Bibi won!

[ZEE]

OBAMA NEEDS TO BE STOPPED YOU GUISE!!!

[ZEE]

If Obama isn't stoPPed within the next few days then it is hoPeless!

[onejayhawk]

If Obama isn't stoPPed within the next few days then it is hoPeless!

Call that Judge in the Texas District court. He seems to know how.

BTW, are you trying to tell us you're P'ed?

J

[ZEE]

What do you suPPort Israel moar than the U.S. or something?

[Deff]

I guess the encirclement of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem nowadays is even more complete than in 2007 (as since then there surely have been more new settlements founded and illegal settlements declared legal by the israel government)

AFAIU, there haven't been any new settlements founded since 2003, eg.

http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-comment-on-new-settlement-activity.html

[Deff]

Given Congress's role in over sight of executive branch functions (even in areas of foreign policy), why exactly is Congress only hearing about the details of a deal through foreign intelligence services instead of the Administration itself?

So far all the Senators and Representatives (on both parties) I could find discussing this say they haven't received any intelligence. Of course, lack of intelligence may be typical for Congress... )

(For the record, I've seen reports of the following having denied receiving intelligence from Israel: Boehner (R), Corker (R), Kaine(D), Feinstein(D), Graham(R), Burr(R), Hoyer(D), Reid(D), King (I), Nunes (R), Schiff (D) )

[I AM MOBIUS]

AFAIU, there haven't been any new settlements founded since 2003, eg.

http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/2...-activity.html

Big deal. The Israeli settlements have already metastasised throughout their host that they don't need to found new ones (because they have founded so many that they've already taken all the decent spots), but continue expanding the ones they've got at an exponential rate...

You're an Israeli apologist, aren't you?

Everything you ever wanted to know about settlements in occupied Palestine (source B'Tselem - a Jewish organisation)

PS, it says the last one was founded in 2012...

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank and 'East Jerusalem' should be evacuated immediately. End of story.

[I AM MOBIUS]

'Area C', which covers an estimated 60% of the West Bank, is nothing short of a gradual and systematic ethnic cleansing of the land of Palestinians - whilst Israel inexorably colonises more and more of this land with settlers...

People like JM and Kentonio, and other people who support Israel need to finally open their eyes over something that has been happening ever since the state of Israel came into being - and before!

Check out the B'Tselem organisation and their work. It's a Jewish organisation, and yet it suffers ongoing persecution from the Israeli state, as it dares to shed light onto the ugly truth...

B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in February 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.

B'Tselem in Hebrew literally means "in the image of," and is also used as a synonym for human dignity. The word is taken from Genesis 1:27 "And God created humans in his image. In the image of God did He create him." It is in this spirit that the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights."

As an Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem acts primarily to change Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories and ensure that its government, which rules the Occupied Territories, protects the human rights of residents there and complies with its obligations under international law.

B'Tselem is independent and is funded by contributions from foundations in Europe and North America that support human rights activity worldwide, and by private individuals in Israel and abroad.

B'Tselem has attained a prominent place among human rights organizations. In December 1989 it received the Carter-Menil Award for Human Rights. Its reports have gained B'Tselem a reputation for accuracy, and Israeli authorities take them seriously. B'Tselem ensures the reliability of information it publishes by conducting its own fieldwork and research, the results of which are thoroughly cross-checked with relevant documents, official government sources, and information from other sources, among them Israeli, Palestinian, and other human rights organizations.

There can never be any peace while there are Israeli settlements in the West Bank - there can never be any peace while Netanyahu is president...

[Proteus_MST]

...because they have founded so many that they've already taken all the decent spots...

From a further link on the site that was linked by Deff:

http://bbcwatch.org/2014/09/02/bbc-news-report-on-land-and-settlements-again-hampers-audience-understanding/

There is a map about Olmerts peace plan, which included a swap ... land in possession by israel given as compensation for land occupied by the settlements

Spoiler:

According to this map, almost half of the land given as compensation (151 km² out of ~325 m²) would be located in the judaean desert.
This definitely makes one wonder, what this land is worth, compared to the fertile ground that bwas annexed by Israel through the settlements.

I somehow doubt that this patch of judaean desert contains any precious resources that would make up for the relative infertility of the desert Biome.

[I AM MOBIUS]

This is what you're dealing with...

Prior to the establishment of Yamit, the area south of Gaza known as the Rafah salient had been home to Bedouin farmers who "tended almond, peach, olive, and castor-oil trees and patches of wheat. Near the coastline, where groundwater rose almost to the surface, they farmed a strip a few hundred meters wide that yielded richer crops. Herds of sheep and goats added to their livelihood. They were settled tribes; some lived in tents, but more in tin shacks and concrete houses'.^[7]

On January 14, 1972, without explicit instructions by the Israeli government,^[7] Ariel Sharon ordered the expulsion of the Bedouins of the Rafah Plain, about 18 square miles of land in northeast Sinai, together with the razing of their orchards and the blocking of their water wells.^[7] The tribal sheikhs claimed 20,000 people were affected by the expulsion. Israeli army statistics put the number of expelled at 4,950. Those with tents were given a day to remove them. Those in concrete houses were given an extra day to leave, and their homes were reduced to rubble.^[8] Bulldozers, following a map design drawn by Sharon, drove down a swathe extending several dozen metres wide where the Bedouins were encamped, and smashed everything in their way.^[7] The decision to build Yamit was approved by the Israeli government in September 1973. Settling northeastern Sinai was an idea strongly promoted by Moshe Dayan.^[9] The idea was subsequently proposed in a document on Israeli policy in the occupied territories written by Yisrael Galili, drafted to bridge the gap between hardliners and moderates in the Israeli Labour Party.^[10] According to one Israeli kibbutznik who visited the area immediately after the expulsion:

"A group of members from kibbutzim in the region, including me, started to investigate. We went out and toured the area, and were stunned by the dimensions of the wreckage, and by the number of persons who were expelled. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the government denied the facts that we presented, and claimed that they had merely evacuated a few nomads from state lands onto which the nomads had recently encroached."^[4]

The expulsion was not mentioned in the Israeli press. A month later, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross met and raised the issue with Dayan's viceroy in the territories, Shlomo Gazit, who knew nothing of it. The IDF chief of staff David Elazar, on being informed, flew over the area by helicopter to see for himself and subsequently appointed a commission to investigate what Ariel Sharon had done.^[11]

The subsequent inquiry revealed that the expulsion of the Bedouins had occurred under Dayan's personal initiative and without government authorization. Golda Meir's government implemented the pre-prepared plan for settlements on this Bedouin territory. According to one source, it was this official decision to establish a large Israeli city at Yamit which, for Anwar Sadat and senior Egyptian officials, "was the straw that broke the camel's back", eventuating in the loss of hopes for a peace agreement and the onset of the Yom Kippur War.^[4]

Avi Shlaim argues however that the Arab decision to go to war preceded the Galilee Document's publication. Nonetheless, Dayan made public remarks about his intention to build a deep-water port at Yamit, cutting Egypt off from the Gaza Strip and Sadat is on record as saying: "Every word spoken about Yamit is a knife pointing at me personally and at my self-respect."^[12]

Local kibbutzniks were outraged by the destruction and, on consultation with the tribal chief, Suleiman Hussein Uda Abu Hilo, arranged for a human rights lawyer to appeal on their behalf.^[7] Some kibbutzniks, among them Oded Lif****z, and Latif Dori, were also activists in the left-wing Mapam party and ran Rafiah tours in order to show Israelis the destruction that had taken place, and to bring to public attention the fact that the image of the Bedouin as nomads was inexact, and that their orchards were being bulldozed.^[13] In July 1972, nine Bedouin sheikhs from the area petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel in order to obtain an order permitting them to return to their homes. Their case was presented by a Mapam man, Haim Holzman, who argued that the evacuation had no legal or military rationale, and violated the Geneva Convention. Ariel Sharon was ordered by the court to show cause for the expulsion. General Israel Tal gave a deposition arguing that the Rafiah Plain area had been used by terrorists, who had attacked Israelis, as a shelter. A buffer zone, involving "Jewish settlement and presence" between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, was required for security reasons. Holzmann replied, arguing that Tal's own maps showed terrorist attacks had been in decline, and the incidents enumerated lay outside the zone where the expulsion had taken place. Holzmann died of a heart attack before his summation, later given by his law partner, could be delivered.^[14] While the case was still pending, Dayan secretly asked Tel Aviv architects Yehuda Drexler and Ze'ev Drukman to draw up a blueprint for the projected port town of Yamit. The design brochure they produced was then sequestered by the IDF to ensure that the material would not come to the court's attention.^[7]

Dayan envisaged a metropolis whose population would be expanded to a quarter of a million people by the year 2000. His plan was shelved because its cost would have had serious consequences for Israel's poor.^[15] The first residents arrived in August 1975 and the population quickly expanded. Two settlement blocs surrounded it: to the east lay Pri'el, Talme Yosef, Netiv, Ha-Asara, Ugda, Nir Avraham, Prigan, Sadot, Diqua, and the block centre Avshalom, while south of Yamit, settlements were made at Atzmona, Tarsag and Ne'ot Sinai.^[16][17] Most of the population was composed of secular Israelis who were attracted to the pristine settings near the Mediterranean and the low cost of housing. The settlement was positioned about half a kilometer away from the shore, adjacent to Bedouins who lived nearby along the shoreline itself.

You think things have changed nowadays...!?

[Jon Miller]

But that isn't genocide.

JM

[kentonio]

No, it's ethnic cleansing.

[I AM MOBIUS]

But that isn't genocide.

JM

Who mentioned genocide?

Are you saying you're fine with ethnic cleansing?

[I AM MOBIUS]

But that isn't genocide.

JM

THIS is genocide!

[I AM MOBIUS]

Sabra and Shatila Massacres - watch it!