Every time Israel makes some announcement putting peace talks in jeopardy, usually by way of a settlement expansion or the destruction of another Palestinian neighborhood, the response from the US has been muted, giving lip-service to the idea that they’re opposed to it, but warning against letting it have any impact. Today was different.
When Israel announced plans earlier today for 24,000 new settlement units, the biggest single announcement in a decade, the US quickly responded with a condemnation, and a demand for an explanation.
It wasn’t just the size of the plan, but reportedly the US was totally blindsided by it, with past announcements a lot easier managed and telegraphed at least a bit by the Netanyahu government.
The Obama Administration is also apparently seeing the timing of the announcement as a slap in the face, coming just days after Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Israel, during which he explicitly warned the Israelis about settlements increasing their international isolation and risking a third intifada.
The Obama Administration and the Netanyahu government have been at odds on a lot of issues for years, but in the midst of an open battle for influence in the US Congress, there seems a lot less patience and goodwill remaining, and the settlement announcement, even after it was retracted, suggests the split is widening and taking on a more public tenor.
Benjamin Netanyahu's departure from office is going to be greeted by the world community with the same universal sense of loss as that occasioned by the sudden death of a rabid dog.
At least a dog, even when rabid, has some usefulness. Moreover its rabid quality is involuntary. We cannot say that much about Netanyahu.
Is this what the US gets for an additional 10 billion in welfare payments to Israel? Is that how the settlements are being funded?
Is this what the US gets for an additional 10 billion in welfare payments to Israel? Is that how the settlements are being funded?
Is this what the US gets for an additional 10 billion in welfare payments to Israel? Is that how the settlements are being funded?
yes.
Every single time a senior American official visits, they do this. It is a message, constant, consistent, every single time. We affect not to notice, and they win another round of bullying us.
Its amazing how the stupid and cowardly United States allows itself to be bitch-slapped repeatedly by this illegal entity in the middle east.
The United States lost its honor a long time and is a disgrace among the nations of the world.
These Zionist creatures will destroy America like they did to Europe.
Americans are allowing the Zionist to crap all over them and their president and the Palestinians time to stop this.