The repeated expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank have been in part aimed at spiting the Palestinians, in part spiting the international community, but mostly, it seems, about winning votes.
Speaking at a campaign rally today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue expanding the settlements over the next four years “despite international pressure,” insisting it was vital to Israel’s “security interests” to do so.
With the ruling Likud-Beiteinu list’s leadership calling for their platform to overtly abandon calls for a two-state solution, expanding deeper and more intensely into the West Bank looks to be the list’s centerpiece issue.
The Gaza War was initially supposed to be the campaign’s focus, but took a back seat when early polling suggested that the Israeli public, sold on the idea of war for its own sake, was not happy that the government negotiated a truce. With voters being courted by the even farther-right on the idea that Likud-Beiteinu is “soft,” expanding the settlements appears the simplest way for them to shore up their hostility to Palestinian statehood.
It is time to give them what they want, a one state solution.
That means revisiting the UN foundation of Israel, which provided for two states, and a clear international definition of equal rights for all in one state.
We must not allow this to degenerate into another South Africa or Rhodesia or the Jim Crow South. We know it can happen, and we have a responsibility to stop it before we have to deal with changing it.
I agree that the 2 state solution is dead. In the long run it is for the best. With a single state there will be agitation to give the majority equal political rights with the ruling minority. When this eventually comes to pass it will mean the end of the aparthied jewish state.
the yahoo makes more goofy promises that a junkie who owes money
No one has the backbone in the US, or Europe, to do the right thing. They are paid for, part and parcel. It is ownership of these leaders and lawmakers that enables Netanyahu.
Israel is a sociopathic state. It is free of any moral clarity and clearly needs to be boycotted, sanctioned, and left for dead. Israel since its inception has only been a cause of pain and misery for the world, which is why world opinion places it at North Korea's level of acceptance.
This latest move should be no surprise, and is entirely consistent with the Likud's and others' agenda of a single Israeli state purged of Palestinians. The purging will never be successful unless Israel resorts to ethnic cleansing, expulsion, or genocide, and, even if it gets to that stage, it will result in the collapse of the Israeli state from within by destroying what is left of its failing democratic institutions.
So, the question is will the U.S. facilitate it, or finally demand that "democracy and human rights" and “nuclear-free zones” also apply to Israel, as well as to all of its other allies. The prospects are not bright that the U.S. will do this, or otherwise free itself of the Israeli lobby, without in some way being forced to do so. Instead, it seems more likely that Israel with the help of the U.S. will continue to expand its borders and economic influence, and that the U.S. will continue to wage war directly or through proxies in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, where the U.S. taxpayer, as it has been doing, pay for it all.
In the eyes of the "planners and experts" the resources and geopolitical position are too valuable to let go, and, unfortunately, U.S. business seems to have lost the will and ability to negotiate and compete successfully on a fair playing global playing field (e.g., with the Chinese)- ergo, the planners' insistence that this is the only way the U.S. will survive, and their delusion that these wars will ensure political hegemony and economic market control, forgetting that it will also destroy our democracy from within, bankrupt our economy, and widen the divide between rich and poor. It is an internal contradiction that can only be resolved by a new paradigm of cooperation, trade, true respect for 'human rights' and the dignity and sovereignty of others. Getting back to work to improve lives and working cooperatively with others would have a multiplier effect, not only with the economy, but also in the enrichment of our spirit and confidence in ourselves and our neighbors, and in our dedication to a better world for us all.
Go, Bibi, go! In another 4 years, you'll succeed in creating a de facto Palestinian state inside ISreal with an overwhelming Palestinian majority. You better pray they're better, kinder and more humane to you and your lot than y'all have been to them. Otherwise, the Chosen People will have hell to pay.
Today, Bibi Netanyahu said that Israel guarantees religious freedom for christian communities. At least Jews are not burning down christian temples of worship nor are they slitting the throats of christians… like the muslim mad dogs are doing.