Netanyahu Defends Israel Settlements Construction After Obama's Criticism

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the renewed international uproar over new settlements in a contested part of Jerusalem one day after President Obama slammed Israel's latest building plan as being detrimental to Middle East peace negotiations.

In an interview with the Fox Business Network, Netanyahu called the diplomatic spat "overblown" and defended the plans for over 1,000 new homes in the Har Homa settlement of East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their future capital.

As Haaertz.com reports:

"I think it's overblown...you are talking about a handful of apartments that really don't affect the [peace] map at all contrary to impressions that might be perceived from certain news reports," Netanyahu said. "So it's a minor issue that might be turned to a major issue. I think this is wrong. You put the minor issues aside and you deal with the major issues...and you try to fashion a peace deal. If there's a deal to be made there, you'll see it in a year. If there's not a deal, then we won't succeed."

As the Washington Post reports, Netanyahu is currently in the United States for talks with administration officials on ways to revive peace talks launched in early September but disrupted by a dispute over continued Israeli building in West Bank settlements and in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York on Thursday.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem was necessary if Israel moved ahead with the new construction plans in occupied territory, according to the Post.

"If by building settlements, Israel wants to boycott the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state, the world must respond by recognizing the Palestinian state on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital. Unfortunately, the international community continues to support a peace process that has nothing of peace and a lot of process. We will not accept the status quo anymore that has only allowed Israel to consolidate its occupation of our land."

Comments

[jgarbuz]

08:47 AM on 11/13/2010

Those who are attempting to cause a split in the implicit US-Israel alliance are trying to bring down BOTH Israel and the United States. This is exactly the strategy that the pro-Palestinian propaganda jihadists are trying desparately to achieve. Well, it might succeed in bringing down America but it won't succeed in bringing down Israel. Quite the opposite. The rise of China and India has made Israel a valuable commodity with its treasure trove of scientific and technological prowess. Any split between the US and Israel that these enemies of the US-Israel relationship might be lucky enough to cause, will only harden Israel, bring it closer to China and strengthen its determination to settle the West Bank with American Jews instead, many of whom may decide that their days in America are numbered anyway. So their schemes will only backfire on them. Israel is strong, with or without America. I knew many Chinese studying in Israeli universities back in the 1990s, and some even rented an apartment I once owned in Beersheba. China would be OVERJOYED to get Israel fully on its side. To those fools who are being sucked in, I only say, be careful of what you wish for, for it may come to pass.

[Name Not In Use]

09:36 AM on 11/13/2010

Chauvinism is such an endearing quality.

[jgarbuz]

09:42 AM on 11/13/2010

Call it what you will. Israel CHOSE to be on America's side, and Stalin was very unhappy after he had allowed the Czechs to send the arms to the Jews that saved ISrael in 1948. So unhappy tht he switched the support of the USSR over to the Arab side in the conflict when Israel chose not be become a Jewish communist state. America did not send arms to israel to save itself in 1948; Stalin did. So, if America now thinks that abandoning Israel is in its best interest, let it go do so. We'll see.

[jgarbuz]

09:46 AM on 11/13/2010

Both Israel and the US are sovereign independent countries, and each one should do what is best in their own self interest.

[Cihangir]

10:22 AM on 11/13/2010

"treasure trove of scientific and technological prowess"

Look behind the curtain and you fine a tax avoidance US originated re-licensing scam and generic drugs. All floating on government debt dependent on US guarantees. Not quite the "treasure trove" the government wants people to see. Let's see...oil or smoke. :))

[jgarbuz]

11:08 AM on 11/13/2010

If you say so. Times change. I still remember when India and China were impoverished countries often devastated by famines and drought. And here we are, 40 years later, and things have changed. What Israel was 40 years ago is not what Israel is today. But even 40 years ago Israel defeated the Arab states using French planes and British tanks, and took the Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank without any US help.And Israel today is stronger, and America is weaker. I think any decision by America to cut ties will be more detrimental to America at this juncture in history. But there is only one way to find out.

[environomx]

06:29 AM on 11/13/2010

There should be an end to this Israeli-US relationship mishmash. This relationship with AIPAC is antithetical to the core matrix of our country and this should be realized. Today, is a TEA PARTY and Tomorrow we will never know what comes next. Enough is Enough. And let us take care of our own people First. Recent history should have given US adequate insight about the disaster we have been put in, but we chose to be blind and dump.

[jgarbuz]

08:20 AM on 11/13/2010

IF the US decides to make Israel its enemy, that will be another nail in the coffin of America. China and Japan will be more than happy to enlist Israeli scientists and engineers who now work for US companies who do their R&D work for US companies inside Israel, such as Intel, Microsoft, Cisco systems, IBM, and a host of others to do it for Chinese companies instead. The Chinese will welcome any scientific knowhow the Israelis have accumulated in antiballistic missile technology, satellite technology, UAV technology switch to their side. And I  am sure Israel won't mind leasing them a naval base in Haifa as well for a measly $3 billion a year. The Chinese are all over the world looking for natural resources, but they would pale into insignificance compared to the treasure trove of intellectual resources they would gain for their companies in Israel. The US is not helping Israel for nothing. The US knows it is getting  a bargain for the $3 billion, even if most Americans may be ignorant of the fact. And what will the US get by switching its allegiance to the Muslim side?  Perhaps a full Muslim president in a few years who may start preparing the US to adopt sharia law into the US constitution.

[Andhakar]

10:16 AM on 11/13/2010

you know that's a hyperbole...yeah, America and Israel need each other...that is why they go along...however, it doesn't mean America should be in Israel's side all the time...there can be differences...btw, I bet those scientists and engineers that you're talking about are against what Israel is doing right now...and that they want this conflict to be resolved once and for all...

[barefoot2626]

11:35 AM on 11/13/2010

q> The Chinese will welcome any scientific knowhow
q>  the Israelis have accumulated in antiballistic missile
Q> technology, satellite technology,


The Chinese already have it.   They got it from Israel.  If US wants China to know an American secret, they sell it  to Israel and ask Israel to not sell it to anyone else.

Where did the Chinese get the J10 jet?  Israel. Where did the Israelis get the Lavi jet, on which the J10 was copied?  US taxpayers.

[jgarbuz]

11:53 PM on 11/12/2010

"GDP per capita in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories rose by 7% per year from 1968-1980 but slowed during the 1980s. Between 1970 and 1991 life expectancy rose from 56 to 66 years, infant mortality per 1,000 fell from 95 to 42, the percentage of households with electricity rose from 30% to 85%, the percentage of households with safe water rose from 15% to 90%, the percentage of households with a refrgerator rose from 11% to 85%, and the percentage of households with a washing machine rose from 23% in 1980 to 61% in 1991.[4] Economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, where economic activity was governed by the Paris Economic Protocol of April 1994 between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, deteriorated in the early 1990s. Real per capita GDP for the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) declined 36.1% between 1992 and 1996 owing to the combined effect of falling aggregate incomes and robust population growth. The downturn in economic activity was due to extensive corruption in the newly governing Palestinian Authority, and to Israeli closure policies in response to security incidents in Israel, which disrupted previously established labor and commodity market relationships. The most serious negative social effect of this downturn has been the emergence of chronic unemployment. Average unemployment rates during the 1980s were generally under 5%; by the mid-1990s this level had risen to over 20%. After 1997 Israel's use of comprehensive closures decreased and new policies were implemented. In October 1999, Israel permitted the opening of a safe passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in accordance with the 1995 Interim Agreement. These changes in the conduct of economic activity fueled a moderate economic recovery in 1998-99. Map of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, 2007 In December 2006, unemployment had risen from 23% in 2005 to over 50%.[5] As a result of the Israeli blockade, 85 percent of factories were shut or operating at less than 20 percent capacity. Israeli businesses were losing $2 million a day from the closing, but Gaza was losing $1 million a day.[6] The World Bank estimates the nominal GDP of the territories at 4,007 US$ and of Israel at 161,822 US$. Per capita these numbers are respectively 1,036 US$ and 22,563 US$ per year."

[barefoot2626]

12:01 AM on 11/13/2010

q> GDP per capita in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories

Slave owners told us how good they treated their property, too.

[jgarbuz]

12:02 AM on 11/13/2010

Foreign aid
The West Bank and Gaza economies have become heavily reliant on foreign aid which stood at 1.8 billion in 2008. Approximately 30% of the GDP, or US$487 per Palestinian per year is aid. Foreign aid provides essential services for nearly half of the Palestinian people, and allows the Palestinian Authority to operate and pay its estimated 140,000 employees.[27]

[fairwayhill]

10:29 PM on 11/12/2010

Time and justice are on the side of the PaIestinians. All so called "Israel" is stoIen Palestine.

[jgarbuz]

11:06 PM on 11/12/2010

That's what the Arabs said in 1942 when the Arabs were waiting for Rommel to come and destroy the Jews in Palestine. And when they waited for Nasser. ANd watied for Arafat. ANd for Saddam. ANd now maybe for Ahmedinejad. Nobody is coming. Israel is Jewish land, and if the Arabs want a 22nd state on part of it, they will have to accept Israel's terms. Israel is not the vanquished and  neither time nor justice is necessarily on the Arab side. I personally doubt it strongly.

[barefoot2626]

01:40 AM on 11/13/2010

q> That's what the Arabs said in 1942 when the Arabs were waiting

Sure they did.

Jewish terrorists worked against the British in WWII; Stern ask the Nazis if they could join forces.

[TheRock Barkat]

01:43 AM on 11/13/2010

What arabs were waiting for Rommel in 1942? .I cant wait to hear your reply and see your source. BTW are you like the town drunk or something? Just curious

[timaeus]

11:55 PM on 11/13/2010

"Palestine" is bizarro Israel. An insubstantial shadow. An artificial reason to destroy the Jewish state of Israel. If they ever succeeded in gaining sovereignty, it would only be a matter of days till they were absorbed into Jordan and ruled with a heavier hand than Israel's (as demonstrated in Sept,1970). The Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza will never welcome millions of impoverished refugees into their territory. (Indicated by the fact that there has not been a whisper about settling the DP's in autonomous Palestinian territories.) If, heaven forbid, Israel were replaced by an Arab state of Palestine, it would quickly revert to what it always was under the Arabs- a neglected, impoverished area ruled by some distant power.

[fairwayhill]

09:46 PM on 11/12/2010

So caIIed "Israel" is stoIen PaIestine.

[1776 or 1984]

08:37 PM on 11/12/2010

The colonists' goal - force the scalping savages onto reserves and give them a casino to run.

And and what can the neo-Roman Empire say about it's crusade-by-proxy apocolyptic colonists?

Amen!

[jgarbuz]

09:27 PM on 11/12/2010

There was a casino built in Jericho back in the 1990s. I think the Arabs destroyed it.

[1776 or 1984]

09:39 PM on 11/12/2010

Well golly, what an opportunity

[1776 or 1984]

09:55 PM on 11/12/2010

Those dang scalping savages! Don't they know that spinning a roulette wheel is their destiny and should be happy about it! Dang, what a bunch of animals!

[Wilburrr]

01:22 PM on 11/12/2010

Why do we continue to send aid to Israel?

[barefoot2626]

12:15 PM on 11/13/2010

AIPAC.

http://www.wrmea.org/pdf/2010pac_charts_november.pdf

here are highlights:

HOUSE: CURRENT
Skelton, Ike (D-MO) 43,000
Cantor, Eric (R-VA) 40,500
Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) 39,500
Hoyer, Steny H. (D-MD) 39,000
Deutch, Theodore E. (D-FL) 32,250
Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) 28,500
Lowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 28,000
Berman, Howard L. (D-CA) 27,000
Hastings, Alcee L. (D-FL) 23,000
Burton, Danny L. (R-IN) 22,500

House: Career
Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) 318,555
Engel, Eliot (D-NY) 251,418
Hoyer, Steny H. (D-MD) 232,275
Cantor, Eric (R-VA) 216,730
Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) 203,240
Lowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 177,238
Obey, David R. (D-WI) 163,600
Burton, Danny L. (R-IN) 143,000
Levin, Sander M. (D-MI) 131,727
Skelton, Ike (D-MO) 131,450

SENATE: CURRENT
Kirk, Mark S.# (R-IL) 77,104
Reid, Harry (D-NV) 60,000
Wyden, Ronald Lee (D-OR) 59,400
Inouye, Daniel K. (D-HI) 57,000
Specter, Arlen (D-PA) 56,000
Feingold, Russell D. (D-WI) 52,000
Bennett, Robert F. (R-UT) 50,000
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (D-NY) 44,200
Vitter, David (R-LA) 40,500
Thune, John (R-SD) 40,500
Senate: Career
Levin, Carl (D-MI) 728,737
Specter, Arlen (D-PA) 559,473
Harkin, Thomas R. (D-IA) 552,950
Lautenberg, Frank R. (D-NJ) 503,578
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) 485,151
Reid, Harry (D-NV) 380,301
Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL) 373,421
Lieberman, Joseph I. (Ind.-CT) 367,851
Baucus, Max (D-MT) 349,648
Wyden, Ronald Lee (D-OR) 336,962

[FreeAmerican7]

12:00 PM on 11/12/2010

Say What...LOL...
Obama criticized Israel....LOL...
Boy; he is going to be whipped by the
Israeli-Controlled US News-Media along with US Congress/S­enate/Stat­e Dept/etc...

[jgarbuz]

12:08 PM on 11/12/2010

Let Obama pick on somebody his own size. Let's hear him criticize China for its occupation of Tibetan land, or the Turks for occupation of Kurdish lands, etc.

[barefoot2626]

01:16 PM on 11/12/2010

q> Let's hear him criticize China

It's never Israel's fault.  Never.

When it is Israel's fault- blame it on China.

[environomx]

06:11 AM on 11/13/2010

This is a non-ending games whereas almost everything is iron-clad controlled by one side, unfortunately. Arguably, this could be a precursor for the downfall of the emperor as the only scant piece of cloth still on.

[muck-raker]

11:02 AM on 11/12/2010

OT The USA has just delivered 1.2 billion worth of air to ground missiles to Israel: Israel is reportedly completing the preparations of another war against Lebanon, four years after suffering a crushing defeat from the country's resistance movement Hezbollah.

Lebanon's leading daily newspaper As-Safir quoted an unnamed French official on Wednesday as saying that he was informed about the Israeli plan during his Middle East tour four weeks ago.

The French official said Israeli sources told him that they have completed their military and civil preparations over the past month and that the infrastructure and the settlements adjacent to the border with Lebanon were now ready to confront the prospect of war at any moment.

He went on to say that the Israeli troops have carried a series of military exercises aimed at ramping up their military capacity and testing the new army units in the Northern Command, which have been rebuilt, on the implementation of plans prepared against Hezbollah as soon as possible.

The French official added that the maneuvers, the latest of which was carried out in February, were based on confronting the advanced and long-range missile networks along with the intense firepower that could threaten Israel's security.

Israel fought a 33-day war against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 to destroy the military power of the Lebanese resistance. Israel in its mindset that is must have the Litani River, unfortunately its in Lebanon

[barefoot2626]

01:17 PM on 11/12/2010

q> If the Islamofascist death cult

Love it when the hasbarats have to make up things up.

[1776 or 1984]

09:01 PM on 11/12/2010

you always have good facts and insights Muck-racker.

Thanks!
1984

[TBrennan]

10:28 AM on 11/12/2010

I would like the US to establish dollar amount for every new door under construction. For example, we would reduce our financial aid to Israel, say $2,000,000, for each new unit that is started. Israel is acting counter to the USA's national interest by expanding settlements and we should make them pay for it. We should make new settlements counter to Israel's national interest too and we could do that with money.

With miserable allies like Israel who needs enemies? They contribute nothing to our national interest. Why on earth do we support a theocracy? Don't the tea bagging defenders of the Constitution have a problem with our support for the Israeli theocracy.

[barefoot2626]

10:42 AM on 11/12/2010

I said the same thing (dollar for  each apartment).  You are a bit  more per door,  what say we compromise and call it a million dollars per?

q> With miserable allies like Israel who needs enemies?

True.  Why would anyone say Israel was an ally after they sold our top secrets to Russia? Overlooking the insults over the past 40 years,  overlooking the excuse they didn't attack the Liberty, killing Americans, overlooking the Beirut bombing-  there was deliberate betrayal and  the US  not only tolerated it, it continued to fund these parasites.... very strange, what a hold  they have on the unknowing US public.

[jgarbuz]

10:43 AM on 11/12/2010

PLEASE, just eliminate ALL aid to ISrael, Egypt, the Palestinians and the Arabs and just lets be DONE with all this wailing and crying and moaning over all the aid America so generously dispenses once and for all! If only the US would cut off all aid to everyone in the region, maybe then Israel would be able to live in peace! This "aid" is MURDERING Israel!  This "aid" is worse than a leash. It is hangman's rope and noose. If only the US would just stop all the hypocrisy and just eliminate ALL aid to Israel and its enemies, Israel will be SO MUCH BETTER OFF with America off its back, once and for all!

[barefoot2626]

01:19 PM on 11/12/2010

q> PLEASE, just eliminate ALL aid to ISrael,

Let's start with the #1 mooch-  all the rest combined don't ad up to anything close to what Americans have pour down the Israelis toilet in the last 40+ years.

q> This "aid" is worse than a leash.

Yet the Israelis wander through the halls of Congress, banging their tin cup.


Please, sirs, can we have some more?

[fairwayhill]

10:27 AM on 11/12/2010

So calIed "Israel" is stoIen PaIestine.

[AZreb]

08:45 AM on 11/12/2010

Does anyone expect a difference in our support of Israel, no matter what it does? Our own government still has not said one word about the UN report that states the killing of the Turkish/American and 5 Turks on the flotilla were assassinations. So I guess it is okay for Israel to assassinate an American citizen. Wonder if our tax dollars paid for the weapons used by the Israelis in those assassinations?

[barefoot2626]

11:08 AM on 11/13/2010

US tax dollars and US weapons are used all the time.

The Israel jets that attacked the Liberty- killing 34 Americans- littered the deck with shell casings made in America.

Cluster bombs- American.  White phosphorus shells- American.  Wire-guilded bombs and rockets- American.

[I3edlam]

08:43 AM on 11/12/2010

Netanyahu is fairly optimistic about his ability to solve the "big problem" when he can't even solve the little problems. His sense of "rockstarness" is completely misplaced. He won't accomplish a thing in the big picture, yet he'll believe he's made headway on his own terms. If you ask me, he doesn't even believe in peace, or care for it.

[Soma99]

06:15 AM on 11/12/2010

Never mind the fact that the Kingdom of Egypt ruled the region as early as 3000 B.C., or the fact that the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Sassanid Empire, the Muslim Empire, the Seljuk Empire, the Crusader Kingdoms, Saladin’s Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or the British Empire ruled the region throughout history. That land belongs to Jews, especially Jerusalem, because the Kingdom of David lasted some odd 70 years, two millennia ago.

Now, I wonder, what would happen if every Jew born outside Israel wasn’t brainwashed by his parents, community and role models that Israel is the historical home of the Jewish people? Would that Jewish kid grow up to lead a healthy life and become an active member in his community? Or will he grow up with a chip on his shoulder, crying My people have been persecuted for thousands of years. Why does everyone hate me? And by “My people”, he would certainly be referring to the world’s Jewish community.

But, let’s not be too harsh, eh? I mean, who doesn’t like feeling chosen and special and have a mysterious and timeless connection to some land thousands of miles away? It’s more fun than playing Cowboys and Indians, no?

[timaeus]

07:22 AM on 11/12/2010

You sound jealous. You needn't be. Israel has been accepting sincere converts for 3000 years. But you might need to stop pouting and realize that if you're seeing a chip on our shoulder you its probably the beam in your eye.
I guess you have no heritage or tradition that means anything to you. We do. It's a great thing, but I don't know that I'd recommend it for you. I don't think you could take the "fun".

Just for historical accuracy, Israel was a more or less independant state of the people of Israel(or states) almost continuously from the time of Joshua to the Roman exile. (Sovereignty was reestablished 70 years after the Babylonian destruction.) About 1000 years.

You should also find it relevant that under none of the Empires and conquerors you mention (other than the short lived Crusader regime) was Israel/Palestine an independant entity with a unique culture that was in anyway remarkable. Only when the people of Israel were sovereign in the land of Israel did it prosper and become so significant. It was true in biblical times and its true today.
For the various occupiers, empires and colonists you mention it was just a turnpike from syria to Egypt or a gateway to the east.
We belong in our land and you don't want us in yours.

[scholasticus]

07:55 AM on 11/12/2010

"We belong in our land and you don't want us in yours."

Racist. No mention of the Arabs behind the barbed wire.

[jgarbuz]

08:53 AM on 11/12/2010

Yes, empires come and go, rising and falling every few centuries, while we Jews get smacked around and slaughtered every so often as well. And yet, the Jewish people are still here and back in their land! Isn't it amazing and wonderful?

[Soma99]

09:11 AM on 11/12/2010

On a long enough time frame, everything comes and goes. Empires, religions, cultures, species etc... At some point, if we don't destroy ourselves first, nation-states will no longer exist as well as these silly, human contrived, patriarchal death cults.

I didn't see it at first, what Ton Judt meant, when he called Israel anachronism, but it is becoming more clear.

See, Europeans did this already in America. Israel is an old world conquest model. Zionism is similar to Manifest Destiny or white mans burden. It's held together with fairy tails, propaganda and a cultural entitlement indoctrination. It could have worked a hundred years ago but not today. The world has moved on from this silliness.

[Soma99]

09:20 AM on 11/12/2010

As you point out, jgarbuz, this is no different, in essence, from the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous peoples who inhabited North America who were also dehumanized by the European settlers which, as with the Zionists, was a prerequisite for the massive crimes they were about to commit.

One may argue that at the time the North American continent was being settled, our species had not come to realize the inhumanity inherent in such actions but those Jews who dispossessed the Palestinians in 1948, destroyed 500 of their villages, and forced 750,000 of them to flee, have no such excuses. They had established their intent to do those very things years before the Nazi holocaust and thus neither they nor the state they worship have a moral leg to stand on.

There is another thing that both the American colonists and the Israelis have in common. They both wanted the world to believe that THEY were the victims.

[jgarbuz]

02:47 AM on 11/12/2010

Wikipedia "The Greek War of Independence also known as the Greek Revolution (Greek: Ελληνική Επανάσταση, Elliniki Epanastasi; Ottoman: يونان عصياني Yunan İsyanı) was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1830, with later assistance from several European powers, against the Ottoman Empire, who were assisted by their vassals, the Eyalet of Egypt and partly the Vilayet of Tunisia." The Greeks liberated their country from Turkish Muslim rule in the 1820s and '30s. So why was it wrong for Jews to liberate their country from Turkish and Muslim rule ? What gave the Greeks the right to have their country back, but the Jews are somehow wrong for doing the same? Following the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Empire, most of Greece came under Ottoman rule. During this time, there were numerous revolts by Greeks attempting to gain independence. In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece.

[TheRock Barkat]

03:41 AM on 11/12/2010

Look up the Arab revolt. They earned their independence. I dont see anything about a Jewish revolt that aided the allies to get rid of the Ottomans

[timaeus]

05:20 AM on 11/12/2010

Don't you check out any facts before you dis the Jews? You don't see because you don't look. Look up The Jewish Legion and The Jewish Brigade.
The Jews have earned their independance every way from Saturday over 2000 years and the exagerated "Arab revolt" (not the movie) have no relavance whatsoever. Arabs have soverignty over the vast majority of the middle east in 22 countries. Denying the Jew's right to an independant country in their homeland on the basis of "the Arab revolt" is anti-Israel absurdism.

[jgarbuz]

08:59 AM on 11/12/2010

Look up NILI, the Jewish spy network in Palestine during WWI. Look up Zion Mule corp. Look up what General Allenby had to say about NILI and all the intelligence the British received making it possible to defeat the Turks.

The Chief of British Military intelligence at the War Office Major General George Macdonogh has been quoted as saying in his lecture in 1919 at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich:
“ You will no doubt remember the great campaign of Lord Allenby in Palestine and perhaps you are surprised at the daring of his actions. Someone who is looking from the side lines, lacking knowledge about the situation, is likely to think that Allenby took unwarranted risks. That is not true. For Allenby knew with certainty from his intelligence (in Palestine) of all the preparations and all the movements of his enemy. All the cards of his enemy were revealed to him, and so he could play his hand with complete confidence. Under these conditions, victory was certain before he began.[1]"

[Darcha]

10:50 AM on 11/12/2010

'What gave the Greeks the right to have their country back, but the Jews are somehow wrong for doing the same?'

Ummm. Try the fact that the Greeks were native to the territory and were thus taking it back, whereas Israel was set up by colonising immigrants to supplant the local inhabitants.

[jgarbuz]

11:58 AM on 11/12/2010

What were Muslim Turks doing in Greece, and what are Muslim Arabs doing in ISrael?