Settlement Expansion

Nodin

Construction has begun on approximately 60 new homes in a Jewish settlement in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli campaign group Peace Now says. The work, in East Talpiot settlement, is aimed at creating a belt around East Jerusalem that would sever it from the rest of the West Bank, the group says.
Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.

Link

This would be a good opportunity for Obama to make a clean break with previous regimes in regard to US relations with Israel. A public condemnation and a private threat to cut aid and finances, perhaps. I am not, however, optimistic.

Serenity Now!

There'll never be a "clean break".
The US even under Bush sr have regularly objected to expansions in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Even under Reagan. The emphasis will be on the proposed Two-State solution. Netanyahu's govt won't last the year according to many observers and pundits given Israel's own deep divides within so this Two-State solution will be iced while they're in power and all other efforts aimed at Israeli-Syrian compliance and/or keeping Iran out of the picture.
You won't see any hardline actions taken by anyone.

oscarBravo

Advance notice: let's keep this one on-topic. If it spirals off into the usual wagon circling, it will be closed promptly.

sink

I don't seem Obama (or any American President) taking any overt steps to condemn illegal settlements in his first term. If he gets elected for a second term he might be more willing to risk a political backlash from the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington.

wes

I agree with the OP. I doubt anything will be done to stop colonial expansion in the occuiped Palestine.

**EDIT**
Oh and there was an article in the Independent about expansion in the West Bank as well:

Israel's secret plan for West Bank expansion

Serenity Now!

sink wrote: »

I don't seem Obama (or any American President) taking any overt steps to condone illegal settlements in his first term. If he gets elected for a second term he might be more willing to risk a political backlash from the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington.

Well it has been said "Your first term is spent undoing the previous administration's actions and your second is spent getting the nest ready for the next candidate"

Given Obama's previously voiced opinions on the region and his administration's current movements on the matter, don't expect too much while Netanyahu is in the seat and just give up if that Galicianer foreign minister ever takes over.

brianthebard

Of course this will be forgotten about when the next Hamas strike occurs in retaliation.

Serenity Now!

brianthebard wrote: »

Of course this will be forgotten about when the next Hamas strike occurs in retaliation.

They're still firing rockets and mortar shells over the border so lets not pretend Hamas have actually stopped, eh?
As with the expansion of settlements, the media sometimes lets this go too.

Nodin

sink wrote: »

I don't seem Obama (or any American President) taking any overt steps to condemn illegal settlements in his first term. If he gets elected for a second term he might be more willing to risk a political backlash from the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington.

Unfortunately true, depressing as it might be. At the absolute optimisitic most we might see some private murmurs of disapproval, which will have the exact same effect as any made on this thread.....

dlofnep

Obama needs to really make a stand, because Israel shows no sign of stopping. I would like to believe he wants to condemn them, but the Zionist lobbyists in Washington might put pressure on him to keep it hush hush.

wes

An interesting opinion peace in the Christian Science Monitor yesterday, concering colonial expansion:

No more make-believe in the Middle East

Bibi's policies may be misguided, but at least he doesn't pretend to be a peacemaker. Such intellectual honesty could prove salutary.

By Norman H. Olsen

from the April 27, 2009 edition

Cherryfield, Maine - Let's not be so hard on Bibi.

The squealing on the Israeli and American left is making Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu out to be a minority radical, a warmonger among the majority progressives who want a just peace with the Palestinians.

In reality, the bad news – and the good – is that Mr. Netanyahu doesn't pretend to be a peacemaker.

Let's look at the record.

Settlement construction, including the massive developments encircling Jerusalem, has continued for four decades. All of Bibi's predecessors – even the "doves" – never once slowed settlement construction, despite their repeated assurances. Throughout, despite intensive US monitoring and reporting on growth, the US has always pretended to believe them.

In the early 1990s, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the US that settlement sites such as Har Homa were merely in the planning stages. When site work began, he claimed that it was only preparatory work with no approval for construction. When ministry approvals for construction were given, he and his successors claimed that they would prevent construction. Today Har Homa stands as one of the many monuments to the success of deny, deny, deny.

The latest and final major link in the chain of Jerusalem-encircling settlements, known as E1, has followed exactly the same progression. E1 is important, because if it is allowed to become a town, it will effectively split the West Bank in two, ending hopes for a two-state solution. US observers, myself included, reported during the past six years the clear evidence of site preparation, only to be told by the highest levels of the Israeli government that roadbeds, drainage systems, terracing, and other clearly observable major works were "erosion control." Again, the US pretended to believe the official spin.

Click here for the full article

I think it illistrates that the expansion of the colonies is something that pretty much every Israeli government under the sun has done and that the only change with the latest government is that they are being honest about what there doing. So even with a change in government in Israel, it is unlikely things would change in the colonial expansion department.

jonsnow

wes wrote: »

An interesting opinion peace in the Christian Science Monitor yesterday, concering colonial expansion:



I think it illistrates that the expansion of the colonies is something that pretty much every Israeli government under the sun has done and that the only change with the latest government is that they are being honest about what there doing. So even with a change in government in Israel, it is unlikely things would change in the colonial expansion department.

Great article wes