Ineteresting Israeli article on this week's events

[karynnj]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=740978

I do not know anything about the source, but the conclusions can be taken on their own merits. From all sources, it is clear that the tensions are high and there are huge disagreements.

Given that you have people in Netanyahu's party who are far from what a realistic solution has to be - including a deputy defense minister who actually spoke of not wanting to speak of "Jewish settlements on the West Bank", but rather Palestinian enclaves in Israel (!) and Palestinians who want not just a state on the 67 borders with East Jerusalem as its capitol, but the right to return for Palestinians granted in the part that remains Israel, it would be no surprise that IF the negotiators start to reach a successful conclusion that BOTH extremes would try to sink it. (This is not to say that there are signs that anything is near - just pointing out that some on both sides STILL think they are better off not negotiating now - thinking time is on their side.)

[karynnj]

1. Unrelated but placed here because I don't want to start a thread here on this

Here is an article that is on the SA press conference with JK and the SA FM. The ONLY thing that DU has focused on is that after giving a very short nod to US values, he did not go after SA on not letting women drive. This article gives a lot of context to the probable reason why.

He was there to soothe the relationship - while NOT caving to SA on Syria and Iran. This is really a case of picking your battles - and the SOS chose Iran and Syria - which are where SA was seeking to influence OUR behavior. His comments on Syria are the strongest I have read to date from any Obama administration person.

[div class = "excerpt"]
In what may have been the frankest description to date of administration views, Kerry said at the news conference that “absent a negotiated solution, we don’t see a lot of ways to end the violence that are implementable or palatable to us, because we don’t have the legal authority or justification or the desire, at this point, to get in the middle of the civil war.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/kerry-meets-with-saudi-king-abdullah-amid-policy-differences-on-mideast-issues/2013/11/04/4dbf204a-4554-11e3-a196-3544a03c2351_story_1.html

I did not see this article before the hyper thread on DU that focused only on Kerry not blasting SA on the women issue. I am putting this here in case it comes up again or if the more important issue of Syria does. (This and the online addition to the 60 minutes piece saying essentially the same thing are good to have.)