Clinton Slams Israel's Settlement Plans: 'Deeply Negative Signal'

[oberliner]

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday delivered a stinging rebuke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his government's announcement this week of new Jewish housing in east Jerusalem, calling it "a deeply negative signal" for the Mideast peace process and ties with the U.S.

The State Department said Clinton spoke to Netanyahu by phone for 43 minutes to vent U.S. frustration with Tuesday's announcement that cast a pall over a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden and endangered indirect peace talks with the Palestinians that the Obama administration had announced just a day earlier.

The length and unusually blunt tone of Clinton's call underscored the administration's concern about prospects for the negotiations it has been trying to organize for more than a year and its anger over Israel's refusal to heed U.S. appeals not to make provocative gestures.

"The announcement of the settlements on the very day that the vice president was there was insulting," Clinton said in an interview with CNN Friday. "It was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone, the U.S., our vice president who had gone to reassert America's strong support for Israeli security, and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that view known."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/12/clinton-delivers-strong-m_n_497052.html

[cutlassmama]

1. Biden told them this a few days ago too. Wonder why they thought this would be a good idea?

[Dems to Win]

2. Thios will be Every bit as effective as Sebelius's sternly worded letter to Blue Cross.

As long as the U.S. continues giving Israel 4 billion dollars a year, they don't care a whit about blunt phone calls.

End U.S. handouts to Israel NOW!!!!

[theoldman]

3. People just don't understand that the Israelis don't care what we think.

The Israelis have a long term plan and that is to control the entire region. Their plan is to eventually drive all of the Palestinians out. It may take a hundred years but they feel that eventually they will reach their goal. They are getting closer to the point of no return. I don't think the Palestinians are stupid either. They understand the inevitable and will not go down without a fight.

[Mosby]

4. The Palestinian Authority Walks Out of Talks with a Big Smile on Its Face

In 1994, Israel asserted, and the PLO accepted, that construction would continue on existing Jewish settlements. For the next 15 years, negotiations were never stopped by that building.

In January 2009, the Palestinian Authority (PA) stopped negotiations because Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip and Israel defended itself. Of course, Hamas is also the PA’s enemy and the PA would be delighted if Israel destroyed that group. But for public relations’ purposes, the PA had to pretend inter-Palestinian solidarity.

Then came President Barack Obama who demanded a stop to all construction on settlements in 2009. Israel finally complied but announced that it would keep building in east Jerusalem. The United States accepted that arrangement and even highly praised Israel’s policy as a major concession.

But the PA refused to return to negotiations. Why, because the construction offended it? No, because the PA’s radical forces don’t want to make a peace deal because they believe they can win total victory and destroy Israel. The more moderate forces are too weak to make a deal because of Hamas and their own radicals, though they also have some problems with mutual compromise.

In September 2009, Obama announced that within two months there would be full and final peace negotiations in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “yes”: PA leader Mahmoud Abbas said “no.”

No Western media outlet said that the PA refusal to negotiate for—as of today—about 15 months shows that the PA doesn’t want peace. Yet they had no hesitation about saying that Israel doesn’t want peace (or at least maybe doesn’t) because Israel announced the building of apartments on the basis of a policy it has followed for 16 years, without serious complaint for most of that time.

http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/03/palestinian-authority-walks-out-of.html

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. Netanyahu already ruled out any possibility whatsoever of ever evacuating any illegal settlement -

in Occupied Territory - ever. Netanyahu has promised the settler movement that the current and very limited freeze is a one time only matter and will never, ever again be repeated. Even in the case of this most recent public spat with the U.S. regarding instituting plans for building more illegal settlement housing in Occupied Territory in East Jerusalem - the Netanyahu government idea of granting assurance to the U.S. is to pledge that the illegal housing units will actually be built several years later. - which is another way of saying the the Netanyahu government fully intends to continue building illegal housing in Occupied Territory for the next several years.

How on earth can the Palestinian Authority negotiate with a government that has completely ruled out any possibility whatsoever of ever, ever recognizing or accepting even the most minimal requirements of international law and a government has utterly and completely and absolutely ruled out even any remote glimmer of a possibility of ever accepting a peace agreement that includes a actually viable two-state solution?

[LeftishBrit]

6. I hope she has some effect