IN A MEETING with President Obama today, Benjamin Netanyahu went through the familiar motions of expressing rhetorical support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Stating, “I remain committed to a vision of peace of two states for two peoples,” Netanyahu said that he wanted “make it clear that we have not given up our hope,” for achieving a two-state solution to the conflict. Just a day before this statement, however, the Israeli government took steps to ensure such a vision could never become reality, moving to authorize the construction of an additional 2,200 housing units in the occupied territories in the face of Palestinian opposition.
The reason behind this apparent discrepancy between word and deed is that Netanyahu does not, and has essentially never, supported the creation of an actual Palestinian state. Last year, during the Israeli election, Netanyahu briefly acknowledged this fact himself, explicitly stating to voters that there would not be a Palestinian state during his tenure as prime minister if he was reelected. Despite this, the convenient fiction that the Israeli prime minister supports a “two-state solution” continues to linger in the United States. Why?
In his 2000 book, A Durable Peace, Netanyahu outlined his vision for any future self-governing Palestinian territory, one that bore little resemblance to actual statehood. “Many in the world have blithely accepted the notion that the Palestinians must have their own independent state,” Netanyahu wrote. “When I am asked about a Palestinian state, I answer in the negative.” Instead of statehood, Netanyahu proposed the creation of a “Palestinian entity,” a governing body with some rights of limited self-governance but not full independence.
In a video recorded the year following the release of the book, Netanyahu bragged that during his first term as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999, he had “de facto put an end to the Oslo Accords,” the agreement that had been negotiated with the Palestinians by his predecessor, and which intended to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
For many years, this brazen opposition to Palestinian statehood remained Netanyahu’s public position. While he moved on to other pursuits, including helping pitch the Iraq War to the U.S. Congress, his stance on Palestinian self-governance remained more or less static. Indeed, in the absence of any American pressure, a public evolution on this issue was not even necessary.
In 2009, however, that began to change. In June of that year, newly elected President Barack Obama, who had made rebuilding ties with the Muslim world a part of his foreign policy platform, gave a landmark speech in Cairo in which he said the United States “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” going on to describe them as contrary to previous agreements and an impediment to peace in the region.
Israeli media would report at the time that Obama’s words “resonated through Jerusalem’s corridors.” In seeming recognition of shifting American sentiments on this issue, 10 days later Netanyahu gave what was billed as a landmark speech at Bar-Ilan University near Tel-Aviv, dealing in part with the subject of Palestinian statehood.
In his address, hailed by the White House as an “important step forward,” Netanyahu endorsed for the first time the creation of what he called “a demilitarized Palestinian state” in the occupied territories. But the same speech added stipulations that, in sum, turned this so-called state into a rebranded version of Netanyahu’s 2000 “Palestinian entity,” with only limited autonomy. In private, just three months before the speech, Netanyahu was even more blunt about the limits he required for a more independent Palestinian territory, stipulating he could only support one “without an army or control over air space and borders,” according to diplomatic cables later released by WikiLeaks.
In a speech two years later to Congress, Netanyahu would go into more detail about the ridiculous conception of Palestinian “statehood” he was imagining, one in which the West Bank would be essentially bifurcated by massive Israeli settlement blocs, the prospective Palestinian capital of East Jerusalem would be surrounded by settlements, and the Israeli Defense Forces would continue to have “a long-term military presence” inside the newly independent “state.” Needless to say, such a proposal was unlikely ever to be accepted by the Palestinians, nor did it bear much resemblance to the independent statehood they had actually been seeking.
Netanyahu let the mask drop even further in July 2014, when he stated in a press conference that “there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan,” essentially outlining a position of permanent military occupation of Palestinian territories. In the run-up to the 2015 election, when he publicly disowned the idea of Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu would specifically repudiate his 2009 Bar-Ilan speech, stating that “there will be no withdrawals and no concessions,” and that the speech was “not relevant.” As recently as last week, Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that “we need to control all of the territory for the foreseeable future,” before adding darkly that Israel “will forever live by the sword.”
In light of all this, it’s difficult to take seriously Netanyahu’s most recent claim that he supports the creation of a Palestinian state. At best, he has in the past expressed support for a Palestinian “entity” with some features of self-governance (an idea that has well-known historical precedents), but certainly not one that affords genuine independence, freedom or statehood to its inhabitants. At his most brazen, he has denied the possibility of even that limited form of self-determination, stating bluntly that Israel will control the entire West Bank and keep its inhabitants under indefinite military subjugation.
Netanyahu has nonetheless been allowed to maintain a convenient fiction that he supports the negotiated goal of Palestinian self-determination. In reality, he has never really supported it. Thanks in large part to Netanyahu’s leadership, a Palestinian state will likely never emerge. Due to his own obstinance, as well as American indulgence, a binational state or a formalized Apartheid regime have now become the most probable remaining outcomes to this disastrous, decadeslong conflict.
The problem is the Palestinians are not willing to acknowledge the Jewish state. They want Palestine, a “Jewish free” state, and Israel, that will be a state for all nations.
As many Palestinian supporters on this site have commented, they see the Jews as colonialist and they want the end of the Jewish state to exist.
The fact is, that for true peace, Israel has given up a lot of territories to Egypt and Jordan (the Jordan area was at the size of Gaza). Even without peace, Israel has came out of Lebanon and Gaza and all they got back was terror and rockets (The blockade om Gaza only started when the Hamas has took over Gaza about a year after the end of occupation, and returned to fire rockets on Israeli citizens).
The fact is the Palestinians have always refused to get their own country. The west bank was under Jordan control from 1948-1967 and even they didn’t give the Palestinian their own state. Only when the Palestinians agree to live with the Jewish state, side by side, and in peace, they will get their own state.
If they keep sending their boys and girls with knifes to kill Israelis, they will never get their own state
They can solve this issue tomorrow if their leaders wanted to:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/09/did-egypt-offer-to-solve-palestinian-problem/
Here are some eye opening stats of US Military aid…
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/11/11/437259/US-Foreign-Assistance-report
Great photo of Net, by the way. Caught his character very well.
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) seems like the right direction now.
Max Blumenthal suggested in “GOLIATH – Life and Loathing in Greater Israel,” and I also believe, the Yitzhak Rabin assassination was about wanting to kill any possibilities for a two-state solution. Immediately after SecState Kerry publicly suggested Israel was becoming an apartheid state I had the sick feeling it’d been discussed with Israel and approved, because Israel’s proven itself quite capable of ignoring world condemnations for a great many years, decades in fact. Politicians here in the U.S. currently talk of boosting the taxpayer billions gifted annually to Israel, no doubt intentionally undermining the BDS movement. What if to Israel the apartheid label really only means they never have to say those “two state” words again, can wait decades more to give non-Jews equal voting rights in Israel – and can continue pace with their ethnic cleansing of occupied and stolen lands? They see the U.S. unwilling to face its own racist genocidal history, and its current imperialism, and so they just publicly admit remaining an expansionist “Jewish State” – that nobody thinks of as a true democracy, anyway.
A bully rarely cares or gets hurt feelings because they’re called a bully.
Apologies to Max for attributing that suggestion about the Rabin assassination to his book GOLIATH as I no longer believe it’s where I remembered it from. I reread it a couple months back after reading The 51 Day War and the only book I’ve read since is Felicia Day’s auto – so I’m sure I didn’t read it there. And after spending several hours since this comment again re-reading much of GOLIATH – I’m forced to conclude there’s a reason I obsessed about this particular bit of my own intellectual laziness or aging memory, take your pick. From his recent article on “…Remembering the True Yitzhak Rabin, 20 Years After His Assassination,” which I myself previously linked to here at TI, Max states Rabin was against there ever being a Palestinian State – and suggests the fanatic killing him just didn’t want anyone negotiating with the Palestinians – at all, as Rabin had done during the OSLO Accords.
http://www.alternet.org/world/i-would-see-gaza-drown-sea-remembering-true-yitzhak-rabin-20-years-after-his-assassination-0
I agree that Obama is lying to Americans when he pretends to agree that a two state solution is desired by Israelis and remains possible.
Acceptance of reality dictates that a one state solution is the only viable path forward.
One person, one vote.
Equal rights for all.
Secular government.
The alternatives are unacceptable to any human with a shred of morality.
Permanent oppression and/or ethnic cleansing cannot be spun, sold, or mandated into existence.
How many Palestinians live in Jerusalem without persecution, yet when Israeli people make a settlement, Palestine screams…and their “government” never lifts a finger to stop Hamas rockets killing Israeli civilians, but when the Israeli military finally retaliates Palestine condemns them. You never hear of Palestinian Military stopping terrorist strikes on Israel from Palestinian land, because they support it, all the while denying responsibility.
The Israelis wish to steal the land first, then accept Palestinians.
Since October 1, ten Israeli Jews have been killed.
But 79 Palestinians have been killed, including 17 children and three women, while more than 3000 Palestinians have been injured. 60 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, and 18, including a mother and her child, have been killed in the Gaza Strip, and one in the Negev . . . 1248 Palestinians have been shot with live army rounds in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and 1808 have been shot with rubber-coated steel bullets; 1008 of them required hospitalization and 800 received treatment by field medics. In the West Bank, 826 Palestinians were shot with live rounds, 895 with rubber-coated steel bullets, while in the Gaza Strip, 422 were shot with live rounds, and 113 with rubber-coated steel bullets. 247 Palestinians suffered fractures and bruises after being assaulted by Israeli soldiers and paramilitary settlers, and 24 suffered burns due to Israeli gas bombs and concussion grenades.
h/t @Kate from Mondoweiss:
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/ministry-palestinians-including-children
Israel is a coloniser, palestinians are resisting israhells forced dominance over them. You’re basically blaming the victim for slapping her rapist. You are part of whats wrong with society today.
“How many {Palestinians live in Jerusalem without persecution?”
Not a single one. Palestinians living in the city are regularly harassed by the IDF and have no security to speak of. They are not allowed even the most basic aspects of normal human lives: if they choose to marry anyone from outside the city they must leave it and are stripped of their residency permit (Israeli Jews on the other hand are encouraged to stay in the city, which the government continuously brands its “undivided capital”, since all the check-points are meant for the unchosen people).
If people like William C., after all these years of Israeli occupation, can still make such insane statements, you must realize that saying anything to enlighten them is futile. Their responses are calculated ones, dictated by a manual, from which they will never vary, no matter the facts.
You are right; however, it is good for everyone to read…even those who are just waking up. So let them make a platform for the truth to be told…(use ’em)!
Netanyahu’s calculated craziness and Israel’s genocide and theft of Palestine
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/netanyahus-calculated-palestinians
The ‘two – state’ solution itself is impossible at this point. Israel must become a bi-national unitary state with equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis. The ‘two state’ solution is a chimera promoted by the U.S. government in the face of massive settlements. Any picture of Gaza and the West bank now and in the long past will confirm that there is almost no territory for Palestinians to ‘have’ a state in. Leftists must stop promoting the ‘two state’ solution.
bi-national “state” means the death of Israel. and that exactly what they want.
In that kind of state there will be 6.5 Muslims living “Peacefully” with 6.2 million Jews…. possible ? I think not!
If you think the Palestinians have it bad now, wait until Hillary takes office. That’s when the real ethnic-cleansing of Palestine will commence…
Of course Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood, because with that issue settled, the only outstanding issue would be the ending of Israel’s Apartheid regime that excludes the majority of its legal population, the Refugees. As long as that can be obscured behind all the other issues that Israel’s militancy, expansionist practices, supremacist ideology, and efforts to terrorize the entire region, the easier it is for American politicians to pretend that Israel is not an Apartheid state, and therefore the easier it is to get the American media to ignore that, too. And without at least one of the major American media outlets paying attention to the fact of Israel’s Apartheid system, the majority of the American public will dismiss it as unimportant or nonexistent.
Bibi is here w/his hand out for the millions the US gives Israel w/no regard for the genocide committed by Zionist Israel against the Palestinians corralled in Gaza. And, so it goes…
Billions, not millions!
Netanyahu has killed less Muslims than either President Obama or President Modi of India who was denied visa by US and some other countries because of his slaughtering tendencies. But it seems he gets a lot more blame.
Netanyahu has killed fewer Muslims….
Well, that’s ok then.
The idiot who wrote “A Durable Peace” is an inept idiot. Does this guy seriously believe that the people who make up the international community are brain dead? Does he not believe that we don’t see him for the uncompromising racist that he is? A thick layer of hypocrisy covers Netanyahu’s eyes. It is so thick that he cannot see the dark and hopeless world of the Palestinians. From the Occupied Territories they watch the multiplying marvels of the Israelis, but they cannot have any of it. The young Palestinian still wants to believe, but this belief is stifled by death and destruction- everything that makes him believe that he is powerless to change his condition. This is the world that Bebe and his henchmen have built on the blood of the people of Gaza and the West Bank. I looked at Netanyahu coverage on the news today and I was reminded again of why God created hell. Personally, it gave me comfort.
Nuttan yahoo sounds more and more like Johann Vorster the PM of Apartheid SA in the 60s and 70s saying no to Black Rule. And just like his illegitimate regime Tel Avivs time is drawing to a close.
Obama’s landmark speech in Cairo and how he did walk the talk,
Talk- “The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God’s peace be upon you.”
Walk-The people of the world can live together in peace.But that is not my vision. Now this must be my work here in the greater middle east. To hell with you and my combat drones be upon you.
Talk- “ The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. ”
Walk- And this is the reason behind the U.S airstrikes on the MSF hospital in Kunduz.
Talk- “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world;……”
Walk- …and let’s the game begin with Syria.
Palestinians live in world’s largest prison.
Indian Reservation, Manzanar…Netanyahu is trash.
Creating trouble in neighbor’s house is same thing as creating trouble in your own house, because your neighbor is not going to let you live in peace for long. Even if in the short run you manage to control events, the situation is not going to be a stable equilibrium that will last very long. So better make peace with your neighbors and instead of quarreling connive with them to rob distant lands, like Africa and Australia. Learn from us how we do it, the only hiccup being that Mexico has to pay for the wall that we will build and Canada has to wait a year longer for their pipeline in our grounds.
Let me also point out the obvious that is never explicitly stated:
* Israel is a failed state. Israel, more than half a century after its founding, cannot identify its boundaries, cannot guarantee security to its citizens, suffers from a state-within-a-state (extremists and settlers), has vile relationships with its neighbors, and has been sustaining a generational brutal military occupation.
* Israel is a nuclear-armed rogue state that defies international law and norms on an ongoing basis, and seeks only to expand, slowly, beyond any assumed boundaries, and that relies on violence and duplicity to get what it wants.
Netanyahu and all who come with – including a large chunk of the Israeli popualtion – are odious, racist, colonialist thugs, and most American politicians are pandering whores to Netanyahu, assuredly including the Democrat presidential candidates in particular aspiring Panderer-in-Chief Hillary Clinton.
It’s an ugly reality that drives one to despair, but reality it is, and denying it has no point except to make it easier for those who want the status quo vis-a-vis Israel to perpetuate or worsen.
(All likely Presidential winners in 2016 will probably enable Netanyahu – gleefully enable him – to make the occupation of Palestine worse, with expanded settlements, more weapons to use against the subjugated, and total cover at the UN.)
This article, and the headline in particular, suggest that Netanyahu deceived Obama. The suggestion is in error. Obama, like his predecessors over the decades, as well as all relevant foreign policy organs of the US, long ago bought into the Greater Israel program. It’s never been about deception (by Israel) or lack of political courage (by the US). The two countries are perfectly aligned on the issue of Palestine. The only question is what they get out of the charade about a two-state solution.
Indeed, pretending Obama has/is being deceived/ignorant about the nature of both Netanyahu and the Apartheid Israeli regime is like pretending that the Senators, Congressmen, and Presidents who turned a blind eye to the problems of tobacco for so long had no idea that smoking causes cancer. Or that the ones who vote against gun control are ignorant of the deadly consequences to the American public that that has. It is not ignorance amongst those in government that is the problem, it is the ignorance amongst the electorate at large (or maybe more the belief that they will be somehow isolated or insulated from the effects to the point that a microscopic difference in the tax structures, or a ‘social’ issue like marriage equality, is seen to out way) the death and destruction that is part and parcel of these issues.
I agree. If Obama could be deceived by Net, it would not speak well of his intelligence. Everybody knows Israel’s plan, planned a long time ago.
A sidebar: Michelle Bachmann wants to step up conversions of Jews so that Lord Cheeses can return.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/michele-bachmann-israel-convert-jews-rapture
It’s Looney Tunes, but worth Bibi to ponder because (1) this loon was a serious presidential candidate and (2) it’s fairly typical of what certain Christians think. They’re all for Israel, because the creation of Israel meant that the Rapture would come, the Holy Land would blow sky-high and Christ would have a kingdom in Jerusalem. Not a Jewish state, mind you.
I wonder if Bibi realizes what certain Americans have in mind when they say they’re supporting Israel?
….thanks, C.N. ….had not thought of that one….but then, I try never to allow Michelle Bachmann to invade my mind as with the other Looney Tuners…
…Twiddle dum(b), twiddle dee……
Many thanks Murtaza Hussain, you have reminded readers of the fork tongued liar this lunatic is…that Nut**** is riding on the hopes of the world to forget what he said two minutes ago, and that every American slave is going to agree and foot the bill. Every, and I mean every elected and bribed US politician gets their pockets filled by AIPAC to go along with this illusion whilst Palestinian blood drips from their hands and seals their fate in hell. AmericaInPACt with Satan. Stop voting for these liars, murders, deceivers, warmongers, thieves and every wicked deed done on this earth. It makes no difference which party or what they say…they are all in bed with this whore of Israel. I have sent many emails to the senator of my state about this horrible reality and to stop arming Israel only to receive a form letter stating that my views are sent forward to foreign policy never to be answered. Worthless and I have proved it. At least I have solace without guilt by not voting nor paying taxes. May the Almighty cleanse this nation of the most unjust, corrupt and vile government for good.
Very nice. This is an issue where you obviously don’t have a proverbial dog in this fight. Your main bag is with Jews and you use your demonic hatred of Jews to egg on Arabs to prolong this misery for everyone concerned.
I would go further and say that your likely religious dislike of Jews is much much stronger than any concern you have for Arabs (in the West Bank, Gaza or anywhere else).
Please do everyone a favor. Keep you bigoted nose out of it so that this issue can be solved without anymore hatred and confusion then need be. Thanks.
Nice use of the “criticism of Israeli policy=anti-Semitism” canard. A Hasbarists work is never done.
And then there is this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kWAqZxJVE
Did I mention Jews? I rest my case.
Your assumptions rest on faulty ground that the slightest wind can blow away.
That is Jon’s “default setting.” It’s completely unconscious.
You actually are an even bigger bigot than Sparrow. Sparrow in a comment below openly called called Roosevelt and Churchill evil and is an apologist for Hitler.
And you defend this type of person. At least Sparrow is open with such bigoted commentary…
Dear Jon…
You veil “Truth” with a slogan of ‘bigoted commentary’…and there is just one thing that will debunk your thinking.
Truth has a way of defending itself. The lies about the holocaust that Jews have extorted the world for over 70 years can not stand and that is why you and your kind use FORCE, COURTS, MEDIA, and BRIBES to make your illegitimate claims on a farce from fantasy land at the cost of billions, weapons, murder, theft, deception, EXTORTION, and genocide. And I also believe that if you didn’t get paid to troll your baseless accusations…you wouldn’t do it because you sound like a broken record that can’t say anything else. The true holocaust was of the Germans in WWII. And if just one sparrow reaches for this truth, they will be liberated and delivered from these horrible chains of the beast that has suppressed, oppressed, and caused monumental death in Palestine, the ME, and the world. Israel is a lawless lie. http://thegreateststorynevertold.tv [And it’s high time the Truth Stands]
You completely mischaracterize what I said, and then proclaim me a bigot. But of course, that’s what you would do, because you ascribe the motives of everyone you disagree with to antisemitism.
Here’s the part you (willfully) don’t get, because you flat out don’t want to: every single citizen of this country (America) has “a dog in this fight.” We pour billions and billions of dollars (our tax dollars!) into Israel, and what do we get? We get terrorism, and the horror of 911. We get to watch the spectacle of Israel’s PM’s flagrant contempt for the president of our country, lobbying our craven congress to fight another stupid war in the Middle East. Just like he did the last time. We get to watch our elected officials jumping up and down like trained monkeys, clapping their little hands raw while Netanyahu explicitly does everything he can to undermine the foreign diplomacy of the President of the United States. And what does Obama do? Nothing, but sit and silently stew. Our entire political system has been corrupted by Israel’s pernicious influence. Tell me what other world leader could pull a stunt like that and get away with it. No one.
Do you not get that the fate of the Palestinians is tied up with our own fate? Their welfare is connected with ours and not just because of any sense of shared humanity. A big part of Osama bin Laden’s motivation to attack us was because we finance Israeli massacres of Palestinian civilians, and OBL was always particularly obsessive about the deaths of children.
That’s the part you repeatedly fail to understand: when Israel kills Palestinian civilians, we’re the ones that wind up paying for it.
Apparently you think Americans should have absolutely no say over how Israel spends American tax dollars. I’m guessing you get your thinking from the Talmud. After all, gentiles are just beasts of burden that God put on this earth to serve and enrich their Jewish masters. Isn’t that what your Talmud says? What a loathsome bigot you are!
I agree with what you say, but I just want to make clear the truth about Osama bin Ladin. He was a known paid CIA operative to blame the sham of 911 on. 911 was an inside job of CIA/Mossad/and the axis of evil Bush/Chaney/Rumsfeld. Believe it and research it because it is out here. When the profits of war become so enticing…illusions are created by the media propaganda and the powers that be to create a reason for an unjust war. Saddam Hussein was paid by the CIA. ISIS has been funded and trained openly by Obama as also the countless coup’s in US history to dominate the world. The sham of the UN and the ICC charade giving false hope to the oppressed.
And as for the Talmud…Doctrines of Demons. Pedophilia, supremacy, chosen ones, and every word of it man made, and their actions are witness to it.
Oh. My. God.
Please.
It’s good that you took your mask off. Now everyone can read what you really think – and that if anything the language I used to describe your stereotypes and primal dislike of Jews should have been underscored more than it was.
And I am glad that you are on the other side of this issue. I honestly feel sorry for those around you who have to put up with your manure of a mind.
I imagine there are many like you in the bds and hate Israel crowd – which is why your bunch stands little to no chance of achieving much in the long run.
It’s no wonder no one has bothered yet to critique Sparrow’s Sympathetic comment to Hitler yet.
If the Arabs have legitimate issues – you do them a disservice by associating your vile views with their own.
Dear Jon,
Do you really think I’m going to dance for you?
“primal dislike of Jews… took your mask off… manure mind…”
I wouldn’t waste 2 seconds of my time defending myself against your spurious accusations. As it is, I’ve wasted far too much time on you already. I think your attempts at manipulation are pathetic.
You really should consider seeking professional help. If not for your sake, then at least for your wife’s. What a living hell her life must be.
I don’t know why I ever gave you the benefit of the doubt, after all the nasty shit you did to me.
The crank calls. Fucking with my sales. The PIs. Talk about an abuse of corporate power. My computer, my cell… Really, you should have been fired for that alone. You pig. Is that the way you guys run things over there? Nice.
How could I ever think anything good could grow out of so much nastiness? And it’s not like this is my first rodeo. I suppose you’re not the only one in these threads that’s guilty of willful self-deception. I’m over it now.
What an idiot I was to ever stick up for you. When all along, Mona saw you more clearly than I did. Funny. Ah well, life is a learning process. At least for some of us.
I am not trying to be mean but you have a mental health issue.
And as an aside – (just a general comment to the forum in general) it just makes me wonder how often bigotry in general might be a secondary cause of other mental issues… If anyone wants to comment?
Hahah…good one.
He never mentioned “Jews”. For all you know he’s Jewish himself.
Read my comment above to Sabastian. You both have so much in common. And that I might add is not a compliment.
Stupid opinion piece. Sorry.
Not only the majority of Israeis or even the vast majority of Jews – it is fair to say the vast majority of Americans have reservations on the viability of a peaceful Palestinean state living side by side with Israel.
If Mr Hussain opened his eyes and ears to seek objectivity – he would see an Israeli press that is constantly self critical and vibrant and yes democratic. Where does this kind of thing exist anywhere today in the Arab world?
And that is precisely the problem.
Objectivity? I think a better word would be Justice. You are speaking for yourself and condoning murder in cold blood, theft, lies, bribes & extortion, wars and warmongering, chaos, deception, and all the tactics of evil. This American is not included with your assumptions nor veiled from the truth. ‘Your’ so called democracy is a whitewash for perfect evil. And as for “stupid opinion piece”, I fail to see how facts are twisted into opinions. Sorry, but you need to open your eyes and ears, but that won’t happen until you hear the screams and last breaths of your loved ones murdered in cold blood. ISrael IS precisely the problem.
I said everything I wanted to say to you in the above reply. Thanks much…
Classic hasbara. Deny the obvious. Blame others for failing to recognize what is obvious to Jews. Claim reasonableness while being dismissive.
Israel continues with new construction in occupied land. ” ISrael IS precisely the problem.”
How does a figure like Netanyahu keep a hold on power in a democratic Israel? By being elected.
In other words, most Israelis don’t want peace. Most Israelis want a slow, creeping annexation of land until the vision of “Greater Israel” is achieved.
Israel is a democracy (or plutocracy), that does not give to their government the right to steal the land of the Palestinians every single day, to bomb hospitals, schools and to assassinate hundred of children and entire families. My comment is not a support for the Arab countries where human rights are violated daily. Natanjahu is a disgrace and his actions are the main enemy of the Jews who live all over the world.
For someone calling themself Socrates – you have an awfully simplistic view of such a very complicated situation.
And I would guess unfortunately that like many here who claim to be oh so concerned about the plight of Arabs; the vast majority of your comments about the region are not about Assad or ISIS – but about Israel.
Ah talk about hypocrisy and disingenuousness.
Typical deflection Jon. I believe that a high percentage of ordinary citizens know the truth about Assad or ISIS. But go on and keep digging yourself a hole and make yourself a spectacle…Democratically elected by the Syrian people President Assad is a sovereign leader over a sovereign country unlike Netanyahu. I applaud this man’s courage, stamina, and steadfastness to keep his people and country sovereign. It is those liars of DC, UK, IS, that have undermined and schemed to overthrow, destroy, and conquer this land…and Putin has revealed that. Sad that you can’t accept it and weep when it comes to your door.
Jon must have studied his copy of the Frank Luntz hasbara playbook very well from his Hebrew University dorm room. What’s funny is how Israel claims to be democracy when around half of the people it rules have no right to vote, no citizenship and they are tried in military kangaroo courts while the settlers two miles away from them enjoy full citizenship rights with extra privileges thrown in because they are Jews.
The truth of the matter is that the Israelis want to maintain the status quo. The status quo allows continued theft of Palestinian land, water and other natural resources with no downside. As long as the U.S. continues to I’ve Israel diplomatic cover for its continued war crimes that it commits on a daily basis, there is no incentive to reach a fair and equitable resolution. The U.S. provides Israel with over $3 billion per year, minimum, Israel is now demanding, not requesting, an increase of aid to $5 billion per year.
With the massive aid the U.S. provides Israel it is no wonder it can afford to pay hasbara trolls like Jon to call any critics of Israel’s war crimes antisemites.
Of course, like the Israeli regime itself, you’ve bought into the fantasy that, just because the Regime denies that the Refugees are legally Israelis, and the enablers of the regime pretend to believe that too, the Refugees do not make up the majority of the legal population of Israel. I wonder if you also believe (because the regime there does) that North Korea is a paradise of rights.
Good. The so-called Palestinians can never be trusted — especially Hamas, with its published aim of finishing what Hitler began.
I only hope they can be made to accept a permanent peace that does not involve one side or the other being exterminated. So far, this seems unlikely.
The Palestinian Authority (Fat’h) has cooperated with the Israeli “regime” and the reward has been the ongoing growing settlement of the best areas of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Furthermore, the leaders of Israel have made it clear that they don’t want peace, or a Palestinian state. The alternative is either permanent occupation, or, ultimately, expansion, annexation, and cleansing.
In other words, the so-called “Israelis” (European and American immigrants and the recent descendants, mostly) can never be trusted – especially the Netanyahu regime, which has shown itself totally dishonest, and grossly violent.
Your counterparts, not that long ago, used to claim that the ANC, and Nelson Mandella’s, goal was the extermination of the White population of South Africa. I’m guessing you’re hoping that people DON’T pay attention to the actual lessons of history.
” … well-known historical precedents”. Indeed, Bantustans are one way of describing it, although Indian reservations also serve as a simile.
If Obama or anyone on his staff did as little as reading the articles in The New Yorker – hardly an anti-Semitic magazine by anyone’s standards, they would know that Benjamin Netanyahu has inherited the Zionist obsessions of his father, Benzion, and will never allow the existence of an independent Palestinian state. Never. He has even said as such, as you point out.
Some might hope that once Netanyahu tires of being Prime Minister, there will be a chance of a moderate coming to power and rectifying the situation, but that is a false hope, because Netanyahu and his political allies command the votes of the majority in Israel. The only peaceful way to open their minds to other possibilities is for the US to cut aid to Israel, moderate its position in the UN to not block or veto just resolutions involving Israel, and to join with the rest of the civilized world in boycotting Israel.
If the US cannot do anything positive, then at very least we should adopt a neutral position. Allow the Israelis to come to their senses and realize that they cannot stand alone if they are going to continue their racist and imperialist policies.
The US should cease any form of non-humanitarian aid to any entity in the Middle East, and should force the Israelis to accept the creation of viable Palestinian state, or be subject to no support at the UN and a worldwide BDS movement joined by the US, and the US should also force Saudi Arabia and the other Arab monarchies out of Wall Street until they take steps to create regional peace of a pluralistic sort.
I recall Roosevelt adopting a neutral position when it came to aiding Britain in WWII. But neutrality fell to the ground when war profits stood up. What an awakening I had when I learned of the US aid to Churchill’s Britain and Stalin’s USSR. The pure axis of evil… then turned the evil onto Hitler because he stood against the Jews that ‘Boycotted Germany’ on lies. For what it’s worth to anyone I highly recommend learning the truth about this prelude to so-called Israel at the cost of Palestinian blood and land. http://thegreateststorynevertold.tv/