Mitchell: Mideast stagnation endangers US aid , page 1

Obviously, this rhetoric is surely not going to pressure Israel to change its policy on a two-state solution, as Mitchell means the support for loan guarantees and not the billions of economic and military aid that Israel has been receiving since the nation's establishment.

Unlike his promises, Obama closely cooperates with lobbyists such as AIPAC, which have achieved the foreign aid budget for Israel to be increased by $225 million.

On December 20, 2009, the Senate passed the annual foreign aid bill for fiscal year 2010, which includes $2.22 billion in security assistance to Israel. The aid, approved the week prior by the House of Representatives, was included in a larger spending bill funding major parts of the federal government. The legislation has been sent to President Obama for his signature. The aid, when combined with $555 million approved in an earlier bill, brings the total amount of aid to Israel in fiscal year 2010 to $2.775 billion - a $225 million increase from last year. Congress has now fully funded the second year of the 10-year U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding signed by the United States and Israel in 2007 to gradually increase U.S. security assistance to the Jewish state in order to meet increasing threats.

source

Israel has no interest in a two-state solution because it would lose territory that it has stolen from the Palestinians over the years and given to settlers for the construction of settlements. There's no sense in building settlements to destroy them a couple of years later. I should note that many settlements are build without building permits as these settlers are often extremists who have little respect for such legislation - they claim the land is theirs.

In related news, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Friday urged the Israelis and Palestinians to begin talks which would resolve the border issue, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was not optimistic about this latest take on the peace process.

"You cannot have discussions on borders while the territory you want to set up your state on is being eaten up by the settlements," Erekat said.

All this so-called pressuring is not going to help to get the peace process started. These sanctions are not going to hurt Israel so they have little reason to really contribute.

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[edit on 10-1-2010 by Mdv2]