Israel's Decision About More Than Housing
This piece was written CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson.
The late Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban was credited for the oft-quoted phrase about the Palestinians "never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity." Perhaps it is time for a corollary for the Israelis: they never seem to miss an opportunity to make it more difficult for Palestinian leaders to seize an opportunity.
The most current example is Israel's decision to announce another 1,600 new housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, a decision which came not only during a high profile visit to Jerusalem by Vice President Joe Biden but also just after the Obama administration's special envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, announced Israelis and Palestinians had agreed to start so-called proximity talks.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu claims he didn't know about the decision announced by his coalition partner, Eli Yishai, the interior minister. True or not, the fact that such an inflammatory decision could be announced by anyone in the Israeli government shows at the very least the lack of control Netanyahu is able to exercise over his coalition partners. Of course it also shows there are members of the Israeli government who could care less about the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
As for the timing of the announcement, it was left to Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog to admit the obvious: "This should not have happened during a visit of the U.S. vice president … and now we have to express our apologies for this serious blunder." Because Netanyahu and his government consider all of Jerusalem to be Israel's eternal capital, the notion of even temporarily halting construction in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians envision as their capital of a future state called Palestine, is a non-starter.
This is a long standing Israeli position, notwithstanding the agreement that Jerusalem is a final status issue to be negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis make their decisions based on their view that whatever happens in Jerusalem - East or West - is of no concern to the Palestinians, or the Americans. Except for the fact it was the American vice president who was in country at the time, the idea of Israelis making housing-related announcements when senior U.S. officials come to town is nothing new. It happened often during the administrations of Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.
Where does this leave the Mitchell negotiations? In the first instance, no one should get too excited about a positive outcome. Everyone expects things to proceed at a very slow pace. Mitchell is expected to hold separate meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah early next week. One Israeli diplomatic source said the talks will begin at lower, so-called expert levels, and there was no expectation of a meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas anytime soon.
Rob Malley, a former National Security Council official who worked with President Clinton's peace team, said, "It magnifies the situation but doesn't really alter it." That is to say neither of the parties is very excited about these talks, which have come about after a year's worth of spadework by Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"The Palestinians were extremely skeptical, and it has deepened their skepticism and the Israelis were not taking the talks seriously and events have shown that," Malley said in a telephone interview. "It intensifies the dynamics that were well in play beforehand."
About the only good thing one can say a day after hitting this bump in the road to Middle East peace is that no one is calling for a postponement or further delay of the talks. So, with or without the additional 1,600 housing units, here we go, again.
Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved. The late Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban was credited for the oft-quoted phrase about the Palestinians "never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity." Perhaps it is time for a corollary for the Israelis: they never seem to miss an opportunity to make it more difficult for Palestinian leaders to seize an opportunity.
The most current example is Israel's decision to announce another 1,600 new housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, a decision which came not only during a high profile visit to Jerusalem by Vice President Joe Biden but also just after the Obama administration's special envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, announced Israelis and Palestinians had agreed to start so-called proximity talks.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu claims he didn't know about the decision announced by his coalition partner, Eli Yishai, the interior minister. True or not, the fact that such an inflammatory decision could be announced by anyone in the Israeli government shows at the very least the lack of control Netanyahu is able to exercise over his coalition partners. Of course it also shows there are members of the Israeli government who could care less about the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
As for the timing of the announcement, it was left to Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog to admit the obvious: "This should not have happened during a visit of the U.S. vice president … and now we have to express our apologies for this serious blunder." Because Netanyahu and his government consider all of Jerusalem to be Israel's eternal capital, the notion of even temporarily halting construction in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians envision as their capital of a future state called Palestine, is a non-starter.
This is a long standing Israeli position, notwithstanding the agreement that Jerusalem is a final status issue to be negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis make their decisions based on their view that whatever happens in Jerusalem - East or West - is of no concern to the Palestinians, or the Americans. Except for the fact it was the American vice president who was in country at the time, the idea of Israelis making housing-related announcements when senior U.S. officials come to town is nothing new. It happened often during the administrations of Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.
Where does this leave the Mitchell negotiations? In the first instance, no one should get too excited about a positive outcome. Everyone expects things to proceed at a very slow pace. Mitchell is expected to hold separate meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah early next week. One Israeli diplomatic source said the talks will begin at lower, so-called expert levels, and there was no expectation of a meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas anytime soon.
Rob Malley, a former National Security Council official who worked with President Clinton's peace team, said, "It magnifies the situation but doesn't really alter it." That is to say neither of the parties is very excited about these talks, which have come about after a year's worth of spadework by Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"The Palestinians were extremely skeptical, and it has deepened their skepticism and the Israelis were not taking the talks seriously and events have shown that," Malley said in a telephone interview. "It intensifies the dynamics that were well in play beforehand."
About the only good thing one can say a day after hitting this bump in the road to Middle East peace is that no one is calling for a postponement or further delay of the talks. So, with or without the additional 1,600 housing units, here we go, again.
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USA WILL go down before Israel.
ISRAEL knows better than us what to do with our money that is for sure!!!
sigh
Enough already CBS News.
What gives?
It's because those were Muslim countries and unlike Israel, the holy war isn't directed towards them. See the partition of India and the Jihad against the rest of the world for further details.
There is no point to argue with a muslim, they use TAQIYYA, lying to win their point, they think themselves superior, although they are really puppets of a pedophilic, racist (against Jews, just like the Nazis), murdering (conquering the world by the sword), traitor (hudaibia), maniacal sadist (cut the right arm, left leg etc), taking drugs and thinking God talked to him. Passive when he was in the minority, tiranical when he gained followers.
he copied many ideas and saying from the Jews and Christians, then said that because his 'revelations' were newer they were 'real' and the others corrupt; cultish to say the least, a satanic cult to be sure. They believe Jesus didn't really die on the cross, someone else died in his place, the great prophet Jesus will return with their last imam to apologize for creating Christianity and ask forgiveness for lying to the people and that the one true god is allah.
If you will notice, satan is the father of lies, who comes to kill, steal and destroy, that is an excellent example of what is1lam and mus1ims are. So you see, now you know who the GREATER satan is! Don't bother arguing with them, let's deport them to their land of origin, strip citizenship from American mus1ims and send them back to their countries. We do NOT need or want such disruptors of our national tranquility in our mist. They do not BELONG here. They are NOT welcomed here!
Therefore, the only logical and grand solution would be for Jordan and Egypt to include borders of their land in the treaty (since you know palestinians are merely part egyptian and part jordanians-not such thing as a palestian in reality) So the palestinians would have their current land plus Gaza and equivalent small portions of land from Egypt and Jordan- their ancestors. Israel is a country that exists, while Palestine is just an ideology for now. Arabs supporting their own people and leave Israel be. Nowadays no country is returning land from years of history...gone, finito. That is the solution to the conflict.
The Israelis should learn the lesson and recognize the UN boundaries of Israel and let the Palestinians rule their homeland.
The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself...is IGNORED.
There is no peace but genocide by small degrees practiced upon the Palestinians. Israel left Lebanon with the lesson that occupation does not include peace....likewise...GAZA and the West Bank...
JUST LET IT GO...and give away those settlement buildings you allow to be built to the Palestinian State.
Since when did Israel obey any laws but their own?
Now why is the US giving these lawbreakers money?
The US is violating its our own prohibition of giving money to countries or supporting countries that violate International Law.
PROVE ME WRONG.
No, not the usual "you're anti Jewish" dribble and name calling, I mean PROVE that statement is not correct.
If it was anyone else the UN would have sent in troops and shut them down long ago.
Why does Israel get a special pass to steal land from other countries?
Want to trim our deficit?
Stop giving Israel $10 billion a year to oppress and abuse Palestinians and steal their land.
Enough already.
Time to get tough with the spoiled brat Israeli right wingers.