Report: Obama to demand end to all settlement construction

[Israel Insider]

Senior White House officials told Israeli counterparts that Obama will demand Benjamin Netanyahu completely suspend construction in settlements, Haaretz reported. It is inconceivable that the Israeli Prime Minister and his conservative coalition will agree to such a demand, leading to a direct clash between the two governments.

The report was just one aspect of wide-ranging breakdowns in coordination and communication between Washington and Jerusalem. "Obama's people brief their Israeli counterparts in advance much less about security and Middle East policy activities than the Bush administration used to," the officials said. And when they do brief Israeli officials, they don't consult with them or coordinate their statements in advance, the Haaretz report continued.

This has caused several coordination "malfunctions" between the two states in the past two months, they said, the most recent being the statement of Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The statement was not coordinated with Israeli officials in charge of the nuclear issue. They heard it first from the media.

This followed other equally problematic incidents, such as the American policy shift toward Syria and the opening of direct talks with Damascus followed minimal coordination with Israel. Another incident concerned U.S. envoy for Iranian affairs Dennis Ross' trip to the Gulf states a few days ago for talks on Iran. Though Israel was briefed in general details, there was no consultations or message-coordination before the trip. Nor did Ross pass through Israel on his way to the Gulf or back.

The American policy toward Iran is only vaguely presented to Israel, and details obtained via European channels.

Israeli officials feel that their no country no longer has a "special" relationship with the United States. "The feeling is that the dialogue and coordination with the Arab states and with Europe is today no less important to the U.S. and perhaps more so than with Israel," the official said.

As Omri Ceren writes in his Mere Rhetoric blog:

"That's a little too generous. The new administration sees Israel as a particularly problematic state in the Middle East, responsible for the length and breadth of Middle East instability. This was their position before the election and it's been their positions since they got into office. So it's not exactly a shock that they're pressuring Israel while ineffectively sucking up to Syria.

The only question left is how this will end up being Israel's fault. If Israel attacks Iran, then it'll be that. The "Israeli self-defense will undermine Obama's diplomacy" meme has already been well-seeded by Gates and Biden, by Brzezinski, and - on the same day, almost as if there was a coordinated campaign - by the NYT and the Washington Post.

If Israel doesn't attack Iran, then it'll be either anti-Hamas efforts or Syria or Israel's nuclear deterrent. All three have already been fed to reporters as "sources of tension" by the Iran Lobby, part of their ongoing drip drip drip erosion of Israel's standing in DC.

It won't be settlements - too blase. The whole point is to give Netanyahu a demand that he can't possibly meet, so that his subsequent refusal can be used as a pretext for degrading ties."

Uzi Arad, the official in the Prime Minister's Office in charge of the liaison with the American administration, has not even forged a direct channel to his counterpart, National Security Advisor General James L. Jones. Arad is scheduled to travel to Washington next week to prepare for Netanyahu's trip.

Arad will outline the first chapters of Israel's new foreign policy when he finally meets with Jones next Tuesday.

[Ken Besig]

Too bad for Obama that he came into this game a little too late. All the possible Israeli concessions, appeasements, unlateral withdrawals, and gestures to the Palestinians have already been made and there is almost nothing left for Israel to concede without some even small positive gesture of encouragement from the Arab side. Indeed, Obama is beginning to view his campaign positions from the Presidency as opposed to the Candidacy and all the problems he was so blase and simple about, like closing Gitmo, ending the military tribunals, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and even abortion on demand now appear to Obama to be difficult, complicated, and perhaps even impossible.
Thus when and if our Prime Minister points out to Obama that not even Yassir Arafat in the Oslo Accords demanded an end to Israeli settlement activity, and not one single Israeli Palestinian understanding has ever included a settlement freeze, Mr. Obama may have to rethink the importance of this issue. Moreover, it may even have become apparent to Obama's great and agile mind that beating up Israel won't bring the Palestinians any close to settling with us, but that putting real and immediate financial and diplomatic pressure on the Palestinians to publicly and in Arabic renounce forever all physical and verbal violence against Israel and to begin to negotiate in good faith could actually break the deadlock that the Palestinians have settled on.
But if Obama wants to fail and destroy whatever credibility his adminstration has in the Middle East, then he can hammer Prime Minister Netanyahu and demand impossible concessions from Israel, just as every other previous administration has failed with.

[clif atkin]

The USA is in no position to dictate terms to Israel, not now or not ever. How would the USA like it if Israel took the side of the Native Americans and told the USA that they cannot build more house in the suburbs because it would encroach on Native American land. Hey USA try that plan. Put the shoe on the other foot and see how you like it. See Adriaan Reland's book, noted by Ronald above. The liberal anti Israeli new networks would never mention anything like this. We call it the truth but that is too hard for the USA to take.

[clif atkin]

It is a good thing Bibi at the helm, I hope he is going "mano y mano".

[Minerva]

Shlomo,

Even if you believe you Jews should be better, I think you should not make it easy for Israel’s enemies.

They are acting against Israel with lies and, in my humble opinion, this needs to be denounced and protested against.

[Shlomo]

Criticizing Obama and what he is doing, and pointing out the anti-semitism of the Arabs does absolutely no good. The root of the problem is ourselves. We are guardians of the Torah. We fare according to our faithfulness in that commission. G-d is compassionate and gives us a great amount of room and allowance, but when we openly rebel, we bring upon ourselves Divine judgment. Obama and the Arabs become instruments of Divine wrath, just as in ancient times HaShem used the various nations to chastise Yisrael.

75% of Jews in America put the religion of Liberalism above Judaism and voted for Obama. Over half, now, of religious Jews (Conservative & Reform) support "gay marriage" and ordination of homosexuals to the rabbinate. They work to undermine America's support of traditional marriage and to remove any expression of religion and duty to G-d from American public life. Do the Orthodox rabbis pronounce these Jews as "herem," "cut off," and strongly speak out against them? Did they do so before World War II, when many Jews were supporting the Haskalah movement and Marxist revolution?

"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. That thou mayes love HaShem thy G-d and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which HaShem sware unto thy father, to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Ya'akov, to give them." (Devarim 30:19-20)

The answer for Israel is spiritual. It always has been and it always will be.

[Minerva]

Palestinian people do not exist
Posted: July 11, 2002
1:00 am Eastern
By Joseph Farah
© 2009 WorldNetDaily.com

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.

( Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, March 31, 1977)


"Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel."

(Arafat, in 1993, on Jordan TV on the same day he signed the Declaration of Principles)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28222

[Minerva]

The 'settlements' issue

Posted: December 12, 2002
1:00 am Eastern
By Joseph Farah
© 2009 WorldNetDaily.com

Once again, we're hearing that awful word again in the context of the Middle East debate.

"Settlements."
That's what the conflict is all about, we're being told. That's why the Arabs are mad at the Israelis. That's the root of the violence, the terrorism, the hatred.
[...]
The word "settlement" itself is loaded. Who is a "settler" in the Mideast? According to the Arabs, only Jews are "settlers." But that simply is not the case.

Arafat himself was born in Egypt. He later moved to Jerusalem. If, at the moment, he is living in the West Bank, he is a "settler" there, not a native. Indeed, most of the Arabs living within the borders of Israel today have come from some other Arab country at some time in their life. They are all "settlers."

For instance, just since the beginning of the Oslo Accords, hundreds of thousands of Arabs have entered the West Bank or Gaza – and never left. They have come from Jordan, Egypt and, indirectly, from every other Arab country you can name – and many non-Arab countries as well. These surely aren't "Palestinians."

Since 1967, the Arabs have built 261 settlements in the West Bank. We don't hear much about those settlements. We hear instead about the number of Jewish settlements that have been created. We hear how destabilizing they are – how provocative they are. Yet, by comparison, only 144 Jewish settlements have been built since 1967 – including those surrounding Jerusalem, in the West Bank and in Gaza. Why is it that only Jewish construction is destabilizing?

The Arab "settlement" activity is not new. This has always been the case. Arabs have been flocking to Israel ever since it was created – and even before, coinciding with the wave of Jewish immigration into Palestine prior to 1948.

And that raises a question I never hear anyone ask: If Israel's policies make life so intolerable for Arabs, why do they continue to flock to the Jewish state? Why aren't they leaving in droves if conditions are as bad as they say?
[...]
Prior to 1900, the entire region was a barren wasteland with low populations of Jews, Muslims and Christians. No one had much interest in the Holy Land, as Mark Twain pointed out in his own travels to the area – until the Jews began to return.

Then the economic activity began. The jobs were created. The opportunities appeared. And then the Arabs came.

The "settlement" issue is a canard. It's a propaganda ploy to suggest that only Jews are newcomers to the region. The truth is there are lots of "settlers" and would-be "settlers" in the area – including Arafat and his friends.

By the way, under the Oslo Accords, there are no restrictions whatsoever on Israeli construction in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. None. Zip. Nada. Zilch. These "settlements" are perfectly legal. And I, for one, can see no legitimate reason for them to stop.

In full
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=16209
____________

And the Jewish "settlements" in Gaza have already been dismanttled. As a consequence, all the towns in the Strip are Arab settlements, in my opinion.

[Robert Bernier]

An old book, in Latin, which had been written by a Christian named Adriaan Reland, chronicling his trip in the land of Israel in 1695/6 :
The land was, on the whole, empty and desolate; the inhabitants were few and concentrated in the cities of Jeusalem, Acre, Safed, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants of the cities were Jews, the others were Christian; there were very few Moslems, mostly nomadic Bedouins. Nablus (Schem) was different, with a population of about 120 people from the Moslem Natsha family and about 70 Shomronites. In Nazareth, the capital of the Galilee, there were approximately 700 people – all Christians.
It is interesting that Reland mentions all the Muslims as nomadic Bedouin tribes who arrived in the area as seasonal workers, in both agriculture and construction. In Gaza, for example, there were approximately 550 people; fifty per-cent of them were Jews, the rest Christians. For additional information : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/12/myths-hypotheses-and-facts-concerning_3280.html

[Robert Bernier]

Arabs have no case as to the Land of Israel.
Even if the Arabs will get an additional state,a "Palestinian state", that part of the Land of Israel will still remain the Land of the Jews - robbed by the Arabs. The entirety of Jerusalem as the entirety of the Land of Israel belongs exclusively to the entirety of the Jewish people. It belongs to our generation as well as to the future generations to come, and no one has the right and/or the legitimacy to cede even one single square cm. of the city or the land. Agreements as a result of blackmail and pressure are not valid and will not change historical truth and International Legitimacy (The San Remo agreements). Mistakes done by Israeli government(s) in Anapolis or before should not be respected and should be put right immediately. Arabs have no case as to the Land of Israel, we should return to the original legitimity as described at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/12/status-of-palestineland-of-israel_08.html

[Moshe Mones]

Mr. Obama has been showing his anti-JEWISH, Islamic face for years before the elections. Despite this, he has still become president of the U.S. So none of this should be surprising. However the Jewish Nation of Israel need not be beholden to U.S. or world opinion as this has turned into disaster for us throughout history. We just need to stand up and be Jews, not debate obvious historical and political lies, and within being Jewish, we do not tolerate hatred, we claim the Land that is ours, and within that we are much needed models to the world of true compassion, morality, and justice.