US urges Israel to reverse appropriation of land for West Bank settlement

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/us-criticises-israel-appropriation-land-settlements
<snip>
The United States has criticised Israel’s announcement of a land appropriation for possible settlement construction in the occupied West Bank as “counterproductive” to peace efforts, and urged the Israeli government to reverse the decision.

Israel laid claim to nearly 1,000 acres (400 hectares) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem, a move which an anti-settlement group termed the biggest appropriation in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war.

“We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity,” a State Department official said. “This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue is counterproductive to Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians.”

“We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision,” the official said in Washington.

Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teenagers by Hamas militants in the area in June, one of the sparks for the seven-week war in Gaza that left more than 2,000 people dead.
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This is what happens when you cheer on genocide.

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. At what point does the US announce sanctions?

Because showing that there will actually be consequences is the only way to stop the current Israeli government from doing things like this.

[malaise]

2. Don't hold your breath

Probably on the 12th of never.

[Martin Eden]

9. At what point does the US announce cutting off aid to Israel?

The official position of the US is to oppose the building of new settlements, but we continue to finance what Israel is doing.

[RoccoR5955]

11. Sanctions start...

on the second Tuesday of next week!

[freshwest]

3. The US has been asking them to stop settlements for years. It's a civil war. And there will never be

a two state solution. Both sides want all of that land. Since they won't give in to each other, they are having a civil war.

The fences, the walls, the checkpoints are like the DMZ between the two Koreas. Some nations recognize one but refuse to give legitimacy to the other. Just like our own Civil War.

It is the same country, no matter what names the two sides give to it. Israel has been in a civil war since it was founded. Day one and it's not stopping It's one place, one nation formed by the UK and other countries. The USA was not part of that.

It was a province in the Ottoman empire and as it fell, there was a vacuum of power and that never lasts. Actually the area was larger than Israel is now when the big powers in the area redrew the map of the fallen empire, that is, the last caliphate.

We didn't draw this map, history did, a history that is longer than we have existed as a nation. We aren't going to be able to wave a magic wand and make them live happily ever after as two states because neiher side wants that. It is a solution that the West has tried to impose on both sides. The I/P aren't buying it.

The West Bank and Gaza were nothing more than schemes to satisfy the West who has watched all of this in chagrin. The idea that our tax dollars are a huge factor in Israel also doesn't make sense. They also make their arms and don't need us.

We cut funding for offensive weapons since this last skirmish in Gaza. Obama had to fight with Congress over this, and it's those who are elected that are doing this. I say, people take the fight to the GOP fundies first and if not, no one is serious about cutting them off.

The latest horror show is just a skirmish because this is nothing new in the benighted 'Holy Land,' the birthplace of the three desert religions. I don't have any hatred for either side but this ain't our fault. We don't rule the world, and we have a lot of people in the USA who are fundies and think Israel is their key to going to heaven. We need to convince them, if not, not one thing will change in our response to Israel.

Our emphasis on giving money for their defense, which is the fabled Iron Dome which is said to be ineffective. This ain't Star Trek and that system is not a force field or some kind of magical curtain. The USA is funding that to keep from funding the other. And or because a lot of Americans want to.

Israel is also alleged to be a nuclear power and that gives them influence, just like it does Pakistan and India. My sense of why we keep playing with the government of Pakistan and Afghanistan is that we are trying to prevent the Taliban or others using those nukes. There is likely some use Israel has for the USA to some.

The world is a strange, complicated and screwed up place. This request for stopping settlements will be ignored. I don't even know why either does the truces anymore. They are just regrouping for the next time things go off. It won't last and this civil war will go on until one side loses. There will be no compromises. We shouldn't fool ourselves.

Just my humble opinion as I can't go to sleep and that's what I think. That we are naive and don't know what to do there. They do and they're gonna do it to each other until one side destroys the other. Then peace will be declared over acres of dead bodies.

I would like to hope for better solution, but it' not up to me, not even up to Obama.

[madokie]

4. A reply I would like to have the option to recommend the reading of

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. it isn't a civil war and Israel's claims are not recognised under international law

and "history" didn't draw the map; the large-scale Jewish settlement and colonisation of Israel in the first half of the 20th century did. That history has only existed since the rise of Zionism in the late 19th century. Before that very few Jews had lived in what is now Israel in over a thousand years. The displacement of some seven hundred thousand Palestinian Arabs by Israeli troops during the 1948 war did the rest. This is why Arabs view Israel as being essentially a continuation of European colonialism.

[magical thyme]

14. a civil war in which we are funding one side to the tune of $3B/year.

It may have been a civil war before we were funding the Zionists, but the simple fact is that we are warring on the Palestinians by proxy.

[malaise]

16. That simple

but few folks recognize the double standards - the absolute hypocrisy.

[elias49]

6. Don't second guess Bibi..on anything..cuz he doesn't care. Just send money.

[geek tragedy]

7. "We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity ...

and we have made it equally clear that our opposition is merely platitudes, and that we will never, ever do jack shit about it. Here's another $3 billion."

[magical thyme]

13. ^^^^ exactly.

[Enthusiast]

15. +1

[malaise]

17. Ding ding we have a winner

The native Americans and indigenous people of the planet know the template well.

[Billy Budd]

12. Its Kabuki

the US and Israel are doing a dance ...its fake...US and Israel are as thick as thieves , land thieves ...

[jwirr]

18. This is just what many of us expected them to do regardless of what they told us the "war" was all

about. They need to understand that their popularity in the US is dropping and their old buddies are getting older. Sooner or later they will have to stop this. But as we are going it will probably be too late for the Palestinians. And again we will be complicit.