14 replies to this topic

[Taxi driver]

"US vice president Joe Biden has been joined by UN chief Ban Ki-moon in condemning Israel's approval of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem in a move which has infuriated Palestinians.

"The secretary-general condemns the approval of plans for the building of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Ministry of Interior," said a UN statement issued late Tuesday. Ban "reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law," the statement added.

The Israeli announcement came just two days after the Palestinians grudgingly agreed to indirect talks after months of US shuttle diplomacy and coincided with the trip by Biden, the highest-level Obama administration official to visit Israel. The news broke as Biden was due to meet top Israeli officials to boost renewed peace efforts Tuesday.

Vice president Biden "showed up 1.5 hours late for dinner tonight at (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's) residence," a White House press office statement said. "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem," Biden said in a separate statement."The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I?ve had here in Israel."

Biden heads on Wednesday to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad. He also plans to meet Britain's former premier Tony Blair, the special envoy for the Quartet of key diplomatic players.

The Israeli decision has enraged the Palestinians, who consider settlements to be a major hurdle to reach peace and want occupied east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state."This is a dangerous decision and will hinder the negotiations," Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP. "We consider the decision to build in east Jerusalem to be a judgment that the American efforts have failed before the indirect negotiations have even begun."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/1709...settlement-plan

[Tony]

Vice president Biden "showed up 1.5 hours late for dinner tonight at (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's) residence," a White House press office statement said. "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem."

There seems to be no limit to the arrogance of the Israelis, who claim to be America's best friend. With friends like this, who need enemies ?

The BBC is carrying this report:

"During their dinner on Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Mr Biden that he had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorise the new housing units in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ramat Shlomo, officials said. He said the plans had been submitted three years ago and had only received initial approval that day.

But the US government has not accepted Israel's explanation that the announcement was essentially part of a bureaucratic process that had no connection with Mr Biden's visit, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Jerusalem. Israel, deliberately or not, inflicted something close to a humiliation on the Obama administration and the words they chose in reaction reflected that, our correspondent says."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8559238.stm

[Oliver]

You have to laugh.

Here is a failed state with big ideas, led by spoiled brats whose mothers indulged them to death, sniggering behind the backs of the world's only super power.
Barack, old chap, they're taking the mickey out of you; can't you see? They know that that they have the loyal support of Israel-Firsters in Congress, some of whom apparently care more for the Zionist experiment than they do for their own country.

For heaven's sake , tell these brats to get lost and then vote in the Security Council for boycotts and criminal proceedings against the thugs who gloat over the bodies of dead children. In other words, Regime Change. Remember that phrase?

[TheYenta]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Mr Biden that he had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorise the new housing units in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ramat Shlomo

It is very possible that the ultra right wing settlers who are very active in certain government offices planned this announcement without consulting the Prime Minister, hoping to embarrass him while giving the Obama Admnistration the finger. Unfortunately, it has become popular among some extreme circles in Israel to treat the current US administration with disgust.

[smiles]

" ... You have to laugh.
Here is a failed state with big ideas, led by spoiled brats whose mothers indulged them to death, sniggering behind the backs of the world's only super power ... "

Gaza, right?

[Oliver]

no, wrong.

Gaza is not a state; it's part of Palestine . And it's failed because a certain country has blockaded it. And bombed the hell out of it.
Israel, on the other hand, has failed in spite of the billions of US dollars and unlimited political cover. Something of an achievement.
And its inhabitants are the unhappiest I've ever seen. Poor villagers in West Africa, in huts and with barely enough to eat, are more cheerful than Israelis as they drive to their malls in their Mercs.

[Kirkland]

"US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sharply rebuked Israel over its recent decision to build new settlements in East Jerusalem. She told Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone that the move was "deeply negative" for US-Israeli relations. The BBC's Washington correspondent, Kim Ghattas, says it was a rare and sharp rebuke from Washington. . .

America's top diplomat delivered her rebuke during a 43-minute telephone conversation with Mr Netanyahu, the US state department said. US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said Mrs Clinton called "to make clear that the United States considered the announcement to be a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship and contrary to the spirit of the vice-president's trip".

"The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States's strong commitment to Israel's security," he added."She made clear that the Israeli government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process."

The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the US, Russia, the EU and the UN - also condemned the Israeli housing announcement and said it would review the situation at its ministerial meeting scheduled for 19 March in Moscow.

Mr Netanyahu earlier apologised for the timing of the settlement announcement, which was made as Mr Biden was holding a day of talks in Jerusalem. He said he had summoned Interior Minister Eli Yishai to reprimand him."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8565455.stm

[Dick]

Mr Netanyahu earlier apologised for the timing of the settlement announcement, which was made as Mr Biden was holding a day of talks in Jerusalem. He said he had summoned Interior Minister Eli Yishai to reprimand him.

The only real and sincere apology in this case would be to cancel the plans that were supposedly announced without the approval of the Prime Minister. It's like a parent who apologizes for damage done by his kids, but doesn't make any effort to pay for it. If Netanyahu cannot control the right wing pro-settler elements in his government, he should resign. As is, he is allowing them to do major damage to the US/Israel relationship which is suicidal for the Jewish state.

[wpcoe]

Goodness. For a few moments, I thought I had accidentally clicked on an Al Jazeera News forum!

[Oliver]

wpcoe is evidently not from the UK where the views above (well, most of them) are held by the vast majority. And that's probably true of the rest of the world, with the ostentatious exception of the US, where the media, like its politicians, are in thrall to the far-right.

On the issue of whether "Bibi" (such a cuddly name) knew about the announcement, it is just as likely that his intention was to derail the talks , hoping that Abbas would get the blame.
It's interesting to note that it is not the substantive issue of ethnic-cleansing that has been controversial but the one of good manners towards a visitor- a fanatical Zionist visitor at that.

So far have Israel-and the US and its poodles (sorry, allies)- slipped into political depravity.

[Birch]

Goodness. For a few moments, I thought I had accidentally clicked on an Al Jazeera News forum!

Actually, when it comes to the Middle East, I have found Al Jazeera news to be far more objective than Fox News in the USA. Anyone who thinks that there's not a pro-Jewish bias in most American news organizations is kidding himself.

[expathai]

One of the sad consequences of the creation of Israel as a "Jewish State," rather than a secular multi-ethnic nation with constitutional guarantees for all, has been the emergence of a nationalistic Jewish right wing in both Israel and America which bears, at times, a scary resemblance to the worst episodes of racism and fascism in world history

No less a genius than Albert Einstein, a Jew who fled Germany, saw this danger when he wrote in 1938, opposing the creation of Israel as a Jewish nation:

"I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from practical consideration, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state."

In the United States, which has about the same number of Jews as Israel itself (both countries comprising over 80% of the world's Jews), the attempts by America's Jews to influence US foreign aid and policy in Israel's favor, many times in direct opposition to the US government stated policies, have caused many of America's gentiles and some Jews to question the legality and patriotism of these actions.

One of the great myths perpetrated by the Nazis in Germany was the notion that Jews has conspired in the defeat of Germany in World War I and the ensuing humiliation of the Versailles Treaty. It was a fiction concocted by Hitler to use Europe's Jews as a scapegoat for Germany's defeats, with tragic genocidal results.

In today's America, however, some who have studied the lessons of history wonder if America's Jews have not foolishly given life to the discredited theory of a mass Jewish conspiracy by creating a world-wide Zionist movement that appears to place the interests of Israel above the nations to which American and other diaspora Jews swear allegiance as citizens. In its reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust, the modern Zionist movement may have created its own version of the very myth it condemns as anti-Semitic. This result is exactly what men like Einstein in saw in the creation of a temporal, militarized "Jewish State" that would demand the world-wide allegiance of Jews everywhere.

There are, of course, some Zionists who claim that differences between Israeli and American national interests are overstated as a device by anti-Semites to discredit Israel. But when right-wing governments in Israel decide to colonize conquered Palestine with settlers, in violation of international and US law, perhaps it's time for 310 million Americans to ask America's 5 million US Jews: How does it serve America's interest to alienate and make enemies of 1.5 billion Muslims, comprising a quarter of the entire planet's population, to support the efforts of a few thousand Jewish zealots to occupy Muslim lands ?

[Oliver]

Many Jews and Israelis agree. Go to www.ICAHD.org

JeffHalper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago....I wonder why he didn't get it? A brave man whom I've often heard speaking in the UK.

[Tony]

"The U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace has delayed a visit to the region as the United States awaits a response to its demand that Israel reverse a decision on construction in disputed territory in East Jerusalem, according to sources.

The Israeli ambassador to the United States has reportedly called the situation a crisis. Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, told Israeli diplomats in the United States during a conference call that "we are in a crisis," according to a senior Israeli diplomat.

Oren's comments came after the United States harshly criticized Israel for announcing the settlement construction while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country. The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee has approved construction of 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem. Palestinian officials oppose the construction."

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03...nvoy/index.html

BeeBee's days as prime minister are numbered. If he cancels the projects in Jerusalem, his government will fall. Let's hope Obama has the guts to insist on cancellation and push BeeBee over the cliff.

[Whore Hin]

It's interesting to note that it is not the substantive issue of ethnic-cleansing that has been controversial but the one of good manners towards a visitor- a fanatical Zionist visitor at that.

I didn't know Bob was part of the Biden delegation. No wonder he was in such a hurry to leave Hua Hin last week. We didn't even have time to catch up over a plate of pad thai at that restaurant which he and his buddy George Stanley Gibbs loved so much.