US envoy George Mitchell is in Israel today pressing for a new temporary settlement freeze, which according to Sen. Levin (D – MI) is a 60 day long extension, as part of a last ditch effort to save the floundering peace process.
The previous settlement freeze expired on Sunday, and amid much fanfare Israeli settlers claimed plans for massive new expansions into the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority has given the US one week to come up with some sort of compromise to salvage the peace talks.
Which would seem like it would almost have to include some sort of restriction on settlement expansion, but so far the Netanyahu government has vigorously opposed any such move, and there seem to be growing internal clashes within Israel’s ruling coalition about the process in general.
At the same time, Netanyahu insists that he has an absolute commitment to the peace process. But with the talks seemingly in ruins the growing question is whether this comment is simply about framing the debate over whose fault the collapse was.
Cut off the goddamn money for Christ sakes. That'll speed up the peace process faster than a ship in hyperspace.
It is a joke to publish that the USA is pushing a settlement freeze. When George Bush senior desired a freeze he cut off the welfare and Israel inc folded immediately. The state of Israel has no desire to have its welfare cut and if it was it would stop the illegal settlements with the first missed welfare check.
The statement that the USA is asking the welfare clients to do something is only political cover just like the claim that Israel is starving the children of Gaza to protect the powerful nuclear armed Israel.
No doubt about it america is allowing israel to take her down with her.This enclave named israel cannot stand on its own with america bankrupt its all over fo both.
P-BO needs to grow up and learn to play hardball with Israel. Dangle that foreign aid/welfare check and they'll get right in line. Better yet, just yank it altogether and see how fast they can bow and scrape. While they're doing that, we'll just sit back and watch our approval rating in the Middle East go up by leaps and bounds, showing us what we've doing wrong all this time. Israel needs to be taken off of our welfare rolls anyway; at this point that declining nation is nothing more than a millstone around our necks.