Israel doing 'immense damage' to peace process Nick Clegg says

[bemildred]

The Deputy Prime Minister drew a hostile reaction from Israel by saying the government’s continued construction on internationally recognised Palestinian land was “an act of deliberate vandalism” that undermined the basis of the Middle East peace process.

In some of the most critical language ever used by a senior European politician in government, Mr Clegg accused Israel of making the likelihood of a negotiated settlement to the conflict impossible to deliver.

“It is an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise on which negotiations have taken place for years and years and years,” Mr Clegg said.

He said there was “no stronger supporter of Israel than myself as a beacon of democracy in the region”, but added: “The continued existence of illegal settlements risks making facts on the ground such that a two-state solution becomes unviable.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9018394/Israel-doing-immense-damage-to-peace-process-Nick-Clegg-says.html

I don't really have any comment, don't know much about British politics.

[Violet_Crumble]

1. Clegg's a bit of a sell-out, but at least he's right with what he said there n/t

[bemildred]

2. Ah.

I know what to expect from Vice Presidents, Deputy Prime Ministers I'm not so sure which pidgeon-hole to shove them in.

This seems an interesting development, if one assumes he is a designated mouthpiece, he sounds quite annoyed.

[LeftishBrit]

4. A Deputy PM isn't really the same as Vice President

For instance, while Clegg might take over the reigns briefly if Cameron's abroad, there is *no* chance he'd take over from him if he resigned. In this case, it's because he's in the small and increasingly irrelevant party in coalition with the Tories; but even when the PM and Deputy PM are in the same party it usually doesn't make the latter the heir apparent; e.g. Blair's deputy PM was John Prescott, but the heir apparent was Gordon Brown from the beginning. The Deputy PM does not have a very clear role, except to sit in Cabinet and look important, or in the case of Clegg, to sit in Cabinet and look like a complete drip who doesn't have a clue how he got into this or how to get out of it.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Well, so they are - but the British Tories are doing immense damage to bloody everything, and who's

helping to prop them up then?! Look in your own backyard, Nick!