JERUSALEM — As the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the Palestinians’ status Thursday night, Israel took steps toward building housing in a controversial area of East Jerusalem known as E1, where Jewish settlements have long been seen as the death knell for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Read the rest here.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday that the decision was made late Thursday night to move forward on “preliminary zoning and planning preparations” for housing units in E1, which would connect the large settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem and therefore make it impossible to connect the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem to Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Israel also authorized the construction of 3,000 housing units in other parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the official said.
The prime minister’s office refused to comment on whether the settlement expansion — first reported on Twitter by a reporter for the Israeli daily Haaretz — was punishment for the Palestinians’ success in upgrading its status from nonmember observer entity to nonmember observer state at the United Nations, but it was widely seen as such. The United States, one of only eight countries that stood with Israel in voting against the Palestinians’ upgrade, has for two decades vigorously opposed construction in E1, a 3,000-acre expanse of hilly parkland where a police station was opened in 2008.
Someone explain to me why we are arming a nation engaged in aggressive policies of colonialism and territorial annexation?
7 comments:
I believe you're overstating things quite a bit. An "aggressive policy of colonialism" is the Anschluss. An "aggressive policy of territorial annexation" is 1 September 1939, or the start of the Yom Kippur War. What would be the opposite of aggressive annexation would be, for example, withdrawing from the Sinai or Gaza, two territories gained because of the aggression of others, and which one has no moral obligation to cede. Compare and contrast the natures of the two sides here.
We arm that nation because it's an ally and a democracy, and its neighbors are unstable, practically anarchist, hostile nations which, in some cases, are hell-bent on exporting violent jihad to the entire world, most especially the U.S.
God forgive them for becoming what they suffered under...
Amen, Jon Marc.
Well, they speak good English without funny accents. That's enough to consider them jes' folks.
I'm pretty sure we do it 'cause in that sense they remind us of ourselves. What a cute little country trying to colonize and write their own international rule book.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no official treaty between our countries that establish Israel as an "ally."
We give them weapons, technology, man power, etc for free, and then they turn around and sell said benefits to countries like China, et al. For whatever reason, they have us over the barrel and we can't seem to do anything about it. When someone tries to do something, they end up like Mordechai Vanunu - or perhaps as some have indicated like Petraeus.
I think we should be Israel's ally for moral reasons. Their enemies are our enemies. (For that matter, their enemies are vicious enemies of Christians, as well, and solely responsible for the fact that Orthodoxy has been nearly wiped out in its traditional Middle Eastern homelands.)
However, times change. I don't think Israel has anyone over a barrel. There was a time when we were not particularly friendly to Israel and France (!) was. The Egypt-Israel peace treaty and Egypt's reorientation toward America and away from the Soviet Union changed that. Some analysts are pointing out that, should Islamists succeed in continuing to strengthen their positions in Egypt and Turkey - which is obviously to the detriment of Israel - the U.S. may choose to change its engagement strategy in the region in order to retain influence with those countries. So, many here may yet get their wish. I don't think the remaining Christians in the region will be quite as happy, for the short time they remain alive.
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