Israel to US: Go f*** yourself. We do as we please.

[invictus]

"JERUSALEM – Israel on Sunday rejected a U.S. demand to suspend a planned housing project in east Jerusalem, threatening to further complicate an unusually tense standoff with its strongest ally over settlement construction.

Israeli officials said the country's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that a project being developed by an American millionaire in the disputed section of the holy city should not go ahead."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090719/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

Wow. We send billions of tax dollars to this country every year which continues to steal Palestinian land, murder little kids, bulldoze the homes of poor people, and robs US taxpayers.

[davidpdx]

1. We have so little influence over it

I just pray they don't start preemptively bombing countries around them and expect us to get pulled into a war. That's the last thing we need.

[Kdillard]

2. US to Israel. No more money. If these are our allies we are in deep

trouble.

[OwnedByFerrets]

26. What do you mean IF? These ARE our allies...and we ARE

in deep trouble.

[lunatica]

3. This whole story seems strange to me

It isn't Obama's style to be confrontational. It makes me wonder why he's so obviously acting out of character? My guess is something is going on that we aren't privy to. It's all kind of staged to make both the US and Israel look like their tough on each other.

Being never too far from my tinfoil hat when it comes to political shenanigans I know that when it comes to politics what we see is only what they want us to see.

[Hutzpa]

8. ah!

the wise speaks, absolutely, this is someone somewhere being activated into producing
this wonderful piece, could be those that got left behind by Cheney.

There is more to this story and people need to learn to read between the lines.

[Flying Dream Blues]

18. Yes, I'll bet those Obama-in-keffiyeh pics were made by Karl Rove.

[dorkulon]

42. I tend to believe it's a show-dispute.

If Obama wants to seem like a legitimate broker to the Muslim world, he needs to be perceived as being able to stand up to Israel. I don't know if or how much the Israelis are privy to this.

[baldguy]

4. Our ally.

:eyes:

[ensho]

5. not with our money! we should stop giving them our tax money

they are not living poor

[bahrbearian]

6. Biden to Israel ...OK

[Autumn]

7. US to Israel: Okay we will n/t

[TahitiNut]

9. doG forbid the Israelis ever stop seizing West Bank lands.

:puke:

[Joe the Revelator]

10. Crazy that an autonomous country would do as they please....

[Jim Sagle]

21. So pushy...

;)

[glitch]

31. Billions yearly just can't buy what it used to...

[MarjorieG]

11. There will always be wrong-headed US private $ to counter anything tough we try.

Unlimited money to the settlements, while we're trying to stop building.

[quantass]

12. Isreal: 999 US: 0 -- 'nuf with the barks...time for the bite! No more Aid Please!

wtf is with the aid in this nation? Granted it will upset many jews in the US but does it really seem right for Israel to do some evil to other people when it CLEARLY knows it shouldnt be? This is ridiculuous!

Before i considered both sides as having issues and there was no right/wrong side but now with conitnuous evidence it is clear to me Israel is the devil here. And what comes of it by the retaliation of the Palestinian people seems almost justified.

[LooseWilly]

13. I really Hope Obama actually stands firm on this one.

If the Israelis want to piss on the prospect of peace... then I think they should use their own dollars to tidy up the mess afterward.

Cut aid, and more aid, and more aid... give the Israeli Left something to work with politically, for fuck's sake...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. OK. They can do as they please...BUT

Not with our money.

To hell with them.

They're on their own.

[old mark]

15. Hard as it is for some people to believe, Israel is a real country, just like us,

and can do what the fuck they like without us having to like it.

They are also very small, very young, and surrounded by enemies who have sworn to wipe them out since befoe they even got started.

markO8)

[Moochy]

16. Many beleive that the amount of foreign aid they receive from the USA

entitles the US to some sway over their foreign policy. Others disagree.

[Aramchek]

17. and they can do it without our cash...

[Joe the Revelator]

24. So you're saying that out money should buy influence? Does that mean that you have no problem with

special interest groups dictating policy in our government?

[Aramchek]

45. no, we just shouldn't fund their military, period

[northernlights]

23. Yup, they are. And WE can stop sending them a single dime...

and we should.

Why the fuck should we pay them to flip us the bird? Seriously, with friends like Israel, who needs enemies?

[nonsequitur]

33. yes they can. i don't think we want they trying to order us around, it works both ways

sovereign nation

[old mark]

37. I remember when it was the right that hated the Jews.....

I guess the progressives have taken over now?



markO8)

[Umbram]

39. You forgot something...

people are criticizing Israel and you didn't accuse them of wanting to create gas chambers?

You, sir, get a B- in overdramatic hyperbole. Good effort in attempting to make this about
"hating Jews" rather than a discussion on policy, but you didn’t go the extra mile and bring up the Holocaust.


Edited for a typo, or two, or three.

[Douglas Carpenter]

43. nobody said anything about hating Jews-Anyone who promotes such poison should be immediately banned

This is about promoting a path to peace that will be in the interest of Jews, Arabs and everyone else.

Here is some recent polling of Jewish-American opinion:

Strong Support for President Obama and His Policy in the Middle East : President Obama begins his Middle East efforts with extraordinarily high personal favorability (74 percent favorable) and job approval (73 percent) among American Jews. Jews believe that President Obama is honest and trustworthy (76 percent), that he shares their values (73 percent), and that he is restoring America's standing in the world (78 percent). Trust in the new American president also extends to his Middle East policy, with 72 percent approving of the way he is handling the Arab-Israeli conflict, 76 percent believing that he supports Israel, and 69 percent thinking that he "has a good vision for advancing Middle East peace."

Middle East Peace Is a Core Interest for the United States and for Israel : By a 51-to-32 percent margin, Jews believe Middle East peace is a core American interest. When asked whether military superiority alone or a peace agreement with a strong military would provide better security for Israel, Jews favor a peace agreement by a 49-to-36 percent margin.

American Jews Oppose Settlement Expansion : By a margin of 60 to 40 percent , American Jews oppose the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank based on "what they know" and after receiving short statements by supporters and opponents of settlement expansion. Simply put, attitudes toward settlements are highly negative and firmly held. Not surprisingly, opposition to settlements is higher among Reform (64 percent oppose) and unaffiliated Jews (69 percent oppose), in contrast to Orthodox Jews, who strongly support settlements (80 percent support). But one very interesting demographic finding is the strong opposition (72 percent oppose) among Jews who give money to political campaigns.

Support for Engaging a Palestinian Unity Government Including Hamas : Sixty-nine percent of Jews support the United States working with a unified Hamas-Palestinian Authority government to achieve a peace agreement with Israel, even when informed that the United States does not recognize Hamas because of its terrorism and refusal to recognize Israel. Interestingly, precisely the same percentage of Israelis in a recent Hebrew University poll support the government of Israel negotiating with such a unity government.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/03/23/poll-american-jews-strongly-support-obama-israeli-palestinian-peace-settlement.html

[Flying Dream Blues]

19. So maybe Israel gets the money in return for not telling what she knows?

Maybe that's tinfoilly, but whenever things defy logic, I look for something hidden.

[Vidar]

20. Chutzpah as a national policy.

[opihimoimoi]

22. This is NOT GOOD....perhaps its time to reassess the sit....perhaps our trust should be witheld...

How can we call that Nation a FRIEND...and TRUST Them? esp when they reject our input they way they did?

Its time to re evaluate the equation cause we seem to be on the losing side of things...

The present picture depicts a Nation intent on COUNTRY FIRST.....forgetting the times when it should be REGION FIRST...and/or PLANET FIRST....

[quakerboy]

25. Shame that we will never do the same

[totodeinhere]

27. But the Israelis don't see it as "stealing Palestinian land,"

They believe that the land is inherently their land and that nobody else has a legitimate claim to it. Of course the Palestinians believe exactly the opposite, and therein lies the problem.

[boppers]

28. This is why Jerusalem should be under international hands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine

[Union Yes]

29. But first, give us another $3 Billion in "aid" before going to fuck yourself.

[Mopar151]

30. At Bargain Days

Couple of fundie churches had "Support for Israel" tables in their booths.

Funny business......

[donheld]

32. But yet, how many billions of dollars do we give them in aid?

:nuke:

[Jim Sagle]

34. About 10 cents a day per capita. It's an outrage!!!!!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Umbram]

40. It's easy to spot a snake oil salesman.

Everything is always "for less than the price of a cup of coffee per day...."

I applaud your ability to make billions sound so reasonable!

[Jim Sagle]

41. Nuthin' but the truth.

[donheld]

46. Bullshit

[Jim Sagle]

47. No bull, just fact.

[donheld]

48. $2.38 billion in military aid alone.

http://www.forward.com/articles/13709/

[Jim Sagle]

49. I was wrong.

I just rechecked my math, and it's 2 cents a day per capita.

:beer:

[billyoc]

35. Time to choke them off.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

36. Rock on then, build and pay for your own F-15's

[leveymg]

38. Who is Irving I. Moskowitz? The man who set off the second Intifada.

Moskowtitz is one of a group of American casino owners who has financed the Right-wing takeover of Israel and built the settlements.

http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Moskowitz_Irving

Commenting on his influence, a Jewish news agency reported in a 1997 article entitled "Is Irving Moskowitz a Hero or Just a Rogue?": "An Israeli doctor working in a Manhattan hospital asked his colleague last week, 'Who's the prime minister of Israel?' 'This week, of course, it's Dr. Irving Moskowitz,' Joseph Frager told his questioner." At the time, Frager headed the American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, one of a number of U.S. groups that support taking over territory in Palestinian areas and rebuilding the temple where the Dome of the Rock is located. Frager was referring to a dispute between Moskowitz and then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a controversial home he had purchased in eastern Jerusalem and given to three Jewish families. Reported the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA): "After heated negotiations, Netanyahu convinced Moskowitz to kick the families out of the Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives. Instead 10 yeshiva students will guard and maintain the property. For years Netanyahu supported Moskowitz's Jerusalem land purchases. The two have been close ever since Moskowitz was instrumental in opening a research institute named after Netanyahu's brother, Yonatan, who died during the famous Entebbe rescue in 1976."

Earlier in 1996, Moskowitz pressured Netanyahu to open a controversial tunnel next to the Temple Mount, which sparked several days of rioting in Palestinian areas, resulting in some 70 deaths. A plaque in the tunnel commemorates Moskowitz, who funded the tunnel's construction (ibid, JTA). In 2000, the Temple Mount tunnel provided the spark that set off the second intifada, the al-Aqsa uprising, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the tunnel (Yehuda Litani, "Stop Temple Works," Ynetnews.com, February 8, 2007).

Moskowitz is also a longtime funder of a number of U.S.-based neoconservative outfits that have been key promoters of an expansive war on terror aimed at reshaping the Middle East. These include the Hudson Institute, the American Enterprise Institute(AEI), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Center for Security Policy (CSP). Praising Moskowitz's generous funding, David Wurmser, an adviser on the Middle East to Vice President Dick Cheney and a former AEI fellow, once said that the bingo mogul was a "gentle man whose generous support of AEI allows me to be here" (quoted in Jim Lobe, "New Cheney Foreign Policy Adviser Sets Sights on Syria," Foreign Policy In Focus, October 22, 2003; see also, the Irving I. Moskowitz Foundation, 2005 Form 990).

Moskowitz is also a "contributing expert" to the Ariel Center for Policy Research, a hardline advocacy and research institute founded in 1997 that espouses a Likud Party line on Israeli security, arguing on its website that the "peace process" is "a paradox whereby a minuscule democracy is being forced to provide its totalitarian enemies—scores of times its size—the only thing it lacks: territory." The group maintains that any peace effort that "will force Israel to its pre-1967 borders, i.e. losing those territorial assets critically needed for the very existence of the Jewish State, will not be but a recipe for war." Among the organization's other contributing experts are a number of U.S.-based researchers aligned with the U.S. pro-Israel right and the neoconservatives, including Meyrav Wurmser and Anne Bayefsky of the Hudson Institute; Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council; Rachel Ehrenfeld, head of the Center for the Study of Corruption; and Frank Gaffney of the CSP.

SNIP

[DailyGrind51]

44. I guess they don't want our money anymore?

[Jim Sagle]

50. The US stance is segregationist rubbish.

[Zomby Woof]

51. I have been saying for years

We could end terrorism against the U.S. if we pulled all aid from Israel. Use that money for healthcare, infrastructure, paying interest on the debt, etc.

Of course, this will never happen. But the solution is right there in front of us.

[maxpower]

52. And the beat goes on

n/t