BUILD, BABY, BUILD…
By ATWadmin On September 27th, 2010The totally not gay in any way Foreign Secretary William Hague is set to urge Israel to renew a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank amid fears the expiry of the 10-month ban could scupper Middle East peace efforts.
Good. I hope his view will be COMPLETELY ignored and that Israel does commence building on its own land. The moratorium is out of date and Nehanyahu must reflect the will of those who elected him. BUILD.
Hi David – would you care to take us through the legalities of how the West Bank is Israel's 'own land'?
Do you encourage your friends to get behind the wheel when drunk?
I would love it if the President of the United States told Israel publically that if it is so determined to ruin the peace process by treating the peace process itself as leverage, then we will withdraw from attempting to mediate a deal as our time and resources are better spent on something productive in which the participants wish to deal in good faith.
Mahons,
The secret to any good deal – 'A willing buyer and a willing seller!'
Somehow I don't see either in the present discussions.
>>if it is so determined to ruin the peace process by treating the peace process itself as leverage, then we will withdraw from attempting to mediate a deal<<
mahons, how would that represent a threat for Israel?
It would be more like a gift. A threat would have to have a totally different form.
The party doing the occupying and colonising is obviously perfectly happy with the status quo; and wishes only to be left alone by the US, provide the stream of Dollars keeps flowing.
Its good news for caterpillar
The settlement business is not helpful to any future peace there or in the region.
I support Israel, but let's get real – they survive on welfare checks from the US. They'd better realize who their friends are– perhaps they should listen to the advice and counsel given to them by their true friends.
Israel took (back or not) land in a defensive war in 1967, can you let me know what other countries who have captured land have also had to hand it back to the losers in that war?
Assuming he isn't dead perhaps part of the negotiations over the moratorium and future peace process could insist upon the return of young Gilad Shalit.
1967 was a defensive war?
It was a proactive war, entirely justified under the circumstances.
By choosing to take the initiative, they chose not to be invaded by three nations.
Do we have to beat this one to death again?
Accepting this truth does not mean that the expansion of settlements is a good idea.
Yes, porkie. The arab states around Israel were mobilising their armies quite publicly so were routed when Israel's air force destroyed them on the ground. I'd call 1967 pre-emptive whereas 1973 was defensive as egypt and Syria had learnt their lesson on concealment.
Noel – Because contrary to saber rattling (in Israel and here on ATW) Israel's leaders recognize that they can not cause irreversible damage to relations with their core ally.
The settlements are so counterproductive to Israel's actual security and welfare that they might as well have been planned by the Arabs. It would be helpful to tell them so, and not to have these half measures which are used domestically, in Israel, to placate its far right religious parties who have inordinate domination on their policies.
>>By choosing to take the initiative, they chose not to be invaded by three nations.<<
Strange, but that is exactly what Russia, Germany, Austria and France said in 1914. They were all of them perfectly right to start that terrible war, it seems.
>>Israel's leaders recognize that they can not cause irreversible damage to relations with their core ally.<<
But they won't cause irreparable damage, and they know it. There will be a few mild words of rebuke from Hillary, and that will be that. The Israelis have been stalling, building, promising, building, negotiating, building, etc for over a generation. Then, if any deal were ever in the offing they'd say, look: we've built so much already you can't expect us to give up land where our people actually live!. Let the building continue.
They have been supported in this all along by the US, and there is no reason why they should stop now.
That the US couldn't even bring itself to issue a stern and unequivocal warning to Israel about a restart of building over the past weeks – even though they knew it might save these vital talks – should tell you all you need to know about the "irreversible damage" Israel is likely to suffer now.
Forget it.
The US does not have an endless pot of money and this situation cannot go on forever.
Obama should have had a " Dutch Uncle " ( unsparingly frank ) talk with the Israeli administration.
Israel deserves support, but not blind support
Noel – why should I forget it, its my proposal to nudge these talks into something productive. It is going to take a significant emphasis such as I've suggested to make it workable.
Then we turn to the peace-loving, warmhearted, guileless, always right, best intentioned, flower children – also known as the Palestinians – to work towards a workable solution.
Do we have to beat this one to death again?
Afraid we do if people insist on propagating fraudulent history !
>>Then we turn to the peace-loving, warmhearted, guileless, always right, best intentioned, flower children – also known as the Palestinians -<<
Well, they would be all of these silly things if they allowed even more of their land to be robbed and colonised as it has been for the past 40 years, under the aegis of Uncle Samuel.
Fortunately they fight back.
Noel – Of course, how could I forget blameless! Without sin? The Unicorns of the Middle East.