U.S. to Israel: OK to Continue Building Settlements

U.S. to Israel: OK to Continue Building Settlements

www.imemc.org

According to a representative of the U.S. State Department, the U.S. will continue its negotiations, but will not press Israel to comply with international law banning the transfer of civilians to militarily-occupied land. All settlements are illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, but the Israeli government has ignored this obligation, and has transferred over 500,000 Israeli civilians into settlements constructed on stolen Palestinian land since 1967.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Israeli negotiators have demanded that the Palestinian leadership agree to “recognize Israel as a Jewish state” as a precondition for peace talks – despite the fact that such a recognition would mean the denial of the internationally recognized right of return of Palestinian refugees. This is a concession that Palestinian leaders say they do not have the right to make.

I think it's a little obvious that this was the sentiment of the US government "behind the scenes" anyway. Now, it's just a little more apparent. I'm sure that it would be a huge headache relief for the US if the settlements were stopped, but lets not fool ourselves here, it isn't like the US can do anything about it.

Why would Israel ever stop the illegal settlements? There is practically no repurcussions for Israel to continue with these settlements. They can pretty much count on the American MS media from keeping the whole story out of the news and they can count on the US to block any UN resolutions against Israel. There is really no incentive for Israel to stop these settlements.

At least the US government isn't pretending as if the settlements may stop.

We also have Israel making a bogus offer the stop the settlements if the Palestinian leadership accepts Israel as a Jewish state, but I believe that this is only to shift blame back on the Palestinians. It seems easy enough.

If the Palestinians accept Israel as a Jewish state then everything will be honkey dorey, right? Well lets consider this for a moment. If we ignore the very fact that these settlements are illegal in the first place and thus aren't really a bargaining chip, so much as an extortion attempt, then we are still left with the ver real possibility that Israel will once again ignore it's commitments and the losers will once again be the Palestinians. Then, one of the whole arguments of the Palestinians is that at least part of Israel belongs to them (not the whole thing) and by ceding that notion by admitting Israel as a Jewish state, they are basically ceding their whole argument. This also has real practical consequences too, as Palestinian refugees would also be ceding their internationally recognized right to return to their homeland, which is ultimately what Israel wants.

If you think about it, it's kind of an odd request by Israel, I mean the wording, as Israel touts itself as a secular nation. The reason why it is worded in such a way, is because it undermines the real and valid fundamental argument of the Palestinians and it will justify Israel's agenda of ridding the region of Palestinians.


--airspoon

www.imemc.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

According to this article. Obama says it is not ok. lol

www.haaretz.com...

What poloticians say and what they do are often two different things. In fact, this seems to be the case more often than not. As I said in the OP, I have no doubts that Obama (or any US President for that matter) would rather Israel stop these settlements, as they must be a huge headache, however it is more than obvious that no real effort to get Israel to stop, is being undertaken by the US government.

How about, "we will stop sending you tonnes of money in foreign aid (one of the biggest US foreign aid recipients in the world), unless you stop with these illegal settlements". What about, "we will stop blocking UN resolutions and protecting you, unless you stop these illegal policies". These are just two out of many.

I understand that US politicians are beholden to the pro-Israel lobby (such as AIPAC), but that's my point.


--airspoon

china and russia need to unite and start making threats to israel but i doubt either of these nations have much interest in helping palastinians and they may seem the wrong people to be fighting for freedom of other peoples but they could do deals with supporting nations for oil etc.. at cheap rates and i feel like the tables could be turned just from this one action.
what could the us do if these two super powers demanded israel to pull down the wall, what could the us do if they invaded israel. the only thing the us could do is the same thing that china russia or even israel could do and that is set off nuclear missiles and thats never going to happen as i bet even bush was clever enough to know that would mean the end of the world and i am not so sure if the us army would stand even a slight chance against the chinese army and i doubt they would be able to count on the british s.a.s or s.a.s trained gurkhas for help as i think the uk would go neutral in these circumstances.

reply to post by airspoon


The thing that suprises me most about this is that they even bothered drawing attention to the change in thier stance. If anything thats asking for people like you , and me, and others to go out to the rest of the world and say " America is a lie, freedom is a lie, no one will support you when you are in need, no one will act to save your nation when it is invaded, no one cares, so kill your enemy now before he has a chance to kill you!" Its almost like ASKING the entire middle east to go to war !
I hate that they can call this diplomacy without being shot to death by the truth police!