Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch today announced that the government would in the coming days begin demolishing Arab homes in occupied East Jerusalem, the latest announcement on the disputed region since the beginning of indirect peace talks this weekend.
Not long after the announcement, the US State Department issued a statement warning “both sides to avoid inflammatory actions in Jerusalem.”
Israeli officials foiled the previous attempt at a US-brokered indirect peace process in March when they announced massive settlement expansions in East Jerusalem on the eve of those talks.
After two months, the US had finally lured the Palestinian Authority back to the bargaining table, but the day after the announcement that the PA had begun the talks, Israel announced yet more settlement expansions.
Despite the claims that Netanyahu had ordered a de facto freeze in East Jerusalem, it seems that some of the members of his coalition, many of whom had opposed the peace talks from the start, are selectively making announcements aimed at giving the PA, which itself has several members doubting the peace process, an excuse to abandon the talks.
One really has to wonder if )ewish people are self destructive as an aspect of their "chosen" status..
Could the TWO be inextricably joined? as in those who think they are doing G-d's work pay little attention to the results caused by their actions, just like crazy people.. "If it's O.K. with G-d, who cares what people think…!!" So wonderful, so dangerous….
I cannot believe that now Jason Ditz is handing Netanyahu the excuse that it's not his fault, it's his underlings, the same excuse that antiwar folks have now been handing Obama for a year and a half. My God, it's never their fault is it?
And so now Jason puts the onus on the Palestinians. If they back away from the talks, as they obviously should now that Israel and the US have made it clear that they won't keep their side of a bargain that was completely lopsided to begin with (the Palestinians giving up an actual right, to protest, in return for Israel promising to give up a right they never had, to steal land, and not even doing it), it's THEIR fault!!!!
I definitely don't know what you are talking about when it comes to defending Obomber… Yes, in this article he mentions that it seems to be Net's underlings who are undermining him, but I must be reading a different article because it hardly seems like he is excusing Net's behavior despite this. I don't think it undermines the bigger picture this article draws as you suggest. Thank you antiwar.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism for tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."–Zahir Muhsein, leader of the al-Sa'iqa Organization [of the P.L.O.], interview to the Dutch newspaper Trouw, 1977