With several recent comments suggesting Israel may be just weeks from formally announcing a 6-9 month “freeze” in new construction in the West Bank, Israeli officials are confirming tonight that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to authorize hundreds of new housing units across settlements in the West Bank, a serious test to the Obama Administration’s repeated demands to stop.
The White House expressed “regret” over the announcement but then went on to praise Israel’s “stated intent to place limits on settlement activity” and to vow that “the US commitment to Israel’s security is and will remain unshakeable.”
The Israeli government’s move is likely at least as much about placating its own hawkish coalition partners’ anger about the prospect of a pause in growth in the settlements as it is about testing the Obama Administration’s apparent 180 on its demands to halt all construction.
It was only last week that President Obama had backed off of materially all the demands it had made to Israel regarding the settlements, in return for a promise to eventually approve a short term pause in new construction: initially reported as “up to a year” but now apparently between six and nine months. Today’s reaction from the White House certainly suggests this position has not changed.
A "few hundred" housing units is NOT a major expansion. One must properly grasp the scale of things, and keep things in perspective. There are 5 million Israelis, and >5 million Palestinians. A few hundred apartments is nothing. It is political theatre. In fact, it hardly even deserves mention.
The Israeli strategy is as it always has been, to incrementally settle the West Bank in its entirety. Nothing has changed with Obama and his IDF chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, in the White House.
And Obama's Chicago backers?–the Zionist Pritzgers associated with General Dynamics. His New York backers?–Goldman Sachs along with Wall Street…all secure Israeli-controlled territory…just like the West Bank.
These people are putting on a show for you…from Fearless Leader's Cairo speech…to the so-called agreement to limit settlement…Washington agreed, but as under Bush, there seems to be no will or even desire to see a halt to the settlements….No halting of aid to the racist Zionist state…but lots of huffing and puffing about what will and will not be tolerated by the Washington Regime.
Don't forget Ariel Sharon's words with regard to his ministers concerns about 'what the Americans will think'–'Don't worry about the Americans…we controll them and they know it.'…and don't you forget it when you watch Obama and friends to the old soft show across the world political stage.
Pres Obama has not established a record of fortitude in dealing with powerful corporate persons in the US. On the other hand, it is possible that he is in agreement with Wall Street, the health industry and the imperialist foreign policy of America. I tend to think both: he is a wimp and a willing tool of power.
PM Netanyahu's power in the US is not clear. Possibly, through the Israel lobby and through the favor of the US defense establishment, Netanyahu does have considerable influence in the US. If true, it will be hard to tell if silence on Obama's part to further expansions on the West Bank will be due to his lack of fortitude or his willingness to please the corporate interests that funded his expensive campaign for the presidency.