President Obama will not be thwarted on the START Treaty by Republicans, regardless of Sen. Lindsay Graham's caterwauling. Today's Republicans bear no resemblance of their hero Ronald Reagan, as Sarah Palin's recent Iran op-ed proves. Reagan was a leader on nuclear zero, but today would be run out of his own party. Playing politics with national security is one thing the Right does best, but which the media never seems to call them on. While looking across to Pres. Obama's foreign policy plate, even beyond the depressing reality in Afghanistan he won't acknowledge, as well as the Special Operations ground raids in Pakistan, the reality is far more worrisome. Nowhere more so than in the Middle East.
After Pres. Obama's adamant policy against further Israeli settlements being built, a WikiLeaks cable now points to a "secret accord" for "natural growth" to be allowed. No one who follows the Middle East will be surprised, but it does once again reveal the importance of transparency. When your president and his administration is preening one policy with cables pointing to something else, it goes against what our democratic republic is all about. No wonder PM Netanyahu has ignored Pres. Obama on settlements.
No doubt feeling empowered, Mr. Netanyahu's very public campaign to free convicted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard puts more pressure on Obama, who soon has to think about his reelection.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will officially and publicly appeal to President Obama in the coming days for the release of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the American serving a life term in a North Carolina prison for spying for Israel, Mr. Netanyahu's office announced Tuesday.
A public request, as opposed to Israel's discreet efforts in the past, would constitute a new approach in the campaign for Mr. Pollard's release and an additional twist in a long and painful chapter in Israeli-American relations. ...
Last week I wrote about the realities in East Jerusalem after a forum held by Daniel Levy at New American Foundation. His guests were attorney Tali Nir and Hagai El-Ad, both of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which is Israel's oldest and preeminent civil and human rights organization. The findings reveal a chilling reality. Children between 8-13 are being arrested. Israeli security guards help Israels versus the Palestinians. There is little health care, plumbing, water, or schools. As for the PLO, they're not allowed to operate, but don't exactly make an effort either, many people feeling the "PA has deserted" the people, according to Nir and El-Ad.
Then there was the State Dept.'s nonchalance over the detention of Adeeb Abu Rahma, which you can see in this video, which reveals another weakness in the Obama administration's policy. The happy ending here is that Abu Rahma finally, at long last been released after 17 months in prison. The State Dept.'s deplorable diplo ducking gives a window into just how important the unveiling of secrets by Wikileaks was, because it reminds us that our government treats its citizens like children while conducting foreign policy that ignores peaceful dissidents. There is simply no good excuse for State or the Obama administration for their handling of this other than Pres. Obama doesn't want to rile the Right, his new best friends in deal making. After all, what would it look like if the American President was seen being fair to a Gandhi style Palestinian? More importantly, what would it mean to his reelection, which must be protected above doing what's right,
Now, aid groups sound off against the Israeli government over their difficult reality in Gaza, which sounds very similar to what the Israeli government is doing in East Jerusalem, especially in the thwarting of building schools. Evidently Netanyahu's government is shockingly clueless as to what breeds terrorism, which can begin with young people with no hope and no future. The Israeli government continuing to be stunningly short-sided.
Instead, aid groups say, Israeli bureaucracy and bottlenecks at border crossings are snarling the delivery of materials to international relief organizations struggling to build much-needed housing, schools and infrastructure projects.
"The United Nations, who have a responsibility to help, we're the ones that are held up," John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency's Gaza operations, said in an interview. "We're held up from building schools. We're held up from our other infrastructure projects, from the housing people need. And, yet, for the other parts of society here - be that either those with ulterior agendas or people who just have money - they can get on with it."... Securing Israeli approval of projects requires weeks or even months of negotiations and the sign-off of up to six Israeli agencies, according to Gisha, an Israeli nongovernmental group that tracks movement and access problems between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
"Hundreds of hours of staff time and millions of dollars are spent on documenting each nut and bolt - as if we were supervising the transfer of highly specialized weapons, and despite the fact that steel, concrete and gravel enter Gaza quite freely via the tunnels," said Sari Bashi, Gisha's executive director. ...
... But Ging says his main concern is schools. Israel has approved six out of 100 the agency says it needs to build to accommodate 40,000 eligible children. "Overcrowded classrooms, tens of thousands of children failing academically, all of these things, they have long-term detrimental consequences," he said. "We don't have the luxury to deal with that after the peace process." ...
Since demanding the stoppage of settlement building, which has been unmasked by Wikileaks, Pres. Obama has lost all leverage against the self-defeating policies of the Netanyahu government. What began with great promise two years ago with Obama hasn't amounted to squat.
Long-time activists working for a Palestinian state will never give up, many of them Jews, because they know that demographics are not on Israel's side. The alternative to moving forward unthinkable.
But whatever Pres. Obama once hoped to do in the Middle East is gone. Democrats respect him, but in the hard boiled land of Middle East politics he's proven himself very weak, with the midterms rendering him even weaker as the tax scheme deal demonstrated. Going forward it's the Right who has the might in the Middle East and that's not good for the Palestinians, which means it's also bad for Israel.
Taylor Marsh is a political analyst and veteran national political writer out of Washington, D.C.
Follow Taylor Marsh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/taylormarsh
Nathan Schneider: The Kabul Scarf: A New Year Reflection on the War in Afghanistan
But in these dark days it has become the norm due to toothless (to say the least) pussycat media that is more interested in the Presidents numbers then all the important issues of the day which there are plenty of. Without a Tigeress independent media you have a government that runs amuck just like they have done with capitalism, jobs that go over seas, money that gets sucked from hard working Americans to a handful at the top etc. After the greatest crisis in American History caused by corrupt bankers & politicians, how hard did the media go after them? Iris Erlingsdottir was taking names & kicking Ass in Iceland...
Hence you have Israelies playing their political games behind closed doors and for what end game? Negotiating is an art form to Israelies & political games warfare mind games. The President might not be capable of playing with the Israelies but I did expect Hillary with Bill's expertise to finally solve this problem. The Israelies like to play games while they wait for you to make a decision. They've always known the end game, they're just waiting for someone to play on their level. GAME OVER.
Do you believe that there is someone out there that is capable?
It's just like those settlements everyone yells about...I'd tell them build build build... thats free housing after negotiations...
So in between the next 5 and 10 years, Jewish Israelis will be outnumbered by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and Israel proper and not only will the latter be frustrated, poorer than their Jewish counterparts, and even more embittered...the upcoming generation of Palestinians will be largely uneducated and unemployed. Well, that doesn't sound bad at all. Lord knows a majority population hampered with poverty, long brewing rage, lack of education, and resentment always makes for a happy and peaceful nation.
It is astonishing that despite the huge gaps between the maximum that Israel is willing to concede and the minimum that the Palestine Authority could accept as the basis of a final settlement of the conflict, governmental leaders, especially in Washington, continue to pull every available string to restart inter-governmental negotiations.
Is it not enough of signal that Israel lacks the capacity or will to agree to extension of partial settlement freeze for mere additional 90 days, despite outrageous inducements from Obama Administration (20 F-35 fighter jets useful for an attack on Iran; an unprecedented advance promise to veto any initiative inSecurity Council acknowledging a Palestinian state; and assurance that Israel would never again be asked to accept a settlement moratorium) that were offered to suspend partially their unlawful settlement activity.
In effect, a habitual armed robber was being asked to stop robbing a few banks for three months in exchange for a huge financial payoff. Such an arrangement qualifies as a transparently shameless embrace of Israeli lawlessness on behalf of a peace process that has no prospect of producing peace, much less justice.
Justice here is conceived in relation to the satisfaction of Palestinian rights, especially the right of self–determination that has through the years been whittled down.
rest of article: http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-12-21/richard-falk-the-delusions-of-the-peace-process/
It was Netanyahu's predecessor, Sharon, who deliberately set off the second intifada with his provocative, heavily escorted visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
Terrorism has consistently been used by the Israeli leadership as the ultimate excuse to defer, avoid and hamper any lasting peace agreement with the Palestinians, since whether contrived, imagined, or authentic, acts of terror are the extremist regime's best friend.
A continuation of such incidents insure a fearful and easily manipulated populace, which will rally around the flag at a moment's notice, become increasingly revanchist, xenophobic and prone to retaliatory violence- a perfect citizenry for a garrison state, yet entirely indisposed for the make up of a regime which claims to be a free open and democratic society, especially one aspiring for true peace with its neighbors.
The intransigence of the Netanyahu regime in no sense represents a break in Israeli policy, it's a continuation of the "good cop/bad cop" duopoly of Labor and Likud- with Kadima now thrown into the mix as sartor resartus- the old Likud re-tailored as a "moderate" compared to the contemporary radicalized Likud.
The peace process is a theater, designed to give warm feelings to politicians and diplomats from D.C.
The Palestinians should know by now that whether it the regime be Labor, Likud, or Kadima; they face the Hobson's choice of permanent second-class helot status or residing in a balkanized, defenseless Bantustan.
No justice, no peace.
LIE: "It was Netanyahu's predecessor, Sharon, who deliberately set off the second intifada". It has been repeatedly proven, in the words of Palestinian leaders themselves, who conspired with Arafat to launch the terror that would kill over a thousand Jews, that it was Arafat and his cohorts who planned that murder spree on his return from the Camp David talks that he purposely scuttled.
LIE: "visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque. ". Sharon, with the previous agreement of Palestinian and Waqf officials, went to visit the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
LIE: "The intransigence of the Netanyahu regime " Netanyahu has offered "two states for two peoples", a huge concession on his part, but a phrase never uttered by the Palestinian leadership.
LIE: "balkanized, defenseless Bantustan. " They have been, and continue to be offered a contiguous state of their own. The limitations that would be necessary would not be on their "defense", but on their ability to continue committing "aggression, and offense".
Your hatred will never be mitigated by the truth....but your lies cannot be allowed to stand unanswered.
Truth: 'Accordingly, we have no basis on which to conclude that there was a deliberate plan by the PA to initiate a campaign of violence at the first opportunity; or to conclude that there was a deliberate plan by the GOI to respond with lethal force.' U.S. Mitchell Report on the events.
Truth: Temple Mount is the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Truth: Pressured once to actually spit out the words 'two states' that he has committed his life to preventing, Netayahoo has done everything in his power to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state his party platform demands never exist.
Truth: A look at any map of what Israel might be willing to settle for has a swiss-cheese Palestinian entity.
authorities had marked the route the Wall with orange plastic straps,
indicating that the route of the Wall, which would swallow a natural spring,
three graves and run through a small grave yard. villagers will no longer be able to access the spring after the wall goes up.
Not exactly.
They were confronting the bulldozers, and the drivers, trying to obstruct them, and to provoke another Rachel Corrie incident. Rather than play into their hands, the demonstrators were arrested.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/poll-most-israeli-jews-believe-arab-citizens-should-have-no-say-in-foreign-policy-1.327972
Yet more evidence that my Rule of Irony (those who make the most ironic statements are oblivious to the irony of their statement) is true.
This is exactly why the whole process must be wrested away from American control and the Israeli Lobbyists dominating the American control (such as Dennis 'Israel's Lawyer' Ross).
Truer words were never spoken than yesterday when the Brazilian President said that there never will be Middle East peace as long as the Americans are allowed to keep rigging the process for Israel.
Brazil, Turkey, South America, and one by one - the nations of Europe - are changing the whole dynamic regarding the Israelis. As the Israelis dig in even further and hunker down in their Apartheid bunker - that's when the world kicks in it's South African BDS model and pressurizes the Israelis till they cave
I have to disagree. I think Bibi's government both knows what breeds terrorism, and takes and permits actions with that likely affect specifically because violence and the spectre of terrorism are keys to their own entrenchment in power.
"Mukasey: Commute Pollard's sentence to time served
Former US A-G sends letter to Obama, says agent didn't have motive to harm US; Pollard in poor health; not yet informed of PM's request."
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=200576
The US could have stood firm in the face of Israeli intransigence, insisted that if Egypt wanted to continue to have a friendly relationship with the US it had to have real elections, lobbyed hard to keep Saudi Arabia off the UN Women Committee board, and taken up Iran's offer on its nuclear program. Instead, we saw pretty much the exact opposite happen.
Odds are that in the history books of the future, the US actions in the Middle East will rightfully be described with the same language that is used to talk about the USSR's actions in Eastern Europe.
"Human rights NGO monitoring Palestinians' legal rights gets robbed of internal use documents
No signs of forced entry were found in their offices, raising suspicion that rightist groups managed to plant a mole in the organization."
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/human-rights-ngo-monitoring-palestinians-legal-rights-gets-robbed-of-internal-use-documents-1.331912
Israel advancing to a one state solution where every adult gets a vote is the only fair possible outcome.
On a lighter note... ah nature!
"Natural growth" funded by Americans making tax deductible donations reminds me of a sunset over the grand canyon with birds chirping... tree seedlings sprouting in the cracks of boulders...
If peace in the Mideast could be obtained by the correct US policy, it would have happened by now. Not everything is fixable by us.
Would you say that someone who has only pushed on a door, sometimes firmly, and lately with a battering ram, but never tried to pull on it, has shown that they cannot open the door?
Ignore the facts, because they show Israel in such a bad light, then claim there are no facts being offered.
Call the recitation of facts and statistics a 'talking point'
And cast aspersions on even children, because, after all, they are not part of the 'chosen people'.
I'd point you to stories from the Israeli media like http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/how-do-you-translate-innocent-into-arabic-1.322210 and http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/amira-hass-eight-palestinian-youths-and-the-crime-they-didn-t-commit-1.306641 but you are the sort that this http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/don-t-confuse-us-with-facts-1.291302 was written about