Words are just words, but deeds are something else again. The Israeli government today announced the building of 300 new houses in a settlement a long way from the Green Line and outside the Wall, near the Palestinian city of Ramallah.
If there were any doubt about it, Netanyahu just slapped Obama in the face, hard.
Barak authorizes construction of 300 new homes in West Bank
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the building of 300 new homes in the West Bank, defying U.S. calls for a halt to settlement growth.
According to Army Radio said 60 of the 300 homes slated for the Talmon settlement in the West Bank have already been built and that Barak had approved plans to construct another 240 units there.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pressed Israel to halt settlement activity as part of a bid to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Half a million Jews live in settlement blocs and smaller outposts built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
The last line of this article is a virtual non sequitor: “Israel says the Palestinian Authority has not done enough to stop militant violence.” Is that Israel’s latest excuse for its now defiant colonialism of Palestinian lands?
In another Haaretz article we read: Arab world sees settlement row as test of Obama’s credibility, and indeed, the ball is now in Obama’s court to save his new Middle East policy. This is not only a test of Obama’s credibility as president of the world’s only superpower, it is a test of whether a tiny right leaning country such as Israel can control American foreign policy.
If Obama does not act and acquiesces to the wants of this right wing Israeli government, his transformed anti-Neocon Middle East policy is dead. We wait.
UPDATE:
This section from Huffington Post coverage of the settlement expansion threw more light on it. It is actually the expansion of an illegal outpost.
The AP reports that the plans were approved by Barak and filed with authorities in April.
The outpost, known as Water Reservoir Hill, is just several hundred meters (yards) from an established Israeli settlement, Talmon, not far from Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government.
It is one of more than 100 wildcat settlements that have been erected without official government approval but typically with the cooperation of government agencies.
“This is important because it shows that Israel is not only not evacuating outposts, but is turning them into what it considers legal settlements and expanding areas of control in ways that harm Palestinians,” said Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, an architect at Bimkom.
Bimkom has filed an objection with planning authorities, along with residents of the nearby Palestinian village of al-Jania.
An article in the Asia Times makes the same point:
Israel stunned by Obama’s tough love
Israel has called Obama’s bluff. Now we shall see if Obama is indeed going to change US policy toward Israel, or whether he is just playing the same old game, in which the US tells Israel it should not do something, but puts no pressure on it.
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Outpost expansion since June 2003.
In general, in most extant outposts, some kind of expansion activities are taking place at any given time. The expansion of an outpost could take several forms:
Outpost Watch
ROME (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Rome as Italy’s foreign minister called on Israel to declare a moratorium on the expansion of its settlements in the West Bank.
“We would very much appreciate a gesture on the Israeli side announcing a moratorium on the expansion of existing settlements,” Franco Frattini told reporters shortly before Netanyahu’s plane touched down. “While negotiations are under way, a moratorium would be very important.”
Netanyahu, on his first trip to Europe since taking office in late March, was to meet with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT).
The hawkish Israeli leader is expected to press for tougher sanctions against arch-foe Iran over its nuclear drive when he visits Rome.
In Paris, he will hold talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
IRANIAN DOSSIER
“Above all, the prime minister is planning to bring up the Iranian dossier,” a senior government official told AFP in Jerusalem.
“The scenes of violence and repression of the past days have lifted the mask of the bloody regime that doesn’t hesitate to fire on unarmed protesters,” said the official, requesting anonymity.
“With what is happening now in Iran, words and condemnations are not enough, the world must decide to take much harder measures to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear arms,” he said.
Netanyahu meeting with Obama envoy in Paris postponed
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."One wonders if, given the history, it is easier to say “fuck you” to Obama or EU members? I hope that Netanyahu miscalculated. Why would he go to Europe except to find support for his Likud program of continued colonization?
surprised? l’m certainly not.
the biggest stick obama has is monetary, ie: israel aid money. according to this it’s difficult to really quantify the exact amount, but it’s reliably considered to be in the vicinity of $3bn/yr….roughly $500 per israeli per year, which means:
among all the options one can think of, perhaps one of the most effective would be to attach a price tag to the new construction in the settlements, outposts, or anywhere outside the 1967 boundaries for that matter…say $10m + per house…and just deduct it from future aid payments. it would add up to some serious $’s pretty fast
maybe the EU would pick up the slack, eh. we really can’t afford to maintain our level of support to israel anyway, and the money would be better spent on
universalthe public option component for health care..
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Thanks for your enrichments, Oui.
¡jezeus! those are some seriously large numbers.
thanks oui! as always, you find the stuff l can’t.
Force IAEA inspectors down their lying throats! Let Egyptian El Baradei take a good look at your nukes or you can find yourself another ally!
Rage, nothing but. Why does this tiny country have us by the balls?!
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Israel’s takeover of the whole of the Mandate of Palestine has long been treated by the US Government as the inconsequential act of a petty thief.
It accomplished this by placing its own zealous American or dual-citizen supporters at key choke points in the US bureaucracy. In fact, almost from the beginning of the Reagan administration in 1981, Israel has had in place a shadow government in Washington.
The Iran arms scandal was not carried out by congressional aides or journalists, however. It was made possible by a network of “shadows” at key points in the Executive Branch of the US Government. Who are these barely visible people? How did they get into the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA and “think tanks” concerned with “terrorism” and “security?”
Perhaps an IOU due to Iranian occupation of US Embassy in 1979 divulging CIA secrets.
The C.I.A. left intact in the embassy archive in Tehran an extremely damaging 47-page report on Israeli intelligence. Called: “Israel: Foreign Intelligence and Security Services,” the March 1979 was not only classified SECRET, but carried the labels NONFORN (not releasable to foreign nationals), NONCONTRACT, (not releasable to contract employees or consultants), and ORCON (meaning the originator of the report, the C.I.A.’s counterintelligence staff, controlled who in the American government saw it).
The report spells out in detail the sources and methods of Israel’s most secret intelligence services – including the Mossad, Israel’s equivalent of the C.I.A.; Shin Beth, Israel’s F.B.I.; and its other intelligence schools and services.
The report closely defines Israel’s foreign targets. It reveals tactics used, such as “false-flag” recruitments (where Israeli agents pose as NATO officers), surveillance and “surreptitious entry operations” (where Israeli agents break into embassies). It even reprints an organization table – including the names of top personnel, their photographs and their salaries. And it describes Israel’s most sensitive liaisons with foreign intelligence services in nations such as China and Kenya, with which it does not have diplomatic relations.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Response from Obama? Big fat nothing.
Hard to say yet. One of Obama’s trademark traits — and one I heartily approve of — is his insistence on thinking before he speaks. That’s a great improvement over the drooling moron of an usurper we had over the last eight years. And considering that he has already spoken clearly about the settlement issue quite recently, I think everyone knows where we and the Israelis stand.
One of Obama’s other admirable traits is his insistence on altering the tempo of debates to suit his purposes and not getting dragged into the highly confrontational rapid-fire back-and-forth that characterizes so much useless political discourse. In this case, it’s especially warranted because of the very nature of the US-Israel relationship. We can pull the plug on Israel at any time. What can Israel actually do to us?
While it is entirely possible that Obama lacks the will to seriously challenge Israel, it is also possible that, recognizing that we are the dominant partner in this relationship, he has decided to start acting like it. Just because Bibi Netanyahu opens his fat yap doesn’t require an instantaneous response from us. Israel is a quasi-legal nation state a bit smaller than New Jersey with no hope of survival without our active support. When Obama says jump, Bibi needs to ask how high on the way up. When Bibi talks, Obama can get around to dealing with it when he has time.
that were scheduled for paris this week? there seems to be some confusion:
guess the paper in question didn’t get the memo in time, eh. one of thems lying…l wonder who……