I used to be a lawyer and I’m going to break one of the cardinal rules; never to speak evil of Israel…
The simple fact is that Israel can never, ever stand on its own and why we continue to support Israel is often beyond my ken. The Obama “administration's decision to publicly condemn Israel for its announcement of new Jewish housing in east Jerusalem” is being sharply criticized. If you ask me, the condemnation wasn’t nearly strong enough.
"Let's cut the family fighting, the family feud," Lieberman said. "It's unnecessary; it's destructive of our shared national interest.
No, Joe, what’s damned destructive is Israel’s repeated insistence to repeatedly violate every agreement it has ever entered into with ANYONE. This is no “family fight” even if Israeal wants to claim to be the elder statesman while acting like the worst of recalcitrant teens!
"It's hard to see how spending a weekend condemning Israel for a zoning decision in its capital city amounts to a positive step towards peace," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. He complained that the administration was attacking a "staunch ally and friend" when it should be focusing on the threat posed by Iran's nuclear problem.
This isn’t a simple “zoning decision” and SHAME on Sam for characterizing it as that. It is another encroachment into an area Israel should keep its paws off. It is Israel again stirring the pot. Israel does not want and has never wanted peace enough to make any serious attempt and that’s partly because we keep bailing their butts out of trouble.
The State Department on Monday said…, while repeating elements of the criticism, stressed that the U.S. commitment to Israel's security remains "unshakable." But spokesman P.J. Crowley also said a lot is riding on whether Israel agrees to take steps suggested by Clinton to underscore its commitment to the peace process and strong relations with America.
Well, GOOD, and I hope they are serious about it; long past time for us to tell Israel to GROW UP and maybe, just maybe, our commitment should become shakable - or at least tied to some specific requirements. If Israel needs ongoing, perpetual support and defense, then it needs to be cooperative. Otherwise, let’s get the hell out of there and they can do as they please and get squashed like bugs and just as they’ve been tempting their neighbors to do for over half a century. Israel was basically a straight up gift to them and now it’s time for them to earn it or lose it.
My mother always said that, if I didn’t like her rules, I could get a job and get my own place. Israel has it’s own place already so maybe it should start supporting itself if it doesn’t want held to our rules.
The U.S. colonizing and nation building days need to come to an end. We’ve already seen that we don’t even do it as well as Great Britain did in its heyday at colonizing. Let the colonies and territories go if they don’t willingly comply with our rules (and we should be making more of those). They need to stand or fall on their own; enter treaties with us for support if needed and so we can enforce those treaties or withdraw support when they break the rules. If our “staunch friends and allies” won’t live up to their end of treaties, then yank back our support and funding instantaneously.
Our lawmakers need to be cleaning up their own mess right HERE instead of constantly trying to fix other countries. Time for some tough love all around! I want MY representatives to get out their damned mirrors for starters; stop passing laws they haven't read; stop passing stupid poorly written laws, stop passing laws that are so poorly written that they just beg for lawsuits; stop passing UNNECESSARY laws; stop passing UNCONSTITUTIONAL laws; START holding those under them responsible and do it all RIGHT NOW!
This is one of the days when I think of asking homeless people to run for office. When I've done that in the past, several have declined it as too much responsibility. That's what I want, someone in office who understands it is a BIG responsibility rather than thinking it's a treasure chest and power trip. Ah, for the days when a man in a wheelchair could be elected; when being in office was work rather than a photo op...
Everybody put on your own oxygen mask and get yourself and your own together before mounting those magical flying steeds and riding off through the air to rescue everyone else while leaving your own behind on the plane to perish in the crash that might have happened anyway but is now surely to happen because you opened the hatch to ride off on those steeds!
What do we get from Israel other than a pain in the backside? And don’t tell me about “holy” or “sacred” ground because I simply will not believe that any higher power would approve of centuries of fighting and dying over real estate. There are darned good reasons why all the faiths have ways of consecrating new land and one of them is so that no one ever has to die over simple dirt! Some days I think that particular piece of real estate should be poisoned in a way that would make it unlivable for the rest of eternity; problem solved!!! At a minimum, stop trying to cut this baby in half as that only gets everyone half a corpse and no one who really cared about the baby is going to be happy with that result.
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Addendum: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday settlement building in east Jerusalem would continue... "Construction will continue in Jerusalem as this has been the case over the past 42 years," Netanyahu told members of his Likud party... Israel occupied mainly Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community... go-ahead for 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers..." And Israel intentionally announced it during VP Biden's visit. Knew it, just knew it!
"Senior US officials including Biden and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have slammed both the new construction and the announcement's timing as insulting and damaging to peace efforts.... Also on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Israel's move 'endangered and undermined the tentative agreement to begin proximity talks.' "
Well, of course it does. Israel doesn't want peace, it wants absolute control and would commit outright genocide of non-Jews in the area if it thought it could get away with it. Non-Jews don't get to vote even if they are citizens of Israel. I really, truly hate thinking that of Israel but the abused and tormented often become the abusers, the tormentors, if someone doesn't stop them. Israel needs to be stopped.
"In an effort to ingratiate our country with the Arab world, this administration has shown a troubling eagerness to undercut our allies and friends," said House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives.
Oh, no Cantor, read some history that was written by more objective historians. Israel only exists because it took what didn't belong to it by methods that today would be called terrorism. Israel has never come to the court with clean hands but, indeed, with blood dripping in its trail. This isn't about us ingratiating ourselves to the Arab world but about demanding that an Ally live up to its promises; stop being a lying FRAUD.
My family is from Scotland, England, Germany, and the US before it was such. I do not have a dog in this fight. I do have many Jewish friends who disagree with Israel and they need to start speaking out for what's right publicly because Israel will not be convinced behind Synagogue walls.
Israel isn't a recalcitrant teen, it's a nasty, naughty child in need of a trip to the woodshed!!!