Israel 2

josh wrote:

The Associated Press:

BREAKING: Israel approves 2,500 West Bank settlement homes, signaling new approach under Trump. 

Are you serious, josh? "New approach under Trump?" Are you serious, josh???? You quote this crap as if it's "news"????

Quote:

In April 2012, four illegal outposts were retroactively legalized by the Israeli government.[314] In June 2012, the Netanyahu government announced a plan to build 851 homes in five settlements: 300 units in Beit El and 551 units in other settlements.[315][316]

Amid peace negotiations that showed little signs of progress, Israel issued on 3 November 2013, tenders for 1,700 new homes for Jewish settlers. The plots were offered in nine settlements in areas Israel says it intends to keep in any peace deal with the Palestinians.[317] On 12 November, Peace Now revealed that the Construction and Housing Ministry had issued tenders for 24,000 more settler homes in the West Bank, including 4,000 in East Jerusalem.[318] 2,500 units were planned in Ma'aleh Adumim, some 9,000 in the Gush Etzion Region, and circa 12,000 in the Binyamin Region, including 1,200 homes in the E1 area in addition to 3,000 homes in previously frozen E1 projects.[319] Circa 15,000 homes of the 24,000 plan would be east of the West Bank Barrier and create the first new settlement blocs for two decades, and the first blocs ever outside the Barrier, far inside the West Bank.[320] 

Hint 1: Obama was president during the above.

Hint 2: The settlements have been illegally established and occupied by settlers since 1967.

Hint 3: LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama. Sorry if I missed one or two, just going from memory.

So the "new approach under Trump" is... what?

Oh wait a minute, you were just quoting an MSM breaking news headline... you don't necessarily subscribe to that fake news... am I right?

bekayne wrote:

Police 'likely to recommend' indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/benjamin-netanyahu-c...

Here's to hoping his US friend is soon in the same position

In Historic Report, U.N. Agency Says Israel Is Imposing an "Apartheid Regime" on Palestinian People

For the first time, a United Nations agency has directly accused Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on the Palestinian people. The report also urges governments to "support boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] activities and respond positively to calls for such initiatives." The findings come in a new report published by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which is comprised of 18 Arab states. For more, we speak with the co-author of the report, Richard Falk. He’s professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and previously served as the U.N. special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights....

Israel sunk in 'incremental tyranny' say former Shin Bet chiefs:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/06/former-israeli-security-ch...

BDS Leader Omar Barghouti Dedicates His Gandhi Peace Award to Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike

quote:

OMAR BARGHOUTI: I think if we consider the Israeli government, that came into power in 2015 as the most racist in Israel’s history, dropping the mask that once covered Israel’s regime of occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid, the Trump administration has also dropped the mask of the U.S. administration, which was always in bed with Israel’s system of occupation and apartheid, and now it’s in your face. So, the repression that we’re seeing increasingly in the United States and the repression and denial of rights we’re seeing by the Israeli government are coming together and showing ways to connect our struggles. So we’re facing very difficult times, facing an Israeli impunity on steroids, because of the Trump administration. And at the same time, Israel’s right-wing government is being used by the Trump administration as a model for ethnic profiling, for walls, like the wall with Mexico, and for various sorts of racial policies. Israel is now a model for the U.S. administration. And that’s dangerous for everyone.

Canadian Labour Congress resolution of support for prisoners’ strike joins growing labor solidarity for Palestinian freedom

Emergency Resolution

CLC Supports Palestinian Prisoners’ Dignity Strike

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will:

a) Call on the Canadian Government to pressure Israel to stop violating international law by illegally detaining Palestinians and depriving them of their basic human, civil and political rights;
and

b) Work with global union federations, affiliates and civil society organizations in Canada on campaigns in support of Palestinian prisoners.

BECAUSE More than 1600 Palestinian prisoners have been on a hunger strike since April 17, 2017; and

BECAUSE Key demands of the hunger strike include: end to the denial of family visits, the right to appropriate health care, the right to education in prison and an end to solitary confinement and “administrative detention”; and

BECAUSE The CLC supports the right of the Palestinian people to national self-determination and an end to the illegal Israeli occupation as the basis for a just peace in the region.

This important resolution follows on strong, growing international labor movement and trade union support for Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian struggle for justice, self-determination and liberation.

On 12 May, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), which represents nearly one million workers in Norway, endorsed a full international economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel as a necessary means to support fundamental Palestinian rights....

..thrall provides an interesting take re trump and israel. here's a bit of it.

Palestinian Hunger Strikers in Israeli Jails Protest Trump's Visit to Israel

quote:

NATHAN THRALL:
So, I think that what we’re facing right now is great uncertainty on both sides with respect to Trump, which both sides both regard as a threat and an opportunity. There is a sense that there’s real ignorance, both on the part of the president and the team around him, and so much so that each side could potentially take advantage of that ignorance and change or shift U.S. policy in their direction. So, everybody is walking on eggshells right now and trying very much not to upset Trump, very uncertain whether he’s capable of retaliating against one side if he feels that they are an obstacle to his achieving what appears to be a real priority for him, and the real—real priority for both sides is to try and stay on Trump’s good side for now, without doing anything that’s too domestically difficult for each one.

quote:

NATHAN THRALL: Sure. I mean, there’s a sense that Trump is not at all beholden to the views of the U.S. foreign policy establishment really on anything, but especially on this conflict. And he—there’s a sense that he does look at this as a real estate transaction. He has a bold subheading inside his book, The Art of the Deal, that’s called "Use Your Leverage." And that’s really the locus of the fear on the Israeli side with respect to Trump. It’s the notion that he could really try and exert pressure on Israel, threaten real consequences in the U.S.-Israeli relationship, if Israel were not to agree to, let’s say, the outlines of an American proposal for a settlement of the conflict or the outlines of an American proposal on which the two sides would negotiate and work out the details. And Trump has—you know, during his campaign, he said some things that were frightening to supporters of Israel. He refused to blame one side for the impasse. And he even refused to back down when he was criticized for refusing to do so. And he does appear to really prioritize this conflict and see it as something that could create a legacy for him. And so, the question is: Does he intend to use his leverage? Is he capable of using his leverage? And if he is, then we’re looking at a totally different Israeli-Palestinian peace process than we’ve seen in the past.

So how you guys liking trump now? You loved him in the elections... 8-/

Here's my perspective on this issue. If you're too busy working, then chances are you're not going to be as pissed off that you don't have the opportunity to apply yourself (directed to Palestinian) instead of expanding outward (suburban crawl) expand up (hi rise condos) directed to Israel. Again, don't look to s biased player as the US is to resolve any issue in the Middle East or any white European nation for that matter.
http://www.atimes.com/china-wild-card-israel-palestine-peace-process/

If Israel were smart:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n12/sara-roy/if-israel-were-smart

But Israel is being run by people who don't want any kind of coexistence in Palestine; they want the Palestinians east of the Jordan (for now); transfer. In the meantime they want them as powerless as possible. To paraphrase Moshe Dayan (who may actually have been talking about the consequences of "no-peace") "Let them live like dogs, and we will see what happens."