Obama’s fury was over not only the principle, but also the way Netanyahu handled the crisis… U.S. embassies in Arab countries are reporting that Obama’s charms are wearing off as it becomes clear that nothing has changed since his June speech in Cairo.
Diplomacy
It seems Israel is taking full advantage of the crisis in the peace process to push its anti-peace agenda… It is a rogue state, in contravention of international law, occupying another people’s land in contempt of human rights law and common decent standards of human behaviour… Israel has been given a free pass for too long. Without returning occupied land, it cannot arrive at peace with the Palestinians and there can be no comprehensive peace in this region.
Despite the hype, [the new Mofaz “peace” plan] turned out to be nothing more than recycling of familiar worn-out schemes, repeatedly put forward by Israel and then abandoned: a Palestinian state with “temporary borders” on 50 to 60 percent of the West Bank with large Jewish-only settlement blocs annexed to Israel.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: “This is a clear decision and a clear message… that Israel is not willing and is not ready to stop settlement activities and… that they are not ready for peace.” And: “The Americans should take seriously what is going on,” he added. “The whole situation is deteriorating. The Americans this time should change their policy, the change which we have been promised by President Obama.”
IOA Editor: Again, your move, Mr. President.
The banner referred to 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, which Peres won together with former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that resulted in the Oslo Accords.
This signals an improvement in the currently strained Turkish-Israeli relations, as Ankara excluded Israel at the last minute from the Anatolian Eagle international maneuvers
Peres is our beautiful and misleading face. Equipped with the ability to delude, one of the founders of the settlement movement has turned into Israel’s Mr. Peace.
Palestinian officials have said they are preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel’s consent because they are losing hope they can achieve their aspirations through peace talks. The announcement drew a harsh rebuke from Israeli officials.
[B]efore Abu Mazen quits… He must declare, unilaterally, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Palestine now… Netanyahu finds this possibility very scary, and he expects the Americans to nip it in the bud. But his nightmare is our only chance for an end to the occupation in our time.
The flurry of US officials’ visits to Ramallah is likely to stop unless a major and important change takes place in Washington. In the meantime, Abbas will pay more attention to the home front, trying to stitch together some type of agreement with Hamas.
The White House expressed disappointment in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington, with officials saying that they had hoped that the prime minister would present a concrete plan to scale back Israeli construction in West Bank settlements, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The option has been and remains one of the following: two states for two peoples along the 1967 borders; or one state, in which two peoples continue to make each other miserable. Israel is galloping toward this latter disaster with eyes wide shut.
[The US] has no intention of being a “balanced mediator”… Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, allies of the final takeover of the West Bank, know very well that U.S. policy has not changed… The prevailing attitude of all U.S. administrations [is] essentially that any possible settlement must match the positions of the stronger party. This is how the Americans abandoned the refugee issue, and this is why they abandoned the opposition to settlements.
The reports indicated that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has reached a secret understanding with the Obama administration over U.S. recognition of an independent Palestinian state. Such recognition would likely transform any Israeli presence across the Green Line, even in Jerusalem, into an illegal incursion to which the Palestinians would be entitled to engage in measures of self-defense.
IOA Editor: Highly unlikely, given US moves to crush the Goldstone Report, its actions on recent ME ‘peace efforts’ and in the past 42 years, but important to watch. The mere concept of a Palestinian State presents an existential risk to Israel – strictly in a philosophical sense: An independent, viable Palestinian state, however theoretical, could mean the end of Israel as we know it – a state with no official borders, equipped with an insatiable appetite for land, resources and regional domination – by creating the first meaningful boundary to its colonial program and greatly weakening a US ally, potentially crucial for global control. All the more why US support is unlikely, no mater how business-like Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plan appears. Undoubtedly, Israel will do all it can to defend itself from the threat of peace.
Israel will coordinate with the U.S., U.K. and France to ensure the Security Council vetos Arab countries’ resolutions on the Goldstone report, Israeli officials told Haaretz.
IOA Editor: International business as usual, Occupation as usual.
Chomsky on the US’s unwavering support for Israel and “rejectionism” of the two-state solution, effectively on offer for 30 years: That’s not because of the overweening power of the Israel lobby in the US, but because Israel is a strategic and commercial asset which underpins rather than undermines US domination of the Middle East… America’s one-sided role in the Middle East isn’t harming their interests, whatever risks it might bring for anyone else.
IOA Editor: Noam Chomsky has just concluded a speaking tour in the UK and Ireland. For coverage of his tour, see:
Israel’s worst enemies are those who support its policies
Hundreds flock to hear Noam Chomsky in Dublin
Discussion with Workers Solidarity Movement
The Goldstone… conclusion was that the civilian areas were targeted and the devastation was deliberate… the criticism of Israel in the Goldstone report is justified… it is imperative that the United States and the international community take steps to assure that the rebuilding of Gaza be commenced, and without delay. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand relief.
Egypt: “Negotiations can start only if settlements are frozen — and this continues to be our demand — or if we receive unequivocal guarantees that a Palestinian state will be erected on 1967 borders, including (Arab east) Jerusalem,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said.
IOA Editor: It is time to move to the ‘next level,’ now that both Mr. Obama and Madam Mouthpiece have spoken: nothing said by either suggests that any meaningful US action is forthcoming. It is time for the Palestinians and the Arab League to consider their next moves on discussions with Israel and the US. Sitting and hoping that the Obama Administration will suddenly ‘discover’ that time is of the essence, is both unrealistic and unwise.
At the same time, every day that passes allows Israel to continue its colonial program – specifically designed to prevent a viable, independent Palestinian state from becoming a reality. If anything can be learned from the past 42 years, it is that Occupation is a normal state of affairs for the ‘only democracy in the Middle East,’ and that there is no reason to assume any of this will change, unless it is stopped by outside intervention. What ‘intervention’ and how to bring it about are, indeed, the key questions.
The Obama administration is so focused on bringing the state actors — Palestinian, Arab, Israeli — back to the negotiating table that it has missed the signs of a resurgent activism among Palestinians around the world which is beginning to shape a new national movement.
The time has come for Obama to summon both sides for serious, continuous negotiations, accompanied by a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders. There could be no clearer expression of the United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and its future as a Jewish and democratic state.
IOA Editor: There could certainly be no clearer expression of US commitment to all peoples in the Middle East, the inherent conflict between a “Jewish” and a “democratic” state notwithstanding.
