Comments on: Israel Humiliates Biden, Announces Further Colonization on Eve of US-Brokered Talks

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:48:23 +0000

I am really amazed on how you can write such a honest opinion and not hounded by Israeli lobby. Professor Cole you are brave,indeed.

The writing is clear on the wall but we do not have to courage to read it or acknowledge it. We are paying by American blood for Israeli arrogance and injustice. Why are we still funding these idiots? Why have we not withdrawn our ambassador?

Israel is increasingly isolated. They are in a similar situation like South Africa when apartheid was going on. Sooner or later Israel will just be by itself and no love from the rest of the world. It is time to tell them, enough is enough. It is not difficult for anyone who have any sense of right or wrong to figure out what Israel is doing is morally, legally and politically wrong. Israel go ahead and build that concrete barrier real high, you are going to need it because no one outside it want to be in touch with you or even want to know what is going on inside.

By: randyfritz

randyfritz — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:35:04 +0000

I think a fact you need to emphasize, Professor Cole, is the original Jewish/Palestinian partition map, as you show in one of the panels of the illustration in this post. Few in this country realize the actual lines of the original partition, and believe the "1949-67" map as the original, UN-agreed borders. This is an important difference: in the original partition, both Israelis and Palestinians had access to the sea and one interconnected piece of territory. Notably, also, Jerusalem was an international city–the only status today that could possibly help bring regional peace. I know it's not a "breaking" story, but IS a bit of misinformation widely believed in the US.

By: Sandydunes

Sandydunes — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:18:17 +0000

There are several paths that the US can take to respond to growing Israeli arrogance. Using the massive American financial support is one, but there is also the choice of softening up the American stand regarding Gaza and supporting an end to its blockade. In addition to the humanitarian mandate the US and the civil world have to ease the suffering of Palestinians trapped in Gaza, such a move will send a message to Israel that we will not support your policies unconditionally. The settlement issue is only one on a list of misguided Israeli policies in the occupied territories.

By: Euphoria Gibbons

Euphoria Gibbons — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:14:27 +0000

Assuming a 2-state solution is not completely lost, or perhaps even if it is, what do you think of making Jerusalem a separate district, sort of like DC, that is administered by the UN? Designating it a "holy" site for whatever religions want it, and making it secure (maybe as the capital, like DC) and keeping the holy sites accessible. How crazy is that?

By: super390

super390 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:41:11 +0000

If you want to understand why Likud is so confident that it will maintain an apartheid state in the future, look at this story at talk2action.org, a site that investigates American Christian extremism:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/10/16/152246/04

This is the start of a 3-part series on activities of American theocrats like John Hagee to lay a groundwork in Israeli law for American Protestant extremists to become citizens and thus settlers in the front lines of their beloved Armageddon. They are already financing facilities in the illegal settlements.

This sounds ridiculous, if you believe that Likud has any loyalty to the Hebrew faith at all. But, no, they're politicians. They already let in Russians who pretend to be Jews to shore up the white demographic. Evigdor Lieberman is one of them and he's not religious, yet there is no greater champion of a final solution to the Palestinian problem.

Likud wants to let in our crazies too. That binds Israel to the wingnut GOP as if it were a 51st state. Imagine how Fox News will cover it when a Tennessee settler is killed by a bomb on the West Bank. All this in a time when our theocrats are actively encouraging secession talk, and exploiting white fears of losing their majority in America.

The goal of the theocrats is to weld the US and Israel into one country so as to write the US into the Book of Revelation. They may want it to be a white minority dictatorship, oppressing non-whites here and Arabs over there via a permanent state of war, or they may try to re-create a C.S.A. that can only overcome its poverty by finishing the neocon project in the Middle East.

The Likud just wants to populate Israel with anyone who will vote for them.

By: DJP

DJP — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:28:16 +0000

If Israel doesn't amputate the diseased limb of its settlements, it will infect and destroy the entire body.

By: sherm

sherm — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:07:30 +0000

Maybe the overarching explanation for Israel's behavior is that it is not only a nuclear power, but the only nuclear power in its operational sphere. Why not be arrogant, aggressive, and unyielding if you have the wherewithal to destroy any conceivable enemy, without enduring any significant damage to the home-front?

Maybe someday the US will take an objective look at the tiny nation we've nurtured and cultivated, and swear undying allegiance to any time given the podium. Do we share any values, other than the right to vote? Do we admire a nation that does nothing to get along with its neighbors, other than military intimidation? Do we think that its all right that a very militarily aggressive and domineering country has a nuclear arsenal? Do we admire sectarian states? Does it matter that this recipient of so much of our favor and treasure is nothing more than an oblivious ingrate?

I mean, what's to like?

By: Walking Wounded

Walking Wounded — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:29:58 +0000

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak recently spoke on security challenges, linked below. In it he gives a convincing analysis of why the occupation is not democratic, and one Jordan-Med state (if it were even possible) also returns to 'not jewish', as was the condition after '67 and before massive Russian immigration during the 80's. So faced with those choices, not Jewish and not democratic, he posits the two state solution is a no brainer, and Likud's acceptance of 2-state as a watershed.

The problem with the Barak analysis is that the conservatives and ultra-zionists haven't needed a majority to rule for the past decade, nor do they accept Arab tenancy in Palestine.

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/02/26/HP/A/30176/Israeli+Defense+Minister+Ehud+Barak+on+Security+Challenges.aspx