Clinton Calls Israel's Actions "Unhelpful"

Alongside Palestinian Leader, Top U.S. Diplomat Says She'll Take New Israeli Leaders To Task

(CBS/AP)  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem has been "unhelpful" to Mideast peace efforts.

Israel has issued orders for the demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem in recent days. It says the homes were built illegally.

Palestinians argue they cannot receive proper building permits from Israeli authorities, and the planned demolitions are Israel's means of asserting control over the disputed city.

Speaking alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Wednesday, Clinton called the demolitions "unhelpful," and said they violate Israeli pledges under the "road map" peace plan.

She said she would take up the issue with the incoming Israeli government, which is expected to take office in the coming weeks.

It was the first indication that the Obama administration might be willing to confront Israel's new leaders over their cooperation in the peace process, but it was still unclear how hard Washington was willing to push the Jewish state.

A senior Abbas aide said earlier Wednesday that the Palestinian president would ask Clinton to convince Israel to freeze West Bank settlements and open border crossings into the Gaza Strip.

Her meeting with the Palestinian leader was part of her first trip to the region as Secretary of State.

Palestinians are watching closely for signs of change in U.S. policy toward their conflict with Israel. Even Palestinian moderates were disappointed with the previous administration's failure to take Israel to task for accelerated construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said earlier that the Palestinian leader would raise specific Israeli construction projects in Jerusalem with Clinton.

The Palestinians want to establish their state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Settlement expansion in the Palestinian-claimed areas undercuts Abbas' standing at home.

In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Clinton declared that the creation of a Palestinian state "seems inescapable" as part of a peace agreement with Israel, a clear message to Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes statehood.

Clinton met with Netanyahu, as well as Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, the outgoing foreign and defense ministers, on Tuesday.

Erekat said the Palestinian leader is seeking a tougher U.S. stance toward Israel. "The main point is that the Israeli government needs to accept the two-state solution and ... that it stop settlement expansion," Erekat said.

The future of Hamas-ruled Gaza is also on the agenda. Abbas lost control of Gaza in June 2007, when the Islamic militant Hamas seized control by force. Israel and Egypt closed Gaza's borders in response, a policy tacitly supported by the international community, which shuns Hamas as a terrorist group.

However, the blockade has come under renewed scrutiny following Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas, which ended in an informal cease-fire Jan. 18. Some 15,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the war, meant to halt Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel, and international aid officials say Gaza's borders need to reopen to make reconstruction possible.

"We want the U.S. to help us open the passages to get material for reconstruction into Gaza," Erekat said.

Clinton is coming to the West Bank two days after she and other top diplomats from some 80 donor countries and international organizations met in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik for a Gaza pledging conference. The conference raised $5.2 billion, both for Gaza reconstruction and Abbas' government budget.

In pledging about $900 million to the cause from America, Clinton also vowed that none of the aid money would end up in the hands of Hamas militants.

In her meeting with Barak on Tuesday, Clinton urged easing the flow of goods into Gaza to alleviate the hardships of ordinary Gazans, Israeli officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

Currently, Israel allows several dozen truckloads of aid to get into Gaza every day, but bars the entry of concrete, pipes and other materials that would be crucial for reconstruction. Israel argues that such shipments could be seized by Hamas and used for building bunkers or rockets.

The Gaza offensive did not end the rocket fire, and on Wednesday, Israeli aircraft struck three tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border that militants are suspected of using to smuggle in weapons.

In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Clinton demanded that Hamas cease its rocket attacks, saying Israel should not "be expected to sit idly by and allow rockets (to) assault its people and its territory."

She also announced that the U.S. would dispatch two envoys to Syria in an effort to warm frosty relations - part of a bigger set of diplomatic maneuvers the Obama administration is juggling as it attempts to steer a new course toward a broad Middle East peace.

[cdwalker]

Arabs and Jews have been fighting each other for 3000 years. Now they have dragged the rest of the world into their idiotic fight. Jesus found the Jewish faith so lacking he had to create his own religion that actually promoted peace, kindness, and understanding- but both Judaism and Islam reject such philosophy simply so they can fight. God created both of them, all peoples on this earth, and if he holds life sacred(Which I'm positive he does, why else create life) Then the followers of Rambam(he wrote the Torah) and the children of Mohammad, peace be upon him, are simply brothers in the eyes of god fighting over lines in books and sand. God must weep for his misguided children.

[singinrick09]

"United in Hate" analyzes the Left's contemporary romance with militant Islam as a continuation of the Left's love affair with communist totalitarianism in the 20th Century. Just as the Left was drawn to the communist killing machines of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Castro, so too it is now attracted to radical Islam. Both the radical Left and radical Islam possess a profound hatred for Western culture, for a capitalist economic structure that recognizes individual achievement, and for the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United States. Both seek to establish a new world order, leftists in the form of a classless communist society, and Islamists in the form of a caliphate ruled by Sharia law. To achieve these goals, both are willing to 'wipe the slate clean' by means of limitless carnage, with the ultimate goal of erecting their utopia upon the ruins of the system they have destroyed. One of the foundations of the Left's romance with militant Islam, as with communism, is the lust for death - for others.

Link: http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=2663

[singinrick09]

Read Ezekiel chapters 38 an 39 folks, and know what's eventually going to happen over there. Russia (Biblical - Rosh) will be involved along with Iran (Biblical-Persia) in an all out attack on Israel. But Israel will prevail in the end!

Stay tuned!

[singinrick09]

It's not a coincidence that maniac world dicator lunatics like Ahmadenijad and leftists here in America echo each other when it comes to Israel.

Not a coincidence at all. Leftists have the same totalitarian world view that Muslim fundamentalists do, especially atheist leftists.

Reason being is simple:

Atheists don't want Israel to exist (it actually drives them nuts!) because each day Israel exists their atheism is proven wrong and the Bible continues to prove itself right (since the Bible predicted that Israel would be reborn in the last days, as it has been)

Muslims hate Israel because their Quran calls for the annihilation of the Jewish people and Christians. So each day Israel and the Jewish people exist their QURAN is proven wrong.

So is it really a shocker that leftists,(especially the atheist type) and Muslim fundamentalists share the same world view?

Shouldn't be folks!

[philabias]

i DIDNT REALIZE THAT ISRAEL WAS SUPPOST TO HELP MADAM CLINTON TO UNDERMINE ISRAEL AND HELP BUILD ANOTHER TERRORIST STATE.HMMM.... ISRAEL BE AFRAID VERY AFRAID OBAMA WOULD RATHER BAILOUT SYRIA

[factsearcher]

Not helpful.
Why are the people who are demolishing homes, taking land, taking water, occupying another nation with no end in sight, arresting them at will, incarcerating them by the tens of thousands, besieging them, why are the people doing all of this things getting the beneift of the doubt?

Because the palestinian people even way back when Arafat ruled and of course now with weak Fatah and strong Hamas- have NEVER EVER done what they promised...they have NEVER recognized the right of Israel to exist...therefore, the idea of two states is only an strategy to gain land and regroup for their ultimate motive-elimination. Israelis have been having to defend themselves from extreme violent acts from palestinians orchestrated by the iranians, syrians, lebanese.... for years! now.
The poor palestinians are being targeted and used/abused as puppets to diffuse the backbone of the operations from the terrorists organizations supported by the above mentioned countries government.

[factsearcher]

This is what Israel have been warning the world....
And most keep looking the other way.
iran intentions do not stop at Israel....or we wouldnt have had a 9/11!


Mar 4, 2009
Iran: We can hit Israeli nuclear sites

Iranian missiles can reach Israeli nuclear sites, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic republic's Revolutionary Guards, said Wednesday.

atollah Khomeini: Obama is no different from Bush

"All the nuclear facilities in different parts of the land under the occupation of the Zionist regime are in the reach of Iran's missile defenses," Jafari was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.

Iran's Shahab-3 missiles have a range of up to 1,250 miles, putting Israel within striking distance.

Jafari was quoted as saying that Iran is now a mighty military power to be reckoned with.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Wednesday that its Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant would definitely become active in the summer of 2009.

Speaking in parliament in Teheran, Mottaki said it was the government's duty to finish the project, which he said would be a significant political achievement, particularly considering the heavy international pressure imposed on the Islamic republic to curb its nuclear activities.



He said Russia had delivered the nuclear fuel as scheduled and nothing would further delay the implementation of the project, stressing that there were no problems between Teheran and Moscow.

"If there appears any change in Russia's stance, Iran will take a very clear position in dealing with it," he emphasized.

[singinrick09]

All the anti-Israel screaming Muslims and atheists and liberals on these forums will all have another thing coming to them when it's all said and done.

Atheists hate Israel's existence because it proves the Bible to be true, and they hate that!

Muslims hate Israel's existence because as each day passes and Jews continue to exist, their Quran is proven wrong.

This is why atheists and Muslims who blog on these forums each day tend to always share the same world view. Totalitarianism.....leftists and muslims share this ideology, and will stop at nothing to try to achieve it.

It's very similar to "The Dark Side of the Force" (The Empire) in the Star Wars movies.

[karlimhof]

Apartheid is a secular policy.
Posted by formrusmcsgt

exactly, south africa had also churches, mosques, and temples.

but we still fought apartheid there. Why not in Palestine and israel? The only logical answer is the lack of politcal courage due to jewish lobbying, and the completely inncorrect picture of events as explained in the US.

[karlimhof]

the refusal to admit to 40 yrs of failed expansionist policies, and the unlawful subjugation of the palestinian people, is the reality of israel today.

as Americans we must honestly face the facts, accept this reality, and change our course in defining American policy towards israel.

the growth of terrorism in the ME and beyond has its origin since the 1967 military occupation of Palestine. We Americans, in offering unconditioned support to these mistaken iraeli decisions, have contributed to the worsening situation.

By permiting our financial and military support to continue without demanding israeli concessions is no longer an answer.

[metsobitso]

Israel is "unhelpful". That is about as weak a wrist slap as you can give a country committing genocide.

[juwboy]

NqAZIma1:

Hahahahahahahah!!!

I f@rt in your general direction.

[juwboy]

formrusmcsgt:

I am not interested in theopinions of anyone whose career choice was to become a legalized, s@distic serial killer.

[formrusmcsgt]

Posted by juwboy at 2:16 AM : Mar 5, 2009

What drivel.

The practice of apartheid has nothing to do with the presence of churches or religious texts in a given country.

Apartheid is a secular policy.

[juwboy]

karlimhof:

Israel`s an apartheid state, is it?

Are there mosques in Israel?

Yes.

Are there synagogues in Israel?

Yes.

Are there churches in Israel?

Yes.

Are there Korans in Israel?

Yes.

Are there Bibles (both Testaments) in Israel?

Yes.

Are there mosques in Saudi Arabia?

Yes.

Are there synagogues in Saudi Arabia?

No.

Are there churches in Saudi Arabia?

No.

Are there Korans in Saudi Arabia?

Yes.

Are there Bibles in Saudi Arabia?

No.

Bearing in mind that the "adultery" sentence for the female victim of a gang rape is 100 strokes of the cane, administered by a s@distic Moslem misogynist, what do you think the penalty is for attempting to smuggle a Bible into Saudi Arabia for your own personal use?

Use your imagination.

[karlimhof]

israel is a rogue state with nuclear weapons imposing apartheid and military occupation on the palestinian people since 1948.

israeli policies since 1967 have led to the explosion of world-wide terrorism.

American policy has supported israeli actions contrary to international law.

Increasing terror attacks against America are not aimed at the american people as such, but rather the mistaken policies of our politicians, a majority of which are under the thumb of AIPAC and other pro-israeli lobbies.

Time to realize that everyone in world rejects israeli occupation & apartheid.

[ajmarine2]

Has tucker recovered enough from his mental break down to be a reliable source now?

Posted by ajmarine2 at 10:44 PM : Mar 4, 2009



By the way, ..........just kidding tuck.

[ajmarine2]

Posted by tuckerndfw at 9:58 PM : Mar 4, 2009


FINALLY! Someone who is not a *********! I have been preaching this forever, but these retards dont want to hear any of it.

Posted by anti-zionist1 at 10:22 PM : Mar 4, 2009



Has tucker recovered enough from his mental break down to be a reliable source now?

[harbinger19]

No one, who actually believes in parity, and fairness--could support what Israel is doing. Israel is not always wrong, but sometimes they are--when they claim to want peace but intentionally do the very things to undermine that (like kidnap hundreds of family members of Hezbollah...or attack and kill 14 while trying to get on Hamas leader..or destroy homes in east Jerusalem while continually putting up road blocks and permit blocks to keep Palestinians from using land that has been held by their people for centuries..... Something is wrong. This all plays into scripture though--because toward the end of days--both Jews and Christians will be hated and hounded--no doubt in order for all of that to come to past--both groups have to do a lot of heinous things to get even the most reasonable people to eventually despise them.

[rhs648]

Gaza might make a great amusement park, zoo, or racetrack. Lets turn Gaza into something productive