West Bank Attack Targets U.S. Consulate Security Vehicle

[Violet_Crumble]

Source: Wall Street Journal

TEL AVIV—A group of Israeli settlers pelted a U.S. consulate security vehicle with rocks near a West Bank settlement during a visit Friday to investigate allegations that olive trees belonging to Palestinians had been uprooted, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

The confrontation between U.S. guards and armed settlers—the first of its kind in recent memory—didn’t result in any injuries.

A consulate spokesman said the U.S. is “deeply concerned” by the incident, and that the U.S. is offering video footage to aid in the Israeli investigation.

Photographs provided by a Palestinian escort showed the black U.S. consulate vehicle, a Chevrolet Suburban, with a dent on the hood and scarred on the side from the melee.


Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/west-bank-attack-targets-u-s-consulate-security-vehicle-1420242694

[FormerOstrich]

1. my my

:jaw drop to floor:

[cosmicone]

2. Not surprising

Many of the settlers are selfish, greedy fascists and don't want any law to stop them.

[StoneCarver]

3. Israel get out...

Israel, you are becoming a pariah in the world. Nobody wishes you harm but you can not commit genocide to recreate the second state of Israel. The world is watching and your behavior is abhorrent. You are the new South Africa. I just wish a Palestinian would be a Nelson Mandela and create the healing necessary.

But, Israel –no one cares about your piece of dirt except a few in the US. The world is against you. Europe is now seen as the honest broker. The east (China and Japan) could care less. Russia doesn’t give a rip either. S. America will vote against the US –just because it can.

I do feel bad for the peaceful Israelis. But the whole country is toast, they just don’t see it yet –and I feel so bad for them. How do you stop a country from hitting itself?

[truth2power]

4. My thoughts, too. Thank you. n/t

[another_liberal]

7. The Israeli government is far worse than South Africa's racists.

Many black South Africans were brutalized and killed by the White Supremacist government, but there was never anything like the IDF's binges of slaughter and destruction waged against the Palestinians.


As to the peaceful, decent Israelis: One of history's worst butchers once said that it's easy to lead even a democratic country to wage war on it neighbors. He suggested all a leader needs to do is tell the people that their neighbors want to make war on them, and then tell the people they are already under attack.

[The Shredder]

9. Before you make yourself look like a idiot - please read my post on comparsion on apartheid being a

myth.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113491419#post4

Thanks!

Palestinians are NOT Israeli Arabs. Palestinians are FREE to apply to be an Israeli Arab, and enjoy the same rights, and a lot of them do.

Israeli Arabs enjoy the same rights as the Israeli Jews.

As much many people think - it is not a theocratic state, it's actually a democratic state, with representations everywhere.

[StoneCarver]

12. ????

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said in remarks broadcast Monday that Israeli policy in the West Bank represented instances of apartheid worse even that those that once held sway in South Africa.

"When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/jimmy-carter-israel-s-apartheid-policies-worse-than-south-africa-s-1.206865

[Mosby]

13. The west bank isn't Israel

Here is what President Carter said about ISRAEL:

"Israel is a wonderful democracy with equal treatment of all citizens whether Arab or Jew"

[StoneCarver]

14. Cite your source

You don't get to put quotations around anything you type and attribute it.

[Mosby]

15. NPR

Most of the people that seem to be critical have not read the book, or they haven’t referred to anything inside Palestine, and the book is not written about Israel at all. I know that Israel is a wonderful democracy with equal treatment of all citizens whether Arab or Jew. And so I very carefully avoided talking about anything inside Israel. The book is about Palestine and what’s going on inside the occupied territories….

http://www.wnyc.org/story/57797-jimmy-carter/

[karynnj]

18. Not if they live in Gaza or the West Bank

The comments that Israel COULD become an apartheid state are IF Israel rejects a 2 state solution AND rejects a one state solution giving equal rights to all in ALL the area that includes the "48" Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

In his recent book, Ari Shavit, a leading Israeli journalist, himself listed only 4 possibilities -
three of which he considered unthinkable.
1) To eliminate the Palestinians by forcing them out of the area - something he rightfully both rejected and called ethnic cleansing.

2) A one state solution where the country could lose its Jewish identity - something he as a "liberal Zionist" rejected.

3) A one state solution where people in the West Bank and Gaza do not have equal rights - ie what we have now, but without the goal of change - which he called an apartheid state

4) The acceptable solution was a two state solution, but he argued that they did not now have the courageous leadership needed.

There have been many Israeli leaders - Barach and Livni included who have used the word apartheid - and they have used it to argue why a two state solution is needed.

[MisterP]

10. and the thing is the government knows this: before 1976 they were just an ally, not an

*unconditional* ally: nowadays Israel could have set the guards on fire and paraded the blackened remainders of their bodies around, and anyone who complained would get a call at 2 in the morning and find they've been blacklisted from journalism or even tenured academia

but one day, and perhaps one day *soon*, they know they'll take it one step too far--and they've executed dozens more Americans in cold blood than Somoza or Trujillo ever did

[karynnj]

5. Nice thank you for the US using its political capital to defeat the Palestinian resolution

I hope that the settlers' politicians - like Bennett apologize for their words that fuel things like this. Israel's move to the right has been heartbreaking.

[Divernan]

6. Not to mention over $10 billion in U.S. financial assistance in 2014 alone.

Israel–United States relations - Wikipedia, the free ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–United_States_relations
Wikipedia
More recently, in fiscal year 2014, the US provided $3.6 billion in foreign military aid to Israel. Israel also benefits from about $7.9 billion of loan guarantees.

[The Shredder]

16. That's why you should not support the Netanyahu government, but rather

the left.

Herzog and Livini's coalition is actually ready to lead Israel after the March elections, while the right-wing coalitions collapses and goes back being a fringe full of nuts.

The nuts are to be completely ignored. The settlers building beyond what's established and legal is going too far.

They are not of my people, and those settlers are right-wing nuts that doesn't belong in Israel.

[karynnj]

17. I never supported Netanyahu - not in any term as PM

I hope that Herzog and Livni will be able to pull this out. In fact, the elections have had their own impact in tying the hands of the US.

Even the left leaning Haaretz has claimed that almost ANY action by the US - vetoing, not vetoing the UN resolution will be used to help Netanyahu - who has argued he can keep Israel safest -- think of him as their GWB circa 2003/2004.

Netanyahu has been dishonest throughout the peace talks -- and his goal has been to disrupt any agreement since at least his actions against Oslo more than 20 years ago!

[another_liberal]

8. There are reports that weapons were drawn by embassy guards with the convoy . . .

Here is a link to the details:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/02/us-mideast-israel-usa-settlement-idUSKBN0KB0WX20150102

[oberliner]

11. Always such interesting responses to posts about Israel in the main forums

Really quite enlightening.

In any case, this is absolutely despicable behavior on the part of these thugs. I hope they are identified and arrested swiftly.

The whole settlement enterprise is a blight on the country that must be dealt with.

[karynnj]

19. The responses in the main forum AND is I/P surprise me

On the one hand their is a among some a kneejerk hatred of Israel where the worst is always assumed and no extenuating circumstances considered. However, there are also some - on the other side of the spectrum - who rarely if ever are willing to comment that the Israeli government is wrong or culpable.

About three years ago, I went to my NJ synagogues event where some AIPAC people spoke to us of Israeli issues. This was a few weeks after a very successful J Street event. After listening to their comments that essentially said it was counterproductive for American Jews to speak on more than one side of an issue -- and that their policy was to take the position of the Israeli government. I immediately said that I could not do that and as I felt I had a responsibility to speak against my own President GWB, I refused to accept that I could not speak against the actions of Netanyahu. (Another person made the better point that AIPAC had NOT sided with non Likud Presidents in the past).

I have heard the argument that it is the Israelis who will suffer the consequences of their decisions -- thus only they should have a say. In fact, only they DO have a say in electing their government. What they are actually pushing for is for us to push OUR government to do what their government wants.

To put it very clearly -- I trust Obama and especially, Kerry -- and I don't trust Netanyahu and Lieberman, Bennett or several other Israelis further than I could throw them!