Fictions on the ground
There are about 120 official Israeli settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank. In addition, there are “unofficial” settlements whose number is estimated variously from 80 to 100. Under international law, there is no difference between these two categories; both are contraventions of Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly prohibits the annexation of land consequent to the use of force, a principle re-stated in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter.
Thus the distinction so often made in Israeli pronouncements between “authorized” and “unauthorized” settlements is specious — all are illegal, whether or not they have been officially approved and whether or not their expansion has been “frozen” or continues apace. (It is a matter of note that Israel’s new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, belongs to the West Bank settlement of Nokdim, established in 1982 and illegally expanded since.)
The blatant cynicism of the present Israeli government should not blind us to the responsibility of its more respectable-looking predecessors.
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"Alternatively, the president could break with two decades of American compliance, acknowledge publicly that the emperor is indeed naked, dismiss Mr. Netanyahu for the cynic he is and remind Israelis that all their settlements are hostage to American goodwill. He could also remind Israelis that the illegal communities have nothing to do with Israel’s defense, much less its founding ideals of agrarian self-sufficiency and Jewish autonomy. They are nothing but a colonial takeover that the United States has no business subsidizing."
ReplyDeleteThe president will not do shit, and than all of these individuals like Judt and Avnery et al. will run around exclamining - "oh my oh my, we did not expect this, this is so terrible, blah, blah, blah..." They will woop and yell like the three stooges, and than run into each other and fall down. What a crock
ReplyDeleteThe president will not do shit, and than all of these individuals like Judt and Avnery et al. will run around exclamining - "oh my oh my, we did not expect this, this is so terrible, blah, blah, blah..." They will whoop and yell like the three stooges, and than run into each other and fall down. What a crock
ReplyDeleteDon't be such a cynic, v. Rememeber what Emily Dickinson wrote:
ReplyDelete<div>Hope </div>
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
I can just hear you gnashing oyur teeth, v! ;)
Don't be such a cynic, v. Remember what Emily Dickinson wrote:
ReplyDeleteHope
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
I can just hear you gnashing your teeth, v! ;)
Don't be such a cynic, v. Remember what Emily Dickinson wrote:
ReplyDeleteHope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Ha! I can just hear you gnashing your teeth! ;)