Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit. Afterwards, they held a press conference. The following is an excerpt from that press conference:
QUESTION: A question, Madame Secretary, about settlements. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that he is going to freeze settlement expansion – new settlement expansion, excuse me – but he’s not made any commitment towards freezing existing settlement growth. Do you think that’s enough?
And then a question on Egypt, if I may. In the case of Janet Greer, a mother whose daughter was abducted by his – her abusive father and brought to Egypt 12 years ago. Mr. Minister, successive court rulings (inaudible) the daughter should be with the mother. Can you tell us why those court rulings have not been enforced?
And Madame Secretary, can you tell us whether you plan to raise such things, this case in specific, with the Egyptian Government?
FOREIGN MINISTER GHEIT: Yes. I am – I investigated that issue. And it seems that there is still a court appeal from the father. So a decision, I think, will be made in the next few days. If it will be finally judged that the child would be returned to the mother, I’m sure that the Egyptian Government would abide by the court ruling. But it is not yet – up till now, is not yet a final decision.
SECRETARY CLINTON: I would only add that the State Department and Consular Affairs, particularly the Children’s Bureau, has been working with the family, particularly the mother, on this case for many years. It has gone through the Egyptian judicial system. My understanding is that the mother has won.
But as the foreign minister said, there’s one more step to go through. We’re hoping that this is resolved. I mean, as a mother, the idea that I wouldn’t be able to see my daughter for 12 years is extremely painful to me just to think about. So we are very hopeful that this will be resolved and, as the foreign minister said, we’re confident that the Egyptian Government will react appropriately once it is.
With respect to settlements, the President was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements – not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interests of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly, not only to the Israelis but to the Palestinians and others. And we intend to press that point.
Is anyone else surprised that this stance hasn’t caused more controversy and Democratic infighting? I mean, I’m not complaining. I’m just pleasantly surprised.
The Through the Looking Glass ride continues. Obama was fairly noncommittal on settlements during the campaign, as I recall, while he was outspoken on issues like health care, torture, and domestic spying. So now we see him take a strong position on settlements and the one-state solution while he backs off on the other issues (not entirely, of course, but some.)
I suspect the AIPAC-owned pols and press still haven’t regrouped. We’ll be hearing the whining from both parties shortly. I just half-heard some “analyst” on NPR explaining that Obama will have to get concessions from the Palestinians in order to have “bargaining chips” with which to entice Israel to negotiate. Huh. You’d think continuing to give Israel billions of bucks would be more than enough of a chip, wouldn’t ya?
That’s an old delaying tactic: getting concessions from the opposition. Just what do the Palestinians have to give? Half of what they have left, half of the 22% of original Palestine that wasn’t taken in 1948, has now been colonized with Israeli settlements.
I don’t think that stopping the settlement building really means that much because it is the settlements already built that pose a problem. How can there be a Palestinian state on the scraps left after 42 years of colonization?
Time will tell. Israel has escalated their aggressions. Killing a Hamas leader they previously released in the West Bank, shooting a couple activists in West Bank and burning farms in Gaza.
Just pointing out that he was released by Palestinians not Israelis.
Israel destroying Gaza’s farmlands http://electronicintifada.net/...
PCHR Weekly Report: 12 Palestinians, including 5 children, injured by Israeli forces this week
Friday May 22, 2009 – 11:47
Lots of news.
Who has authority to turn the money spigot off? The Executive or Legislative branch?
Didn’t Bush 1 and Reagan threaten to cut off aid?
Right now everyone’s busy with Sonia Sotomayor. Give it until next week…we’ll see the settlement issue come up and the usual suspects lay into Obama.
Bibi has no intention of giving up those settlements, and he knows in the end he won’t have to.
Mid-East Spelling Bee 2009. Spell after me Booman:
(Yet another round of…) (… nothing but…)
Www-iii-nnn-ddd-ooo-www-ddd-rrr-eee-sss-iii-nnn-ggg….
Maybe:
What’s surprising is that Obama isn’t doing what every post-war president before him has done: fuck up everything in his path, and then use an 11th hour effort to achieve mideast peace as a sort of hail Mary pass to save his “legacy”.
This bodes well, frankly. It suggests that he’s a) serious about it, and b) understands that it’s not an easy problem.
Key Lawmakers Are Opposing Israeli Policy On Settlements
http://forward.com/articles/106686/
Because they know it’s not going to matter. Israel will continue to do whatever the hell it wants and we will continue to sell them whatever the hell they want while they gleefully spy on us for me.
Sorry, I’m pretty pessimistic on this.
I am not an Israeli Spy ! Honest! Christ!
The new policy on settlements is principled but doomed to failure. Congress will thwart any serious attempt to rein in the creeping dispossion of the Palestinians on the West Bank, and any negotiation will be scuttled by the inevitable Israeli raid to provoke an Arab walkout. There are too many levers available to an Israeli government in the US Zionist community and their Christian Evangelical allies.
Much of the US public doesn’t know much about foreign history. They don’t know the Arabs took Palestine from the Byzantine Empire, not the Jews; or that Israel/Judea was fashioned out of the southern half of Canaan not the entirety of it. The ignorance and apathy of the majority favors the tireless Israel Lobby. Unfortunately the zealots are popular on both sides of this conflict because both sides have millenium-long memories and belief in their own brand of exceptionalism.
that would be ‘disposession’
Is there any way, outside of another revolution, to eliminate the multi-billion dollar subsidy that we provide Israel each year? I don’t think our government should give money to any church including the Zionist one.
Or are our legislators so dependent on AIPAC money that they can’t live without it? These national leaders of ours, IMO, are dishonest whores who sell their services for filthy lucre and then portray themselves as respectable citizens, Christians no less.
In the unforgettable words of that Galilean carpenter they are like whitened sepulchers, gleaming white on the outside, a corrupting mess on the inside. God, what a metaphor!