground" although, under the 2003 road map peace plan Israel is obliged to freeze settlements. He called on the US, EU and UN to make certain that Israel honours its obligations.
Nabil Abu Rudainah, a spokesman for Mr Abbas, asserted: "The negotiations are in a state of paralysis. The result of Israel's intransigence and America's back-pedalling is there is no hope of negotiations on the horizon."
Palestinian and Arab commentators who had welcomed President Obama's call for change and for engagement with the Muslim world issued during his June address in Cairo, expressed disillusionment with the US administration. Mrs Clinton is likely to receive a chilly welcome today when she meets Arab counterparts in Morocco.
29 Comments so far
Show AllRiddle:
Why wouldn't Israel want to be the 51st state?
Answer:
Then they would have only two senators instead of 50.
Obama is looking like a fraud more and more each day - war, patriot act, domestic spying, extraordinary rendition, torture, bailouts for billionaires, swine flu vaccines (supporting the health racket by forcing everyone to buy insurance or pay a penalty), military industrial complex, and bowing to his masters in israel rather than standing up to this puny state. This confirms who really owns America, does it not? Can't tell the difference between Obama and Bush!
I will no longer be fooled by the illusion that we live in a democracy. There are no politicians who are willing to bust the status quo. They are wholly owned and operated by the British-Zionist-American imperial triumvirate - Bilderberger/CFR/neocon types who control the system. With Obama showing us we can have no hope in him, we certainly can have no hope for this country. It's all over until a true third party candidate can step up to the plate. I will never vote for another democrat ever again. We need someone progressive with a libertarian bent when it comes to privacy matters. End wars now.
What happened to our requirement thai Israel stop its settlement expansion? Did AIPAC flex its muscle once again? For whom does Hillary speak?
For heaven's sake - it is a CLIENT STATE. And,
As if the US of A is scared of anyone. Well. Maybe China.
Why do people actually think that the 'powers that be' give a darn about anyone who doesn't serve their interests? No, not OUR interests. THEIRS. But what else is new???????
And why did anyone believe Obama in the first place?
Because he said he was a Christian about a hundred times in the first month of his presidency to make sure no one took him for....heaven forbid - a Muslim! He and his crew are just as abhorrent as what came before. But more... chic?
Yes. America wanted a 'hipper' looking empire. So.
That is what we got.
Dateline 1942.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt indicated that the USSR and Great Britain should recognize the Third reichs claims to France, The Baltic States, Poland and territories inside Russia to the outskirts of Moscow.
"Adolf Hitler has made unprecedented Concessions indicating he would dramatically slow the Ethnic Cleansing of Slavs From East Europe." a spokeperson said. "Indeed he has also indicated he would consider slowing the expansion of Slave Labor Camps in Poland and would consider expelling Ethnic Poles, Jews and Latvians to The USSR and Britain rather then just "eliminate" them"."
"Lebenstraum amongst the territories of the "Lesser races" has always been at the core of Nazi Ideology and the fact that the Governmnet of Germany will consider slowing these policies is a dramatic concession! Poles, Russians the Jews and French should recognize the right of the Third Reich to exist and come to the peace table willing to negotiate peace rather then continue their resistance".
GwNorth--What a great post! Thank you!
Photo caption:
"The thing we're shoving up the rectums of the Palestinians and the American taxpayers is THIS big!"
"The future state of Palistine will be this big."
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
"I love the Jews thiiiiis much!"
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Americans/America are spineless when it comes to dealing with Israel....Yes, America/Americans are two-faced with a double standard when it comes to Israel and the rest of the Islamic/Arab world.
In this regard, America acts more like wimp and coward than superpower. Israel craps all over America/Americans and the weaklings in the U.S.A. take it standing up and bending over and all other ways Israel tells the "badass" Americans/America to behave as.
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio
Oh, so the Palestinians are disappointed and disillusioned with the way things are going.
If they really thought this was a new beginning I would like to sell them a bridge in America. They can buy it real cheap.
The Bush administration and Israel have been real close since he took office, especially after 9/11. Sending the bombs that Israel used in northern Syria that killed the innocent, instead of Hamas in the south,Bush supplied them with weapons and money that was used in the Massacre of the Palestinians, so it seems Israel has some kind of hold over the US, and no matter who is president, will play their game. It was apparent when the back stabber Joe Lieberman was let play both parties, and is a good friend of Bush, and Clinton. I wonder if somehow 9/11 plays a part????
Clinton is the wrong person to represent the US in the Middle East. In her meetings with Abbas and Netanyahu, she shot her own credibility in the foot. Allowing the Israelis to continue building 3000 houses in territory that belongs to Palestinians, and demanding that Palestinians make all the concessions is outrageous. Clinton will never be seen as a fair broker in the Middle East and Obama too has lost the trust of the Palestinians. Netanyahu, overjoyed by Clinton's help, will stall and opportunistically pass the blame onto the Palestinians, when in fact it is his government--with its racist apartheid policies--that is blocking peace. If Clinton were a true diplomat, instead of an Israeli shill, she would have addressed the blockade of Gaza, the illegal separation wall, and Israel's transference policies as genuine preconditions for peace talks. Instead, by overlooking Israel's war crimes, crimes against humanity, land theft, and apartheid policies, the Obama administration becomes complicit in Israel's racism and colonialism. To its everlasting shame and disgrace, the US House will soon pass a resolution rejecting the findings of the Goldstone report. Is there any other country that receives the moral and legal exemptions that Israel does? Instead of colluding with Israel's war crimes' cover-up, the US should be the first to hold Israel accountable for its actions. But perhaps that would require something the US Congress has never been known for: courage.
And here's what that rabid dog (no offense to the dogs!) Netanyahoo had to say on the subject. The self-righteouness of these people is unbearable to watch!
Benjamin Netanyahu: “The simple fact is this: We are willing to engage in peace talks immediately without preconditions. The other fact is that, unfortunately, the other side is not. It is asking and piling on preconditions that it never put on in the sixteen years that we’ve had the peace process, since the annunciation of the Oslo accords. There have not been these preconditions. It’s a change of Palestinian policy, and I hope they change back to the right thing, which is to get into the negotiating tent. We’re eager and sincere in our desire to reach an agreement to end this conflict.”
And in those 16 years, thousands of Israeli homes have been inserted into Palestinian lands. These are connected to the motherland by roads that Palestinians may not enter or even cross except at specified points.
The effect of stalling is clear: given enough more years of pretending to be ready for negotiations, there will be no part of Palestine that will be inhabitable by Palestinians.
And, of course, the yanks send a "disgraced woman" to represent them, further "slapping the face". But she's a tough c****.
Is it problem with Clinton alone - don't think so. She must have followed the official line only :-)
Goldstone report is too dangerous for Israel - and we all know how string the Israel lobby in the US - so no wonder it would be shelved.
Bush two in progress... just the names have changed to protect the guilty. The usa has to be inhabited by the dumbest people on the
planet..
For instance does any one ever mention the military budget..
Why did the rolling stone stop its great get your war on Cartoon?
2012 can't get here soon enough..
That's a vague allegation that "USA has to be inhabited by the dumbest people on the planet" :-)
The problem is that people's choices are limited - it's a 2-party system only - and at the very core both parties have the same symbiotic relationship with the military-industrial complex.
Obama is no faker - but can't be much different - and when Israel is concerned it's absolutely dangerous to go against the Israel lobby.
"What we have here in this country is a one-party system with two right wings." - Gore Vidal
camus13
Who ever thought you could trust Obama's word?
Simon says raise your hands and hold them just beyond shoulder width apart. Simon says wear a black suit. Simon says streaks, blond 5.376 cm from brow, carefully splayed over gray hair dyed brown to suggest the desire of shifting one's identity. Simon says now move your hands closer together - just enough to make everyone think of rewsolution.
The only thing missing is cleavage - for the real cleaver that has been slammed down.
"If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!"
"Palestinian and Arab commentators who had welcomed President Obama's call for change and for engagement with the Muslim world issued during his June address in Cairo, expressed disillusionment with the US administration."
Yeah ...disillusionment....them and 200 million Americans....and the rest of the world.
Obama is a FINE speechifier....not so much on the substance though.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
"Obama is a FINE speechifier....not so much on the substance though."
Too true.
When Obama was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the comments I enjoyed most was by someone who said he hadn't realized before that the Nobel Peace Prize has a Toast Master category.
AIPAC would spank her if she disobeyed.
Correct spelling: Netanyahoo