Israel says will stick with settlement plan despite European pressure

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Israel rejected concerted criticism from Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their capitals to hear appeals for Netanyahu to reverse course and deep disapproval of the plan to erect 3,000 more homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

An official in Netanyahu's office said Israel would not bend. "Israel will continue to stand by its vital interests, even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision that was made," the official said.

>

Such projects, on land Israel captured in a 1967 war, have routinely drawn world condemnation. Approximately 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the two areas.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/03/uk-palestinians-israel-ambassadors-idUKBRE8B207420121203

---

Israel obviously didn't learned a lesson back in 2009.

Israeli exports hit by European boycotts after attacks on Gaza. Friday 3 April 2009 16.16 BST

Israeli companies are feeling the impact of boycott moves in Europe, according to surveys, amid growing concern within the Israeli business sector over organised campaigns following the recent attack on Gaza.

Last week, the Israel Manufacturers Association reported that 21% of 90 local exporters who were questioned had felt a drop in demand due to boycotts, mostly from the UK and Scandinavian countries. Last month, a report from the Israel Export Institute reported that 10% of 400 polled exporters received order cancellation notices this year, because of Israel's assault on Gaza.

"There is no doubt that a red light has been switched on," Dan Katrivas, head of the foreign trade department at the Israel Manufacturers Association, told Maariv newspaper this week. "We are closely following what's happening with exporters who are running into problems with boycotts." He added that in Britain there exists "a special problem regarding the export of agricultural produce from Israel".

The problem, said Katrivas, is in part the discussion in the UK over how to label goods that come from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Last week British government officials met with food industry representatives to discuss the issue.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/03/israel-gaza-attacks-boycotts-food-industry

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Well, hell. At least someone's doing it.

My impression is that Israel has been expanding by drips and drabs here and there as things are bulldozed, and 'unclaimed land' seized, but I haven't seen a report of Israel by 'acerage' or anything like that over the years. Does anyone have a handy dandy data source?

[PerceptionManagement]

17. Professor Juan Cole at Informed Comment has the acrage.

Opinion against Apartheid Zionist Israel is really gaining critical mass. They can't trade security for land grabs much longer.

[Fozzledick]

2. You obviously haven't learned a lesson.

Making unilateral concessions to the Palestinians only brings more terrorist attacks and more arrogant demands for more unilateral concessions.

The Palestinians have no grounds to complain as long as they refuse to negotiate in good faith. They could stop this any time they want to, but they've chosen to deliberately provoke it instead.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

3. I hope this is sarcasm.

If not shame on you.

[Fozzledick]

4. Sometimes the plainest truths get the most outraged reactions

from those who are vested in ignoring them.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

6. I'm not ignoring anything.

Except for you. Continue to support far right militaristic assholes in Israel while pretending to be a "progressive" in the United States.

I don't deal with anti-semites or anti-arab racists. goodbye.

[Fozzledick]

9. Thanks for proving my point.

[tama]

13. plainest truth?

If that was expressed about your opinions in plainest terms, you would not be vested in ignoring that?

[Violet_Crumble]

29. In this case, yr 'truth' is absolutely incorrect...

Painting the Palestinians as evil terrorists, while the RW Israeli govt is just a fun loving bunch of total innocents subject to unprovoked attacks from those hateful Arabs is fantasy stuff that some Americans try to trot out as some sort of 'truth'. Gone is any mention of occupation or brutal attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers in places like Hebron, because to an avid 'supporter' that stuff really isn't important at all. Also gone is any semblence of truth when it comes to the history of the conflict or what attempts at negotiations have been like. You falsely claimed the Palestinians have refused to negotiate in good faith. In what alternate reality is that? They've been willing to negotiate many times in the past when Israeli flat out refused, but now they put conditions on negotiating which are very fair, like wanting Israel to stop its settlement building, it's them who's evil for refusing to negotiate?

And what 'arrogant demands' is it you think the Palestinians are making? A request that they be recognised as a state? Or wanting Israel to stop its settlement construction in the West Bank? Neither of those things are the slightest bit arrogant, so surely it must be something else...

Also, are you a supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank? It's just I can't ever recall a post from you at DU where you've uttered any criticism of the Israeli govt for its policies when it comes to settlement expansion.

[geek tragedy]

5. Israel opposes an actual Palestinian state.

What they've endorsed is a series of Bantustans that they could label a state to avoid pariah status.

Now they've abandoned that fig leaf.

[Fozzledick]

8. No, they're just not willing to surrender their capital

to an aggressor that's already lost the war they started but refuses to cease hostilities.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

10. You still don't get it.

This isn't about Hamas its in response to the West Bank and Palestinian Authority. Since when is the Palestinian Authority the "aggressor"? Or are they all just evil aggressive brown people to you?

[Fozzledick]

12. Please stop projecting your own bigotry on to me.

It's both false and offensive.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

14. I'm not projecting anything.

Your own lack of understanding of the situation and use of far right demagoguery gives you away. If you support Hamas or the far right who controls Israel you're not a progressive, period.

[Douglas Carpenter]

30. you are bigot and racist and you would have been banned a long, long, time ago if your bigotry was

not directed against the Palestinians or an Arab or primarily Muslim people and you know that. Everyone knows that!

[Comrade Grumpy]

34. +1

[John2]

21. Please proceed

as indicated Fozzle? The original mandate before the U.S. turned a blind eye was for Jerusalem to be an International city, was it not? So you maintain the Palestinians are the original aggressors? Explain this position more? I'm all ears.

[Fozzledick]

24. I think you need to catch up on your homework.

Beginning with the original unprovoked 1948 attack on Israel which the Palestinians collaborated in.

Seriously though, given the stateless status of Jerusalem in the original U.N. proposal, how is the liberation of East Jerusalem from Jordanian occupation in 1967 legally any different from the reclamation of the Western part of the city in 1948?

[cpwm17]

25. It's nice of you to ignore the Zionists' ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinians

Last edited Mon Dec 3, 2012, 08:44 PM - Edit history (2)

which occurred in 1947 and 1948, well before the Arab neighbors entered the fray. The fighting mostly took place on the land that was supposed to remain with the Palestinians, which the Zionists were trying to take for themselves.

[azurnoir]

27. No maybe we should begin with Israel's assassinating the UN negotiator

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (in Swedish: Greve af Wisborg; 2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 450 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt released on 14 April 1945.[1][2][3] In 1945, he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected.

After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by the militant Zionist group Lehi while pursuing his official duties. The decision to assassinate him had been taken by Natan Yellin-Mor, Yisrael Eldad and Yitzhak Shamir, who was later to become Prime Minister of Israel.

This page was last modified on 15 November 2012 at 07:13.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folke_Bernadotte

now let's talk about terrorism shall we?

[FarrenH]

28. If you think it started in 1948 you clearly have some homework of your own to do n/t

[Ken Burch]

41. The capital of Israel is in West Jerusalem.

They don't have to have the Arab eastern part of the city.

There's no way that keeping Jerusalem totally Israeli is more important than ending the war.

[Ash_F]

11. Not bulldozing someone's house is a massive "concession".

Might as well give the Palestinians the Rhineland while we're at it.

You are using rightwingnut language. These are crimes against liberty.

[iandhr]

15. I am generally very supportive of Israel.

Last edited Wed Dec 5, 2012, 11:03 AM - Edit history (1)

I had no problem with them striking Hamas.

On these plans for new settlements however. I think the Palestinians complaints are legitimate.


The PLO no longer calls for the destruction of Israel. There upgrade at the UN is based on past peace negotiations brokered by the United States during the Clinton and Bush years.


The current plan to build in the E1 area would likely split Ramallah and Bethlehem from East Jerusalem making it almost impossible to form a contiguous Palestinian state. Bibi is not nor has he ever been interested in the peace process.

[Ken Burch]

40. Thank you for that post.

It will take people like yourself to make this situation change.

[cstanleytech]

16. No, its not just the Palestinians.

They are both caught up in a cycle of recrimination and blame and it will continue until they grow up and decide to actually resolve their problems peacefully.

[John2]

20. Well,

the more and more, that I become enlightened about the History of U.S. involvement with Israel in the Middle East, leads me more to fall in line with the Palestinian grievances, unlike your assertions. Lets go back to the very beginning, before the U.S. even got involved in the Middle East, and I think a lot of things can be cleared up.

As I claimed earlier, Palestine was originally, the British responsibility, because of their conquests over the former Ottoman Empire. It turned out to be a hell hole for the British, just like it was with the Romans. After World War II, the U.S. pressured the British, who gladly gave up responsibility to the U.S. The original mandate for Palestine was in the former League of Nations, until after it was relegated to the U.N. after World War II. Now, I'm beginning to understand why the animosity between the Arabs and Israel.

Israel's claim to Palestine, is based on religious claims some 4000 years ago. The Palestinians' claims are based on the Twentieth Century. I have a question, If we recognize such claims, then can the Native Americans have legal claims to the United States over Europeans? I think that is ridiculous of course. The U.S. bias support for Israel is mainly based on similar religious beliefs of Zionists. The British originally forbade immigration of European Jews to Palestine, but was pressured by Harry Truman to allow it. The British also came under attack by Jewish militants whom the British considered terrorists. So your position is calling people who were uprooted from land, they thought was originally theirs, terrorists? I'm willing to hear your explanation,because I have no fight in this, with the exception of American self interests?

[libdem4life]

23. The RWCF have an uneasy theological relationshsip with Jews/Israelis as Apostle Paul of Revelations

authorship, a Jew, tells of his dream of the future. The Bible teaches of the necessity or foregone conclusion of the Battle of Armeggedon.. looking very much like the prophecy of a nuclear meltdown...to bring Jesus to earth to settle the battle. After the victory/anhilation of the ME, (some say the globe) all that will be left are 144,000 Jews, 12,000 per tribe of ancient Israel. They are spared because they convert to Christianity/Jesus who is raptured and comes to rescue them, reign as King of Jerusalem, and will be the start up seed for the next 1,000 years of peace.

This is frightfully real ... the Fundamentalists awaiting Armeggedon/The Rapture/The Christian Messiah/Jewish conversions while attempting to appear to the world they want to avoid it with political peace processes with the "heathen" ... extremely complex theology.

[Bluenorthwest]

31. The Book of Revelation is not authored by Paul

The authorship is credited to the apostle John and is in fact often called 'The Revelation of John'.

[libdem4life]

36. Slip up, to be sure. Thanks

[Ken Burch]

39. And no one is even sure if John is actually the person who wrote it.

n/t.

[on point]

7. I guess Israel wants to pay Reparations to Palestine via Housing when forced to give back the land..

[geek tragedy]

18. "give back the land" ha.

Israel's goal is dominion, not peace.

[dawn frenzy adams]

19. Israel says will stick with settlement

Who's surprised, here?

[cpwm17]

26. Well, considering who we have as SOS, there's no way Israel will change its ways

Warning – the following video may cause uncontrolled vomiting:

Hillary has always been pro-war (except that war Bill had to avoid), pro-Apartheid in Israel, pro-"settlement", and anti-Palestinian rights.

Hillary:

And without peace, the inexorable math of demographics will, one day, force Israelis to choose between preserving their democracy and remaining a Jewish homeland.

...there aren’t political parties (in Arab countries) that create a Tzipi Livni or an Ehud Olmert or Avigdor Lieberman.

[Comrade Grumpy]

33. A foul stench permeates this thread.

[Fozzledick]

35. Indeed!

But I suspect your sympathies lie with those who dealt it.

Meta discussion here, OP by the worst offender: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1240177952

[Violet_Crumble]

37. It's gone now! n/t

[Ken Burch]

38. Benjamin Netanyahu is now an enemy of Israel.

He cares nothing about peace. He cares nothing about the safety of his country or the survival of its inhabitants. All this hateful, twisted man cares about is being able to say the two most useless words on the planet "I won!"

Everything and everyone else can be sacrificed in the name of that, as people like that see it.

And there's a word for such people...

SOCIOPATH