Israeli Settlements and Roadblocks to Peace
Supposedly there is a road map for peace in Israel/Palestine. Right now there appear to be more roadblocks than roads on both sides. But, since Israel controls the entirety of the area militarily they do have some responsibility for pushing along the road to peace. From 1967 to the present one of the biggest stumbling blocks has been the presence of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. Of course, it's not just the settlements that are a problem, but the roads that serve to connect the settlements to Israel proper. These roads criss-cross Palestinian areas, dividing them up into little disconnected cantons, requiring Palestinians to go through a myriad of checkpoints to travel through the West Bank.
When PM Benyamin Netanyahu visited Washington, both Secretary Clinton and President Obama told him that the settlements have to be frozen and the illegal ones dismantled. Well, as soon as the meeting was over he was up on Capitol Hill trying to curry favors from Congress in the hope that he could undermine the President's policies. Now, he says that freezing the settlements is impossible. They have to allow for natural growth. What is natural growth continued expansion on to Palestinian lands. People balk at the use of the word apartheid for this, but what else would you call it. My question to President Obama is: what will you do? It is not in US interests to let this wound fester, and as long as Netanyahu continues on this path the wound will fester in the Middle East, undermining any possible opportunity to rein in Iran and its proxies.
One final word from today -- the same article that speaks of the PM's refusal to stop the settlements, and word that he is sending Ehud Barak to Washington to push Washington into giving in, we hear word of violence in the West Bank. No, it's not Palestinians attacking Jewish settlers, its the other way around. Palestinian works were attacked by stone throwing mobs, and Palestinian agricultural land was burned. That's the kind of news we rarely hear -- not because it doesn't happen, but because its not popular to tell!
Let us pray for peace in the Middle East.
When PM Benyamin Netanyahu visited Washington, both Secretary Clinton and President Obama told him that the settlements have to be frozen and the illegal ones dismantled. Well, as soon as the meeting was over he was up on Capitol Hill trying to curry favors from Congress in the hope that he could undermine the President's policies. Now, he says that freezing the settlements is impossible. They have to allow for natural growth. What is natural growth continued expansion on to Palestinian lands. People balk at the use of the word apartheid for this, but what else would you call it. My question to President Obama is: what will you do? It is not in US interests to let this wound fester, and as long as Netanyahu continues on this path the wound will fester in the Middle East, undermining any possible opportunity to rein in Iran and its proxies.
One final word from today -- the same article that speaks of the PM's refusal to stop the settlements, and word that he is sending Ehud Barak to Washington to push Washington into giving in, we hear word of violence in the West Bank. No, it's not Palestinians attacking Jewish settlers, its the other way around. Palestinian works were attacked by stone throwing mobs, and Palestinian agricultural land was burned. That's the kind of news we rarely hear -- not because it doesn't happen, but because its not popular to tell!
Let us pray for peace in the Middle East.
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