State Department: Pressure On Israel Will Continue
At the daily briefing today, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly was asked if there was room for compromise on the issue of a settlement freeze.
Here is Kelly's response:
We look forward to sitting down and talking about what can we do to move this process forward. In order to create this environment that will be conducive to resumptions of the negotiations, both sides need to comply with road map commitments....Freeze on all activity relating to settlements including natural growth is laid out very clearly. Working out the way to our resolution, I'm not going to say we're not going to compromise; we'll see what happens.
Note that last part. "Working out the way to resolution, I'm not going to say we're not going to compromise; we'll see what happens."
He seems to be saying that the US will compromise on settlements or "natural growth," but, in fact, he is saying the opposite. He says that first the freeze goes into effect, the Roadmap is complied with, and then "working our way to a resolution... we'll see what happens."
Perfect. The United States is telling Israel that we are open to discuss anything and even to compromise but not in advance of final status negotiations along the lines we favor, i.e. "our resolution."
In that context, we'll consider Israel's argument about natural growth or anything else it wants to discuss. But not in advance of those negotiations, not in advance of fulfillment of the terms of the Roadmap, and certainly not now.
For those worried that the president might blink, it looks like that worry is misplaced. I don't say you shouldn't worry. President Obama is getting serious pushback from the usual suspects. But today's statement indicates that he isn't backing down, quite the contrary.
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The Arabists ignore the fact that the Palestinians and the Arabs reject every offer for peace.
Olmert made a very generous offer:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803614.html
"In our meeting Wednesday, Abbas acknowledged that Olmert had shown him a map proposing a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank -- though he complained that the Israeli leader refused to give him a copy of the plan. He confirmed that Olmert "accepted the principle" of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees -- something no previous Israeli prime minister had done -- and offered to resettle thousands in Israel. In all, Olmert's peace offer was more generous to the Palestinians than either that of Bush or Bill Clinton; it's almost impossible to imagine Obama, or any Israeli government, going further. "
He did not accept the right of return for the Palestinians
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1245184852687&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
And the "generous" plan that he apparently won't show to anyone completely leaves out Gaza
Israel left Gaza and the reward was almost daily rocket attacks by Hamas.
Olmert's political career foundered because he was far too generous with the offers he made to the Palestinians. Offers the Palestinians rejected.
The very real power of the pro-Israel-at-any-cost (usually to the US) should not be underestimated. AIPAC,AEI,JINSA,PNAC and the others hold our ME foreign policy and domestic politics in their hands; certainly till very recently with the Jewish left finally finding their voices in opposition. Obama will have some very persuasive and hardball stuff thrown at him and given the collapse of many of his election promises of reform to corporate lobbyists, his resolve on this issue probably hangs by a thread. The Jewish community who believes in peace for both people must continue to make their voices heard loudly and others who have had a belly-full of Israeli lies, destruction and death must also be very vocal in demanding a change in US policy from sycophant to honest broker. The Israeli propaganda and "victim" machine is very active as we all can see on these pages. The US press still is in thrall to pro-Israeli propaganda and spin and most Americans do not have a clear vision of the vicious Occupation and Hell on Earth the IDF and settlers make of Palestinian lives on a daily basis. I will be impressed if Obama sticks to his guns and does not “compromise” (read capitulate) to Israeli aggression and deceitful proposals designed to be unenforceable or easily circumvented; that MO will not change till they are dragged kicking and screaming to the peace table by a fed-up world.
If AIPAc and the other Jewish lobby firms were as powerful as you'd have us believe how is it Saudi Arabia was able to purchase advanced US fighters? If AIPAC and the other Jewish lobby firms were as powerful as you'd have us believe there is no chance the Turks would get the the military assistance from the US it receives. My point is AIPAC and the other Jewish lobby forms are not nearly as powerful as the oil lobbyists, the banking industry, and some other interests.
Any American, who questions the power of the pro-Israel, pro-occupation, pro-settlement lobbies in Washington, has only to go back to the embarrassing speeches made by Obama, Hillary & McCain during the presidential campaign last year at one of their conventions, as preserved on Youtube. Any American, who questions the one-sided whitewash & coverage of Israel by nearly 100% of our mainstream media, has only to start making even just a few small comparisons between any story relating to Israel between how CNN, ABC, PBS, (even the History Channel) et al do it, & any number of European or other international sources. For many decades news about the region has been buffered for American consumption, & this is simply no longer the case for anyone who has even the slightest curiosity because there are so many alternatives to what Wolf, Cooper, Charlie Rose & the like have been feeding us.
Politicians make all sorts of speeches to a number of special interest groups. Most of those speeches could easily be described as cloying and embarrassing.
What you ignore is if AIPAC and other Jewish lobbyists were as powerful as you and others claim there is no way a lot of American foreign policy would be conducted in the manner it is conducted.
I hope you all read yesterday's NYTimes, which quoted Obama as indicating that compromise on the settlement issue is not off the table, and repeatedly insisting that the Palestinians and the Arab nations need to also come forward now with compromises and good faith steps towards peace. Obama is a lot smarter than the columnist and most of you. He knows that both the Israelis and the Palestinians have to modify their positions if peace is to be achieved, and that it is erroneous as well as futile to blame and pressure only Israel.
All Obama has asked for is a settlement freeze. An end to more illegal Israeli building. Thats it.
All the administration has asked for is Israel to do is comply with international law. Thats hardly pressure or a concession. He doesnt want Israel creating further obstructions to peace and pouring sand into the gears of the peace process.
It is important that Obama keep up the pressure on Israel well into the next government.
Sucessive governments in Israel have become progressively more and more hardline as the people in Israel continue to imagine they can bomb and kill their way to peace.
As Israels military advantage begins to erode it now seeks to bend the west to its will, in order to establish the "greater Israel" on what remains of the West bank, while cruelly and with great malice it continues to starve and beat its Gazan captives.
What the Israelis - being predominantly Jewish, ought to know by now, is that it is impossible to crush the will of a people. You cannot destroy hope - not with all the military force in the world. The Palestinians will have their homeland one day - it only remains to see how low the Israelis are willing to sink before this happens.
I hope you keep praising Obama, like you have, when he actually allows natural growth. Just watch.
No way would Obama, a law and justice geek, act in opposition to the law that specifies that ALL Israeli settlements in the WB are illegal.
It is Mitchel who ultimately has the President's ear on the 'plan'.
Not Aipac.
An awesome amount of smarts between Obama and the Mitch.
More smarts than all the Aipac-ers put together.
Everyone knows that Israel will keep the bigger settlement blocks in the West Bank.
'Everyone'?.....
Think again.
But do they have more chupzta? It is chutzpa that matters.
Sure they do.
It's called chess-chutzpa.
Israel is a bully nation. They need to stop stealing the land from the Palestinians. No more welfare check for Israel. They should strive for peace.
Israel is hardly a bully. A nation surrounded by nation-states dedicated to our destruction are hardly the victims in this matter. Israel has never started a war or action, though we have been attacked by the Arabs on a regular basis. So, the idea that Israel is the bully in the region is laughable.
Even those who believed that propaganda with regard to previous Israeli aggression witnessed Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008 and are beginning to see Israel's true face. About time, too.
Boy are you stuck in the victim lalaland.
Yes Israels nuclear arsenal and blank check for american F16s apaches, artillery and smart munitions are no match for Hezbollahs home made rockets or Palestinian rocks.
Get real, Israel has invaded and attacked Syria and Lebanon with MILITARY force and continues to occupy and attack Gaza and the west bank with MILITARY force in response (as they would have it) to non-military level rockets and mortars which are tactically useless and have kille dno more than a handful of Israelis.
Meanwhile Israel continues to steal land and push its borders out into other peoples territory. And despite that it expects and demands that nobody retaliate (or even complain) for this.
We see you, Israel. Here in the west we see what you are doing. It is ugly, it is facist and it shames the memory of those among you who suffered so similarly not so long ago.
Yes Israels nuclear arsenal and blank check for american F16s apaches, artillery and smart munitions are no match for Hezbollahs home made rockets or Palestinian rocks.
Get real, Israel has invaded and attacked Syria and Lebanon with MILITARY force and continues to occupy and attack Gaza and the west bank with MILITARY force in response (as they would have it) to non-military level rockets and mortars which are tactically useless and have kille dno more than a handful of Israelis.
Meanwhile Israel continues to steal land and push its borders out into other peoples territory. And despite that it expects and demands that nobody retaliate (or even complain) for this.
We see you, Israel. Here in the west we see what you are doing. It is ugly, it is facist and it shames the memory of those among you who suffered so similarly not so long ago.
You need to get a life in reality, BubbaC33, but you can afford to be smug as long as AIPAC has prostituted the democracy oujt of our government, and continues to do it.....
Yet the US is on her way to sell Israel some F-35s.
Yes it is, but you forgot to mention the small-print that Bush ignored and Obama has highlighed in RED that's included in the agreement:
The president is given an escape clause whereby he can rescind the agreement if he deems that Israel is not complying with past agreements, ie: settlements.
In other words, NOT SO FAST ISRAEL!
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