Chomsky on the US’s unwavering support for Israel and “rejectionism” of the two-state solution, effectively on offer for 30 years: That’s not because of the overweening power of the Israel lobby in the US, but because Israel is a strategic and commercial asset which underpins rather than undermines US domination of the Middle East… America’s one-sided role in the Middle East isn’t harming their interests, whatever risks it might bring for anyone else.
IOA Editor: Noam Chomsky has just concluded a speaking tour in the UK and Ireland. For coverage of his tour, see:
Israel’s worst enemies are those who support its policies
Hundreds flock to hear Noam Chomsky in Dublin
Discussion with Workers Solidarity Movement Read more »
Egypt: “Negotiations can start only if settlements are frozen — and this continues to be our demand — or if we receive unequivocal guarantees that a Palestinian state will be erected on 1967 borders, including (Arab east) Jerusalem,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said.
IOA Editor: It is time to move to the ‘next level,’ now that both Mr. Obama and Madam Mouthpiece have spoken: nothing said by either suggests that any meaningful US action is forthcoming. It is time for the Palestinians and the Arab League to consider their next moves on discussions with Israel and the US. Sitting and hoping that the Obama Administration will suddenly ‘discover’ that time is of the essence, is both unrealistic and unwise.
At the same time, every day that passes allows Israel to continue its colonial program – specifically designed to prevent a viable, independent Palestinian state from becoming a reality. If anything can be learned from the past 42 years, it is that Occupation is a normal state of affairs for the ‘only democracy in the Middle East,’ and that there is no reason to assume any of this will change, unless it is stopped by outside intervention. What ‘intervention’ and how to bring it about are, indeed, the key questions. Read more »
November 5, 2009 | Posted in
Diplomacy,
US-Israel |
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The Obama administration is so focused on bringing the state actors — Palestinian, Arab, Israeli — back to the negotiating table that it has missed the signs of a resurgent activism among Palestinians around the world which is beginning to shape a new national movement. Read more »
Abbas’s acceptance of the Egyptian-mediated reconciliation deal with Hamas is only because that deal presents new ways for him to destroy his opponents, writes Azmi Bishara Read more »
The time has come for Obama to summon both sides for serious, continuous negotiations, accompanied by a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders. There could be no clearer expression of the United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and its future as a Jewish and democratic state.
IOA Editor: There could certainly be no clearer expression of US commitment to all peoples in the Middle East, the inherent conflict between a “Jewish” and a “democratic” state notwithstanding. Read more »
The US House of Representatives has rejected as “irredeemably biased” the findings of a UN-sponsored report which says Israel committed war crimes during its military assault on the Gaza Strip… vot[ing] 344 to 36 in favour of a non-binding resolution calling on Barack Obama, the US president, to maintain his opposition to the report. Read more »
Ashrawi noted that this change in attitude towards Israel constitutes a reversal of the promises made by US President Barack Obama who initially stressed the importance of a settlement freeze as necessary to reopen the peace process. Ashrawi’s comments come after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday expressed support the view that a freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank should not be a precondition for renewed negotiations. Read more »
All of a sudden, after 10 months and who knows how many meetings, freezing construction in the settlements is no longer a precondition for negotiations. True, until now the Palestinians were willing to negotiate the end of the occupation while their partner made it worse. That is how we have gone from 109,000 settlers – not including East Jerusalem – when the Oslo Accords were signed 16 years ago to more than 300,000 today. Read more »
In parallel to efforts to reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinians and without hurting their interests, Israel must seek peace with Syria in the context of Security Council Resolution 242 of November 1967: full and secure peace in return for complete withdrawal. Those who do not want such a deal will seek to undermine it using arguments of procedure. Read more »
Indyk: The “all-purpose solution to every problem that has to do with Israel – make peace, and everything will be all right.” Read more »
