Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the building of 300 new homes in the West Bank, defying U.S. calls for a halt to settlement growth.This reaction isn't too surprising, simply because no one has ever stood up to Israel on settlement building/anything they do. But now that Israel's made their intentions clear, will Obama take his stance on settlements to the level and break out the foreign policy sticks? And by foreign policy sticks, I mean casually mentioning that we fund the military that allows you to build houses on other peoples' land.
Activists for Bimkom association, which works for justice and human rights in planning and knows a thing or two about the situation in the territories, have discovered that Barak recently authorized the Civil Administration to submit a plan for the construction of 300 housing units in the unauthorized outpost of Givat Habrecha, near the community of Talmon.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pressed Israel to halt settlement activity as part of a bid to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians
Friday, June 26, 2009
Israel Being Israel
The Israeli Government seems to be firmly committed to the foreign policy that's led them to such a peaceful existence over the last 40 years:
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It's about time we started using the stick rather than the carrot with our uncooperative ally. What if we sold them one less bomber for every new house they built in the West Bank? That would be quite an appropriate, if modest way to get their attention.
ReplyDeletethat wouldn't work. then we'd be selling less bombers and the bomber building industry would slowly collapse.
ReplyDeletei think this may be a lost cause. trying to get jews to stop settling in new places is like trying to get polar bears to stop drowning. its not a question of reason, its just in their genes to do it.