What would Israel and the US know about peace?
Israel's decision to withhold at least $US100 million in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority and fast-track new settlement development had put the final nail in the coffin of the peace process, Palestinian officials said.
While Israel's actions are widely seen as punishment for UNESCO's acceptance of Palestine as a full member on Monday, the Israeli government sees it very differently.
''We are, quite frankly, really p---ed off,'' an Israeli government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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Other recent events had severely strained relations, the official said, including the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's failure to condemn rocket strikes that killed one Israeli this week, his refusal to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and his decision to eschew peace talks and instead go to a UN organisation for recognition.
Late on Tuesday, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ''directed that the construction of apartments in Jerusalem, in the Etzion Bloc and in Maale Adumim, be accelerated''.
''These are thousands of residential units, in areas that will, under any future agreement, remain part of Israel,'' the government statement said.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation Executive Committee, described the development as ''an obituary for the peace process,'' Bloomberg reported.
A senior Palestinian government spokesman, Ghassan Khatib, said the land on which the settlement expansions will be built is in no way confirmed as land that would be Israel's. ''These are occupied territories according to international law and the settlements that are built on them are illegal under international law,'' he said. Dr Khatib said the Palestinian Authority's decision to seek full membership of UNESCO was a ''legal move, done openly and with support from the majority of member countries''.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/palestinian ... z1cb62OXlS
It seems that many of the previous members of Bush administration and corporate directors have their mothers retired in Israel. The kibbutz is also a place to send their children on holiday when they're ready to travel. It's a protected haven for the wealthy and they have everything at their fingertips or if they don't, they only have to ask their sons for it.AiA in Atlanta wrote:American rail against public healthcare but are happy for their tax dollars to flow to Israel to subsidize that country's expensive healthcare system which they probably couldn't afford without help from the USA. Don't understand the American obsession with Israel at all. Some fucking Promised Land. What kind of fucked-up God would choose Israel as a Promised Land? The south of France however ...
They seem to be becoming quite vocal in Sydney as well. St. Ives which is quite an upper middle class area seems to have become a jewish enclave in the last decade or so. They're continually fighting to have an eruv "enclosure" built around parts of the suburb to protect their community. The other residents in St. Ives are fighting back.Neferti~ wrote:Alternatively, you could research Australian Jews http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Jews
The USA has more (influential) Jews than ISRAEL does, I suspect. I presume the American Jews are richer and more vocal than the Israeli ones ........ who knows? The Aussie Jewish community is fairly small but, again, they seem to be very involved, especially in Melbourne.
ORTHODOX Jewish residents were outraged last night after their council rejected an application to construct a religious enclosure around their northern Sydney suburb.
More than 300 people turned up for the heated council meeting last night to hear its verdict on their bid to build an eruv around St Ives.
An eruv is an area within which orthodox Jews are permitted to carry objects such as prams and wheelchairs, even tissues, from private to public property on the Sabbath and other holy days.
The boundary would be constructed as a 20km-long, 6m-high overhead boundary wire - much like telegraph lines.
The Northern Eruv Group - a small group of orthodox Jews - has made numerous applications to have an eruv built since 2006.
Residents submitted hundreds of letters and a petition with more than 1200 signatures objecting to its construction. Locals said the enclosure would create a "ghetto of Jewish people", and the eruv would "pollute the environment".
Councillor Cheryl Szatow said given the level of community objection to the installation of the poles and wires, council needed to "represent the views of the community" and could therefore not support the motion.
St Ives Progress Association spokeswoman Christiane Berlioz, who has been leading the charge against the eruv, said she was pleased by the result, but admitted it was not over yet.
The Northern Eruv Group had already referred the matter to the NSW Land and Environment Court, after the council failed to deliver a verdict within 42 days of a development application being filed.
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