Why not say what it is?
“The U.S.’s dysfunctional patron-client relationship with Israel yields a predictable result: Once again, Israel disses Washington and does what it wants.” wrote Daniel Larison at The Week. AIPAC of course immediately skewered the president in defense of Israel and all is slowly returning back to the normal status quo, America loves Israel, Iran sanctions, no need to look further.
March 16, 2010
….ever since the Obama administration climbed down from its call for a settlement freeze last year, the Netanyahu government has understood that it can ride out rough patches with Washington while continuing to pursue its objectives.
(snip)
Despite dire warnings that the embarrassment of a visiting U.S. vice president will damage U.S.-Israel relations, nothing substantive will follow recent displays of indignation by Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The combination of blunt words and inaction invites the worst of all consequences for the Obama administration, which will be attacked by hawks for “undermining” an ally, mocked by foreign policy realists for ineptitude, and derided by doves for caving in the face of Israeli intransigence. As for the Israelis, the only thing Netanyahu’s ministers will likely do differently next time is to exercise more discretion when thumbing their noses at President Obama.
Washington created the conditions for its own embarrassment by creating a bilateral relationship defined by dependence and warped by unaccountability. If it is unwilling to place conditions on the support it provides to Israel, and unwilling to enforce them when it does, Washington will continue to find its pronouncements ignored and its efforts in the Near East frustrated.
That nothing was expected to change is supported by Netanyahu’s first reaction to the row: that Israel will continue colonizing Palestine including East Jerusalem no matter what. Not skipping a beat, in spite of the Biden incident and Hillary’s admonishment, Netanyahu vowed that the colonialism of what remains of Palestine “would continue unabated.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that Israel would continue to build in Jerusalem in the same way that it has over the last 42 years.
“The building in Jerusalem – and in all other places – will continue in the same way as has been customary over the last 42 years,” said Netanyahu at a Likud party meeting. In his speech, Netanyahu gave no indication he would cancel the project or limit construction in East Jerusalem.
….asked by MK Tzipi Hotovely what would happen in September, when the 10-month settlement freeze ends, Netanyahu responded that construction would continue unabated.
After successive announcements, in which Netanyahu claimed all of Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, lands along the border of the Jordan River, and lands upon which over 120 Jewish-only villages, towns, and cities are built, some estimates indicating control of 60% of the West Bank, we are informed that settlement expansion will continue in several months.
Netanyahu, with his Likud-religious party coalition behind him, is not backing down.
In Europe, Shimon Peres told visiting European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday that Israel reserved the right to build in Jerusalem, adding that its construction policy in the capital has not changed in 40 years.
Peres told Ashton that Israel allowed construction in Jewish areas of the capital, but not in neighborhoods heavily populated by Arabs ? a policy held by all previous governments, he said,
Notice the question mark in the Haaretz report. Before 1967, East Jerusalem was only populated by “Arabs,” meaning Palestinians. Apart from the religious sites important to Jews, there were no Israeli or Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
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(The Atlantic) – So what explains this incredible series of screw-ups? Is this merely an attempt by the Israeli government to disprove the theory, shared by anti- and philo-Semites alike, that Jews are smart?
No, it’s something very prosaic. Bibi Netanyahu is not in control of his government. He has brought into his coalition parties — Lieberman’s party, the Shas Party — that are narrow-focused, excessively-rightist, stubborn and prideful, and now he’s paying the price. The problem is that Israel is paying the price as well. America can afford stupid politicians. Israel can’t.
Yishai: U.S. can’t stop West Bank settlement expansion
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Of course the purpose of placing Area C (as opposed to Areas A and B) under Israeli supervision through the Oslo Accords was just to cut off the Palestinians from access to East Jerusalem.
Shall we just call it by its correct name, the Oslo Hoax. And now we have Yishai claiming that no one will stop the East Jerusalem colonization from going forward.
Netanyahu never supported a Palestinian state. It’s a win-win for him. Our politicians stand in line to kiss his ass, left and right. Like Lieberman said….we’re family.
Hey, think they would give me a low interest loan for a nice little bungalow in the West Bank? With a pool. They cover travel expenses too, right.
Yes, it’s a real estate heist at the expense of the Palestinians. And, don’t forget, the people of the USA! How many US companies, investors, speculators are in on this?
A coincidence. I read this headline on the BBC: US President Barack Obama denies crisis with Israel, just after posting this diary, and I take it to be confirmatory evidence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8573760.stm
Another take, from Mondoweiss:
Translating Obama, and Netanyahu
David Bromwich
March 18, 2010
Well what a surprise. Dont worry they’ll get AIPAC to put it all back in line again and make sure the neo-nazis win the next election then it will be business as usual again
Just a few days after Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that “the building in Jerusalem and in all other places will continue in the same way as has been customary over the last 42 years,” the Quartet `condemned’ the East Jerusalem building plan and plans for the continuation of settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Finally, with Tony Blair out of the way, the Quartet is stepping up.
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Quartet representative in Moscow – very much present, although he remained silent.
Press conference
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Thanks for the correction. Silent indeed, for the past two years at least, right through the Gaza massacre, and beyond. In this conflict, silence is condonement.
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WASHINGTON, March 17 (PRNewswire-USNewswire) — The US Department of Justice has been formally asked to begin regulating the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as the foreign agent of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A 392 page legal filing presented by a four person IRmep delegation in a two hour meeting with top officials of the Internal Security Section substantiated the following case for AIPAC’s immediate registration:
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Not a moment too soon. I’m beginning to believe that having this extremist right wing Netanyahu government in Israel presently will help more in the end, more so than Kadima or Labor.
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$50-$60 Billion Laundered from US nonprofits into illegal West Bank colonies creates threat of terrorism backlash
The Israel Lobby Archive
Ross’ problems within the Obama administration began when it was discovered that he failed to register as a foreign agent for the government of Israel in his capacity as the chairman of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI) in Jerusalem. Unlike the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and WINEP, the JPPPI is run by the Jewish Agency, which is an organ of the Israeli government. Official statement
U.S. Interests vs. The Jewish State
Should Washington maneuver Israel into a box, Tel Aviv will collapse yet another coalition government. Or announce a resignation. That was Ben-Gurion’s ruse in June 1963 when John F. Kennedy insisted on inspections to stop Israel’s nuclear arms program. Ehud Olmert used the same negotiating tactic when it appeared that the Road Map could lead to a final status agreement. His well-timed resignation brought back Netanyahu.
For anyone to assume or suggest that Israel is operating in good faith reflects a perilous misreading of history. What we witnessed at the U.N. is how warfare is waged in the Information Age. This was neither the behavior of a U.S. ally nor a nation deserving U.S. support, friendship, arms or even recognition. Any further appeasement of this extremist enclave and Obama can rightly be charged with breach of his oath of office to defend the U.S. from all enemies, both domestic and foreign.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Olmert’s story is interesting. During the middle of his prime ministership, he offered Abbas two peace plans, both of which added up to what Netanyahu has in mind: surrounded bantustans inside the West Bank, an Apartheid configuration, an archipelago of lands.
Then two months before the Israeli elections, while under indictment, and not a candidate, at the start of the Gaza massacre sometimes referred to as a “war,” Olmert made a third offer to Abbas consisting of 94% of the West Bank, but no East Jerusalem. It was all verbal, nothing in writing. Abbas refused given Olmert’s out on Jerusalem. A year later, some lower level bureaucrat present during the latter negotiation, wrote up the offer.
Now we understand that the Palestinians really don’t want peace as they were offered a state on 94% of the West Bank, their own borders, and which included the Jordan Valley. Most of the settlements, it is presumed were abandonned.
It was the latest generous offer. The bullshit from Israelis just never ends as the colonization continues.