Get the link code at Maps of War.
RELATED: See David Phillips, "The Illegal-Settlements Myth":
The conviction that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal is now so commonly accepted, it hardly seems as though the matter is even open for discussion. But it is. Decades of argument about the issue have obscured the complex nature of the specific legal question about which a supposedly overwhelming verdict of guilty has been rendered against settlement policy. There can be no doubt that this avalanche of negative opinion has been deeply influenced by the settlements’ unpopularity around the world and even within Israel itself. Yet, while one may debate the wisdom of Israeli settlements, the idea that they are imprudent is quite different from branding them as illegal. Indeed, the analysis underlying the conclusion that the settlements violate international law depends entirely on an acceptance of the Palestinian narrative that the West Bank is “Arab” land. Followed to its logical conclusion—as some have done—this narrative precludes the legitimacy of Israel itself.BONUS: Melanie Phillips, "Israel as Czechoslovakia."
In recent history Israel has been taking the restrained road in order to keep the U. S. as an ally. All the Arab countries take this as weakness. Pulling out of Gaza has won them indiscriminate rockets into Israeli civilian targets, with only muffled response from Israel and the U.S.
ReplyDeleteThere are many examples of Israel’s military hard line tactics 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and so on. They work. To give one small example of what works, around ‘53 the young Col. Ariel Sharon kept Israel’s borders peaceful by punishing ten-fold any attacks by Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. Israelis received no praise then, as now, but they had respect. Now, Israeli Jews receive no respect nor praise. Is it time for Israel to forget about U.S. support and go back to taking care of business, instead of trying to please a the global community that treats them with disdain?
These “Palestinians,” are Arabs that were given that name only after attacking Israel and then being removed from the Israeli home front, and they do not want a two state solution. They want Israel decimated.
Further, nothing is politically settled as far on the entire West Bank is concerned, and building housing for an expanding population legitimately there, Jew or Arab, takes nothing away from the “Palestinians.” Why does the White House take issue with the construction of housing for Jewish citizens within the boundaries of their own country? Ramat Shlomo, the neighborhood in question now, is not actually what Biden calls, East Jerusalem. Ramat Shlomo is actually in northern Jerusalem and home to 40,000 Jewish residents. When Jordan recently began stripping citizenship Palestinian citizens rather than erecting needed housing units for them, where was Biden and Clinton’s scorn?