In the past weeks, Israel has announced their plan to build 1,600 apartments in eastern Jerusalem where the Palestinians would like to have their future capital. To make matters worse they made this announcement, while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel. As a White House aide said, it was an insult. The United States needs to take a stand on foreign policy against its arguably number one ally.
The decision was made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party. He has said the settlements “in no way” hurt Palestinians. Of course he would have this view because the Likud party platform states “Palestinians will be able to manage their lives freely … but not as a sovereign, independent state.”
The prime minister’s parliamentary coalition consists of multiple right-wing hawkish parties alongside his Likud party who embody this type of view, sometimes they are even more hawkish than Likud. Netanyahu has also been known to embrace hawkish policies in the past. Yet, he has said, “I want to advance a peace agreement with the Palestinians. I am capable of achieving an agreement. I have the political will inside me.”
If he really wanted to advance peace with the Palestinians he would have the political courage to stop settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, all of which are considered occupied territory by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. He can’t do this or he would risk losing support of his party and hawkish parties in his coalition.
The Islamic militant group Hamas has also been guilty of being hawkish towards Israel. They have only emerged and now have ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 because of the multi-decades illegal occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
American-brokered indirect peace talks were to began in late March between Israel and the Palestinians after the Arab League’s approved of it, but Netanyahu showed his disregard for peace when he tried to embarrass Joe Biden by announcing new settlements while he was visiting. It also conveyed disregard for their most powerful ally that gives them $3 billion a year.
Israel gets most of its military weapons and assistance from the United States. Under the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, the United States cannot provide assistance to countries that “engage in consistent violations of international human rights.”
Israel would be in violation of this act by that definition many times over. One example is the Israeli Gaza offensive in 2009. A war crimes report by South African judge Richard Goldstone said Israel “committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity” because they used disproportionate force, targeted civilians on purpose, and used Palestinians as human shields. The report didn’t forget about Hamas and said they also committed war crimes. The Israeli foreign minister called the report “one sided” even though both sides were charged with war crimes. The death total was 13 Israelis killed including three civilians, whereas 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including 800-900 civilians.
Israel gets such strong support in part in the United States because of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), considered to be the most influential lobbying group in the United States, which is intriguing considering groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Pharmaceutical Research, and Manufactures of America are also on that list. AIPAC has bi-partisan support including Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush.
Maybe their lobbying power explains why only the United States, Israel and Micronesia have been against the UN effort to ban the militarization of space. China has called for banning weapons in outer space but the United States has led efforts to block negotiations related to this.
It is past due time for the United States to stand up against Israel. We must tell them that our efforts to support them will end if they don’t stop settlements and give in to reasonable negotiations with the Palestinians. These would include giving the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Palestine and having Jerusalem possibly being an international open capital. The Palestinians deserve a home and shouldn’t be persecuted by a right-wing hawkish government that gets much of its funding from the United States who claims to promote “freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It is time to give the Palestinians freedom.
Jerry • Apr 8, 2010 at 11:15 am
Except for the Jewish kingdoms described in the Bible that was in the area of Palestine the area has always had a mixture of Jew, Christians and Muslims and was predominately under Muslim rule for most of the 2000 years after Jesus Christ’s death. I’m not saying that Israel can’t have a state but to expect the Muslims and Christians to be told to leave the area they had lived there whole lives to put in a Jewish national state is wrong. Israel agreed to the two-state solution in 1948. The Palestinians are willing to take this now but Israel wants to push its borders farther and farther because they think this land was given to them by “God”. News flash: Muslims, Jews and Christians worship the same God. They have different interpretations about Jesus Christ role as savior and prophet.
Don Adkins • Apr 8, 2010 at 7:34 am
Israel; The Palestinians are displaced persons only because they refuse to go back to their native arab country Saudia Arabia. There has been Jews in Israel far longer than the Palestinians have been there. If you are so concerned about them getting a country back that is not theirs then why don’t you get your butt out of America and let the Native Indian tribes have THEIR country back?????? HUH????
Stephanie • Apr 5, 2010 at 1:20 pm
This is obviously someone who has not done their homework on Israels history.
Robert Fisher • Apr 5, 2010 at 10:55 am
i can clearly see where your SMUT PAPER is coming ,from or your Orientation. you are not interested in a wholesome discussion but only to look for excuses for Bibi and his murdering cohorts. there was absolutely nothing inflammatory in my last statement, only the facts which are inflammatory to every clear thinking individual.
Editor, go hang your Head in shame. your kind has been shunned for thousands of years and your kind will not survive again. you might think that you are soooo close again but this time it will not be the Germans but your Buddy Americans that will stop you.
i just sit back and watch the show. ha.
Robert Fisher • Apr 5, 2010 at 10:40 am
the quickest way to have this issue settled is for the USA to cut the Purse Strings to the rouge State of Israel. also withdraw it’s nuclear illegal capabilities. only then will there be serious Piece talks, without the USA backing its every move. all 300 USA Senators that have sworn to unwavering Alliance towards Israel need to be charged with Treason and not acting in the best interest of their electorate, the People of the USA. Without the mighty USA backing it’s every move, Israel would think twice before continuing it’s genocide in Palestine and Gaza. it is the American People that are guilty of prolonging this Conflict.
Michael Hess • Apr 4, 2010 at 11:13 am
I see “Jerry” never came back. Dennis is correct, all of the so-called “settlements” they are actually colonies with colonists, are illegal.
Every single one of them, illegal. This explicitly includes Israel’s so-called “annexation” of Israel, completely and utterly illegal.
Ban Ki-Moon has made this clear, it is decades old US policy, same for the EU, Britain, the Quartet etc – all of them are in agreement, the colonies Israel has planted *outside* of it’s internationally recognized borders are illegal.
Two things control this illegality, a bedrock principle in international law was fully adopted after WWII, ‘territory acquired by force of war is inadmissible’ – in other words, Israel, being born in 1948 and not before, came into being too late to participate in the oft romanticized “spoils of war”.
Under the laws of military occupation, it is particularly egregious to transfer the occupier country’s citizens onto occupied territory, yet the Israelis have done this more than 500,000 times!
These are the things that AIPAC and it’s shills would like to prevent the average American from knowing. But the Internet ruined the Hasbara operation that had always fooled American so well for so long.
This has nothing to do with antisemitism. This is a land dispute where Israel is being driven by its religious extremists to take all of the land and push out the rest of the Palestinians or bottle them up forever in ghetto cantons with high walls.
The US and the world is no longer prepared to accept that Israel is a “shining beacon” nor a true democracy that respects human rights equally for all. It’s time for Israel to accept responsibility and end all of its various occupations and seek peace.
America’s National Security and the lives of our troops are at stake.
Dennis • Apr 2, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Hey Jerry can you look up UN Security Council Resolution 478 and tell me what it says
jerry • Apr 2, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are not illegal. That area represents the heartland of Israel promised by the mandate of the League of Nations and later accepted by the UN. People of ill-will would like the settlements to be illegal. Yet the only reason seems to be empowering the Palestinians with an independent government. Will these people be able to run a country? Nobody asks. Will they remain wards of the world? Nobody cares. Will they continue to try to destroy Israel. Nobody wants to know that information.
I think that the status quo in Israel, including Judea and Samaria should be quite acceptable to all reasonable people given the unknown consequences of changing that status quo. Allowing any sort of re-division of Jerusalem borders upon the insane. Uprooting Jews living in their heartland for the sake of producing a country that may wind up being an enemy of the US also makes little sense.
What is to be gained by producing a Palestinian state out of whole cloth? Kindly list its advantages to anyone, including the Palestinians. Any Palestinian with the ability to convert to outright Israeli citizenship is trying desperately to do so. No one wants to live under Fatah or Hamas rule. Arabs get a better break under Israeli justice than they would under their proposed government leaders who have no history of democratic practices. No justice, no peace, you know.
bob • Apr 2, 2010 at 4:53 pm
they are just civillian houses stop making a big fuss, and Israel is one of America’s greatest allies, why would we turn our backs on Israel you ungreatful nincompoops!
Dennis • Apr 2, 2010 at 3:09 pm
not condone*
Dennis • Apr 2, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Reuven-From everything I’ve read the settlements are being built in east Jerusalem. Israel agreed to have Jerusalem become an internationally sponsored open capital when they first became a state. Obviously they don’t have that view anymore. Hamas does commit some bad crimes but to call them thugs and just pretend that Israel didn’t kill 900 civilians with complete disregard and used some as human shields because 13 Israelis were killed is just wrong.
Jerry-Maybe they mean stand up to Israel because the previous presidents used Israel as basically a 51st state of the U.S. It is also hard to completely cut ties to an ally who has all of your military weapons assistance including nuclear weapons. Of course Palestinians would have to say they would condone all attacks on Israel but these militant groups only attack because they have no recognition of a state and are being occupied illegally. If they did attack Israel could just send tanks in again and kill another 800 Palestinians like they always end up doing.
Jerry • Apr 2, 2010 at 11:01 am
“if they don’t stop settlements and give in to reasonable negotiations with the Palestinians. ”
I am certain that your definition of “reasonable” includes “end of conflict” public statements from the Palestinians – all factions. You would not want Israel to give up land without receiving ironclad security assurances, since that might result in a future war. Remember the Devil is always in the details.
Jerry • Apr 2, 2010 at 9:51 am
“It is past due time for the United States to stand up against Israel. ”
Please picture this image in your head to realize what you have written. The military and economic might of the richest country in the world with 300 million people needs to stand up to Israel, smaller than New Jersey – 7.2 million people of which 18% are Arab citizens.
Adam • Apr 2, 2010 at 7:56 am
We, the Jews, own America and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
Reuven • Apr 2, 2010 at 12:53 am
The comment reflects a profound ignorance about Jerusalem. First of all the location of the proposed housing project was Ramat Shlomo, an all-Jewish neighborhood in northern (not eastern Jerusalem) to which the Palestinians have never laid claim and to which Abbas in talks with Olmert tacitly conceded would be part of Israel in any future settlement. The neighborhood was built during the Clinton Administration with no complaints by the Americans or anyone else. It has been about as controversial as a housing project in Philadelphia until Obama and Biden put their feet in their mouth in an apparent bid to stop all negotiations whatsoever by trying to out-Palestinian the Palestinians in the outrageousness of their demands. Little suprise that the vast majority of Israelis are outraged at Obama (his popularity is in single digits), and are supporting Netanyahu in his attempt to prevent Jerusalem from turning into another Berlin. The last time Jerusalem was divided, Jordanian soldiers occupying eastern Jerusalem used to fire on civilians from their positions in the center of town. Only since Jerusalem has become unified has it become a sophisticated city offering freedom of religion to all and a far higher standard of living. Little surprise too that many East Jerusalem residents have acquired Israeli citizenship in case they have to move to the center of Israel rather than live under the thugs who comprise the leadership of the PA and Hamas..
Richard Wicks • Apr 2, 2010 at 12:15 am
Settlements serve only a single purpose, to confiscate more land in order to expand the state of Israel by displacing the indigenous inhabitants of the land without any reimbursement for the loss of land of the owners of their land.
That is their only purpose. If Israel is creating settlements, they aren’t interested in any sort of peace much less a truce.
It’s as simple as that.