Obama To Press Netanyahu On Two-State Solution, Settlements

Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Days before a White House summit, the Obama administration signaled on Saturday that the U.S. president would press Israel's new government to endorse Palestinian statehood and halt settlement expansion.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[Icomeinpeace]

Fo over 5000 years now people have been fighting over a piece of land smaller than connecticut. There is hatred over there, on both sides, that us americans can not even comprehend. WWIII is comming, get ready.

[chaos4700]

Excuse me, but this fighting has only been happening since about the 1920's or 1930's, when European Zionist colonists came to Palestine and started a terror campaign against the natives as well as the British who had conquered the region. It is not 5,000 years old. Get a little perspective.

[redisright]

hahahaha you are clueless. There has been more blood spilt on that land than any other place in history.

[yakaria]

This is what these message boards have become.
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=9999&x_article=1656

[chaos4700]

And the right wing continues to use slander tactics and phony "think tank" reports to attack the left. You've already destroyed the economy and devastated millions of lives -- the families of American servicemen and women who have died or been permanently scarred, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistianis and Palestinians who have perished or been driven into refugee status, the compromise and corruption of some of most cherished ideals that America used to represent. You're not happy yet? Not ready to declare "Mission Accomplished" yet again?

[Icomeinpeace]

and obama continues the same policies. He and bush are nothing but corporate wh ores.

[yakaria]

You're calling me a member of the right-wing? Wow. you really don't know me.

[Icomeinpeace]

I hate to burst all the obama bubbles here but netty will be dictating and controlling this conversation. This is obama's first big convo on an international level. Netty has been in dozens of these. You fools just pushed America into a very weak president.

[chaos4700]

The only consolation I have about Obama is that if he does prove to be that weak, the United States will /have/ to change its policy eventually. If only because our economy will continue to loiter in the abyss as other countries get better. In that case, sooner or later, Israel can kiss all the money they get shoveled at them from us goodbye.

[Icomeinpeace]

Its going to take the world a long time to catch up to a 13 trillion GDP.

[Altruth]

I have no respect for Netanyahu, he is another Rush. President Obama need to let both groups know that they need to come up with a peace plan because the US will not be spending our money on them for much longer!

These groups have been going at it for thousands of years and it is time for peace.

[soral]

Hopefully, there will be peace.

[skialethia]

I would like to make this point clear: Whenever I come across a human tragedy provoked by acts of inhumanity whitewashed under the guise of democracy and respectability...I am there to expose the hypocrisy and fight the injustice.

We succeeded with South Africa; we succeeded with Kosovo and we will succeed with the occupied Palestinian territory.

[Horst]

It's such a relief to know that you are on the case...by the way why not spend a bit of time on Congo or Darfur where millions are at risk?

[phute]

How much time do you devote to these matters? Just curious.........by the way feel free to do as you advise others.

[chaos4700]

Yeah, how noble of you to spend all /your/ time coming to the defense of those poor, poor Israelis. Who get thousands more American tax dollars spent on /them/ per capita than any US citizen.

[lysistrata]

The train for a two state solution has left the station a long time ago. The US financed the settlements knowing full well the intend is to confiscate all of Palestine. The US has financed all the military aggressions of the Israelis. The Israeli economy is going down the tube too, poverty has increased in Israel. Without financial aid from the US and Europe they can't fight a war against Iran but are able to invade Gaza and the WB again. Obama is holding the trumps and Netanyahu he thinks it a good time to snub the American president?

[KPinSEA]

As long as Congress keeps subsidizing the Israeli military, the only message they hear from us is "Do whatever you want."

[One State Solution]

There is nothing more anti-semitic right now than how Israel is treating the Palestinians.

[yakaria]

How so?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semitism

[skialethia]

How so???

When the Serbians were trying to cleanse Kosovo of the Albanian and Muslim population and created hundreds of thousands of refugees and killed many Albanians and Muslims they were the most hated people on the planet at the time. Everyone was anti-Serbian. Was this prejudice or bigotry? NO. This was righteous indignation against a crime being committed against humanity.

The Serbians also won this territory in war from the Ottoman Empire, and what did they do? They colonized/settled the north, exactly as Israel did with the West Bank and E. Jerusalem, and then oppressed the majority population of Kosovo and deprived them of their rights.

There are many parallels between Israeli oppression of the Palestinians and Serbian oppression of the Kosovars and Dutch oppression of South Africans.

Israelis like to use the anti-S argument against criticism, but the truth is that Israelis are no different from Serbians and the Dutch; we are hating what they do exactly the way we hated what the Serbians were doing and what the Dutch did. I was as reviled by Serbians in the 90's as I am today by Israelis, and as outspoken against the Serbians as I am today against Israelis.

Continued…

[finishcurve]

don't be so dogmatic. arabs are semites.

[Horst]

The problem is simple....Israel is basically a socialist European country stuck in an Arab backwater. Its universities are world class as is its research and development, high-tech and biotech industries.All major American and European technology companies are in Israel as are the world's major venture capitalists. As for the Arab states one is more dysfunctional than the next.....sad but true.

[zorba2009]

permailnk,
Your input look lot more poignant and realistic when we put them in hard numbers. Read on.

GDP per CAPITA (2007 est).

MUSLIM STATES:

1.Bangladesh---$1,400
2.Egypt:------------$5,400
3.Jordan:----------$4,700
4.Mauritania........$1,800
5.Nigeria:---------$2,200
6.Pakistan:-------$2,600
7.Somalia:----------$600
8.Syria:------------$4,300
9.Sudan:----------$2,500
10.Yemen--------$2,400
TOTAL:----------$27,900

ISRAEL---------$28,800

[Horst]

It's even worse than that...the 22 members of the Arab League have a combined GDP equal to that of the mighty Benelux: Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

[skialethia]

NOT EVERYTHING IS A QUESTION OF MONEY!!! You seem to equate money with supremacy. I believe if you seek power over other human beings then you suffer from an overwhelming sense of insecurity...and that is a WEAKNESS that will inevitably destroy you if you cling to it and base your actions on that weakness and fail to connect with a higher purpose and moral objective.

[yakaria]

You seem to forget Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait

[chaos4700]

Considering around $4,300 American taxpayer dollars per capita per year are spent on Israelis? I'm not impressed by that number overmuch.

[DC]

What does the GDP per Capita have to do with this? A two state solution.

Does a higher GDP translate into a "better" people? No. Higher productivity, yes.

Question is, why? The reasons are many and complex and in constant flux.

Things change. Who would have ever thought Italy would become the center of the world wide automobile industry? That would have been a joke 10 years ago.

[SergeantRoss45]

If we aided Somalia from 1967 and gave it approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget and a variety of other U.S. federal budgets, i promise you Somalia would be a first world nation.

Arab states are dysfunctional because we plant and aid their respective dictators and crush their resistance. It's not incompetence on their part.

[Horst]

They were dysfunctional under the Turks for 3 centuries.

[One State Solution]

If Israel is so smart why did they ruin all chances for a two state solution? 'You break it, you buy it" and 'Feed me, I'm yours" comes to mind. Their land grab in the West Bank has been plain stupid.

[phute]

Major venture capitalists! Not now there is a recession!
Arab backwater - good attempt t scraping the barrel - sadly it doesn't work.
European Socialism - wrong - it is developing it's own fascism nicely all by itself.
When did you last visit any Arab states?

[piul05]

So, what are your suggesting?

a) That Israel shouldn't be in the region? After all what's a European country - your words -doing in the ME? Gun, meet foot.

b) That only people who fit a certain economic/technological/financial standard should have their rights recognized and protected? That was certainly a good argument back in the XVI century; ask the Amerindians and the Africans.

There are few more bi*oted posts than the venomous drivel you usually regurgitate; still, it's always sobering to see what self-appointed "superior" people sound like...

[fisharefreinds]

Before I begin, lets remember that the origin and main members of Peace Now are for the most part, Israeli. Don't remember Palestinians organizing mass Peace demonstrations, do you?
Anyway, a 2 state solution Must be worked out. These 2 states would be West Bank and Israel. Rights to Gaza? Here is an idea, why not create a Monte Carlo of the middle east with Gaza as its hub.
It is a viable idea and if they could put aside all that Islam & anger, they have the potential to be a very wealthy little country in a world dictated by ancient religous (and hateful to women!) laws.
3 states.
Right of return is a joke and is used to stop any movement forward by Arab countries.

[Jakealoper]

Good point, there is no Palestinian or Arab equivalent to Peace Now. It's more like destroy Israel by force or overrun her with fake refugees and destroy her politically.

[Freenation]

are you talking about the state which photoshops it women MP or the state where women are beaten when they refuse to sit in the back of the bus...you know what I am talking about right?

no amount of false pro.paganda is going to prevent 2 state solution...

[Jakealoper]

"the state where women are beaten when they refuse to sit in the back of the bus"
Are you talking about Saudi Arabia? You seem to be confused about which countries or even time period we are talking about.

[SergeantRoss45]

There is not Palestinian Peace Now, because they get shot. These occupied people have no rights but to accept their occupation.

Right of return is a fundamental universal human right that no one can take away or negate.

[fisharefreinds]

return to what? New York City?

[One State Solution]

Here is why the only solution left is one state:
It’s too late for two-state solution, and it’s Israel’s own fault for decades of occupation, land-expropriation policies, and settlements. Every major West Bank town and city is surrounded by Israeli settlements. This, then, begs the question: where does Israeli sovereignty end and Palestinian sovereignty begin? Unless Israel is willing to remove the 300,000 settlers and the walls then the two-state solution is alive. But Israel has spent billions-upon-billions of dollars systematically for four decades expropriating land and exploiting West Bank resources (both human and natural) for the current apartheid structure of Jewish-only homes, settlements, farm-land, and roads.

[iSeeDumbPeople]

Yes. Under just minimal closer scutiny, this so-called "only democracy in the Middle East" is exposed for being just as backward a dump of a country as Pakistan, only dressed in western clothes. They are welcome to sicken their world all they want, but I see no reason why it is the burden of the American taxpayer to fund it. The seperation "fence" is twice as tall and four times as long as the Berlin Wall of yester-century and completely surrounds entire areas into concentration "enclaves" cutting off families from each other and their own centuries-old farms, and the average Palestinian lives on less than $2 a day. In addition, Israel practices collective punishment in the Palestinian ghettos they've created by cutting off electricity and even the water, forcing the residents to cook cheap pasta (they're lucky if Isreal has allowed as aid to come through) in water they've collected in rain buckets on the roof, and warm themselves by the open fire they're forced to cook on in winter.

www.btselem.org/English (don't miss the video section)

www.IfAmericansKnew.org

www.JewishVoiceForPeace.org

[Horst]

Doesn't sound like you've been within 1000 km of the place.

[Macready]

well said One State Solution . . israel has blown it big time . . . israel steals land and water . . cries victim . . . lives off handouts and the only thing it seems to know how to do is make war with its neighbours . . israel has shown that it cannot live in peace with its neighbours -- it is time it was dismantled . . . settlement by illegal settlement . . . .

[One State Solution]

A two state solution is a racist solution. It would have been like black africans being confined to the bantustans and calling that their 'state', and south africa being a state for 'whites only'. There should be one state with equal rights for all in gaza, west bank and israel.

[JerryLevy]

Let's see what happens at the meeting. they may well find they like each other. Both are democrats from countries with western values and whose citizens enjoy freedom of speech and thought. My guess, things will go well.

[CaptainVideo]

Netanyahu and Lieberman are arrogant bigots who do not want a just equitable peace settlement in the middle east. Their attitude toward the rights of Palestinians in no way reflects modern Western values. It more closely represents the attitudes of the 19th century colonial powers.

[Jakealoper]

As well as the Arabs' response for over 60 years is based on 7th Century jihad thinking and ingrained anti-Semitism(Jew hatred)

[Freenation]

if Obama likes Bibi then the 'change' experiment failes...there is nothing to be likes about Bibi...you don't like loonies....

[Freenation]

**correction**: failed, liked

[CaptainVideo]

Not so, you talk to loonies and extremists like Netanyahu and Hamas.

[One State Solution]

If the American Indian were still kept on reservations then maybe you can compare Israel to the USA.

[Horst]

They are....Texas and Southern California should also be given back to the oppressed Mexicans.

[CaptainVideo]

It is important to understand that not all American Jews (and probably not even a majority of them) support AIPAC's neocon agenda. See the following link to J Street:

http://www.jstreet.org/page/policy