Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon have announced they will divert some $18 million from the nation’s military budget, which includes money provided as direct military aid from the United States and others, to settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu had promised to provide the money to construction 300 more homes in Beit El settlement after the 2012 court decision to demolish 5 apartment buildings built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid had blocked such moves, but was expelled from the government when the coalition collapsed. The money will be sent to the Housing Ministry to pay for the expansions.
The military seized Palestinian land in 1970 for a military outpost, which was later given to the settlers as Beit El, a temporary settlement back in 1977, which was later declared permanent.
Beit El is an extremely complicated settlement legally, as only a small portion is built on state land, with most on illegally appropriated Palestinian land still under title to Palestinian owners. The settlement is non-contiguous, and more Palestinian land is barred from its owners to allow settlers to travel conveniently around it.
The US provides billions of dollars in direct military aid annually, including both cash and weaponry. That money goes into the general military budget, which is where the funding for the settlement is coming from.
At least they not giving the Palestinians taxes they're stealing to the retrograde settler schmucks…yet.
I wonder how much of this Israeli Military money will get diverted to AIPEC which in turn will pass it on to the U.S. Congress people they bribe (which is almost everybody), who in turn will vote for more "military" spending for Israel which will be sent to Israel who in turn will divert more funds; as the cycle repeats.
@ Robert, I think you mean AiPAC which, if I'm not mistaken stands for American Idiots Promoting Another Country. In my frustration and dismay, the thought crossed my mind that congress should just allocate the billions of aid to this apartheid country to themselves – yes, directly to their respective campaign covers. Well, why not, I would support this corruption, unlimitedly it will reduce the damage done to the American image (whatever is left of it) by cutting off this bloody middleman.
It really is beyond believe that this complete hijacking of the American Government by a small cabal of disloyal, tribal and yes, unpatriotic has happened in broad daylight. Right in front of t Americas' wide-open eyes. Land of the free and home of the braves – yet you can't come up with one brave American who is high up enough in the power matrix and is willing to commit political Hara-Kiri to expose their insidious machinations.
regards
A bewildered foreigner!
In a perfect world — What would socialism be like?
Nature is perfection, perpetual life to perfection, so all we need do is stop destroying it and we would have the perfect environment for socialism.
For the reverse of perfection is what society is striving to accomplish, what with the majority seeking to maximize pleasure and doing it in the quickest and easiest way possible, by enriching themselves upon the misery of those in a lower class, with everyone striving to get the maximum labor in exchange for a starvation minimum wage out of the laboring-class, with everyone striving to gain all the self-glory and wealth that their brains and sex appeal can muster.
So, to achieve a perfect society, all people need do is except the fact that life is not an unalienable right, but a free gift from nature, such that we have no right to even one day of life. For if we humans are only guests on this planet who do not even deserve to live, then by such an organic law of reality, we own absolutely nothing and everything we have belongs to those in a lower class. Then most criminal would we be if ever we did not have compassion, pity and charity for all in need, such overwhelming charity that too perfection it always produced a grateful response.
And so, as to how socialism would work in a world free of ingrates? But of course, it would be perfection of course.
I fear that as with most Americans, you can't see that there is a style of capitalism that works and is "socially responsible". Americans aren't interested in pure socialism John, and neither are we Canadians. We can understand that a blend of the two can work for all the people
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But to the issue now, there is no longer any pretence of Israel dealing in fairness with the Palestinian people. Revenge for what that evil apartheid regime is doing to the Palestinian people will some day be visited upon Israel. It's likely going to be visited upon America too for it's support of the evil. And the scale of the revenge attack won't be able to be ignored. As Condo Rice says, perhaps in the form of a mushroom cloud. If, for the chance of sanity becoming the rule before that happens?
Don G. — “a style of capitalism that works and is “socially responsible”
Capitalist democracy, as it is practiced in every Western nation, is everyone hoarding all the wealth that their brains and sex appeal can muster. The end result being, all of the wealth is hoarded by the educated upper half of society and a starvation minimum wage is used as a tool to enslave the laboring-class lower half.
On the other hand, socialism is no one being allowed to amass more wealth then is needed to have a quality life. This keeps all of the wealth freely flowing throughout the economy, not just the upper half and establishes true equality for all.