Ya'alon: Settlement construction will continue in spite of US pressure to stop

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/15798-yaalon-settlement-construction-will-continue-in-spite-of-us-pressure-to-stop

Settlement construction will continue in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon said in a statement published by Israeli media outlets yesterday.

He claimed that the American administration had pressured Israel to halt the advancement of settlement plans but "this administration won't be in power forever", referring to Barack Obama's administration which Ya'alon has clashed with numerous times.

Israeli sources claimed that the American administration could not use its veto power in the UN Security Council vote on the Palestinian-Jordanian proposal to set a timeframe for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.

In a conversation with high school pupils from an Aran settlement in Bethlehem, Ya'alon said that he wants to advance plans for settlement construction and to build more but his government warned against this, "not to pull too hard on the rope with Washington". In reference to Obama's objections, he said "but this administration won't be in power forever".

Imagine this for a moment, my fellow DUers.

Imagine if one of your subordinates, classmates, friends or vendors made the statement that "I'll do what I want. You won't be around forever."

How long would it take you to extract yourself from that relationship?

So why do we support Israel in such a fasion when it appears that they are looking forward to dealing with...dare I say...a republican administration? After all, King Bibi was practically picking out china patterns with Mitt Romney not that long ago.

Just remember that.

[Shaktimaan]

1. This time even the op disagrees with you.

In a conversation with high school pupils from an Aran settlement in Bethlehem, Ya'alon said that he wants to advance plans for settlement construction and to build more but his government warned against this, "not to pull too hard on the rope with Washington". In reference to Obama's objections, he said "but this administration won't be in power forever".

So in reality, this one person made a statement "they won't be around forever" to abunch of high school students (!) aka: not in any official capacity, while in the same breath admitting that the rest of the government feels differently.

So you're basically saying that if a member of any government proposes not doing exactly what America tells it to do we should cut off relations immediately? It also seems that you think the U.S. should determine it's foreign policy based on party politics.

Or is it just Israel you feel that way about?

[Israeli]

2. Pssst .....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113489575

In other words, the defense minister is waiting for Barack Obama’s administration to be replaced so that construction for the settlers can be expanded to even greater dimensions than their current ones.

These are the two faces of the State of Israel’s outgoing government, and this is its duplicitous nature: On the one hand, the defense minister, who longs for the replacement of the American administration, hopes to build more and more settlements to ruin the last chance for the two-state solution. On the other hand, the prime minister urgently asks the same administration for help in scuttling the Palestinian initiative to end the occupation, using the accepted Israeli claim that unilateral measures are not helpful to the peace process.

It is hard to grasp why the United States continues to placate Netanyahu, the prime minister who has done everything he could to sabotage relations with it. It is even harder to grasp how Israel dares come out against the Palestinian initiative even as it does everything possible to leave the Palestinian Authority with no alternative. After all, Israel continues to build in the settlements, which is perhaps the most unilateral move imaginable.