The U.S. quarrel with Israel

[Mosby]

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S Middle East diplomacy failed in his first year in part because he chose to engage in an unnecessary and unwinnable public confrontation with Israel over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Over the past six months Mr. Obama's envoys gingerly retreated from that fight and worked to build better relations with the government of Binyamin Netanyahu. Last week the administration finally managed to strike a deal for the launching of indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks. So it has been startling -- and a little puzzling -- to see Mr. Obama deliberately plunge into another public brawl with the Jewish state.

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Mr. Obama and his advisers appear determined to prove that they will not be pushed around by Israel. The public scoldings also send a message to Palestinian and Arab leaders who have been demanding assurances that the United States will use its leverage in the new peace negotiations. And the administration hopes to extract immediate concessions from Mr. Netanyahu: It has demanded that he reverse the Jerusalem settlement decision, release Palestinian prisoners, agree to cover sensitive "final status" issues in the indirect talks and investigate the errant settlement announcement.

Mr. Netanyahu already has conceded the last point and may give way on others; he is facing harsh domestic criticism. But Mr. Obama risks repeating his previous error. American chastising of Israel invariably prompts still harsher rhetoric, and elevated demands, from Palestinian and other Arab leaders. Rather than join peace talks, Palestinians will now wait to see what unilateral Israeli steps Washington forces. Mr. Netanyahu already has made a couple of concessions in the past year, including declaring a partial moratorium on settlements. But on the question of Jerusalem, he is likely to dig in his heels -- as would any other Israeli government. If the White House insists on a reversal of the settlement decision, or allows Palestinians to do so, it might land in the same corner from which it just extricated itself.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031502667.html?wprss=rss_print/editorialpages

[NJmaverick]

1. Israel's settlements are wrong and immoral. They are an illegal land grab

our nation has to stand on principles. I say we cut off all aid to Israel until they pull back from every illegal settlement.

[Douglas Carpenter]

2. 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 whose actions and policy effectively rule out utterly and completely and absolutely even any remote glimmer of a possibility of ever accepting a peace agreement that includes a actually viable two-state solution?

This recent announcement to build 1600 more illegal settler units in Occupied Territory in the middle of the visit by Vice President Joe Biden was simply the last straw.

Those who want Israelis to be able to live in peace and security in the region should be the strongest voices in condemning this outlandish policy and behavior by the Israeli government.

[Jefferson23]

3. Yea, but some seem to believe that when Israel qualified the building

to be in the future, not an event taking place currently, that is no reason for the Arab League to suggest the peace talks should
be tabled, lol.

[katandmoon]

4. Fuck Israel.