The defiant rebuff of the Congressional bill comes in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding Menachem Zivotofsky that rebuffed Congressional attempts to force the administration to record “Israel” next to his city of birth “Jerusalem.” The State Department statement says, in effect, that a bill on trade authority cannot force the administration to change its longstanding policy towards Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. And just as the Zivotofsky decision weakened Israel’s hold on Jerusalem, the boycott decision only delegitimizes the settlements more than ever before.

Thus, the effort to strengthen the settlements, supported by AIPAC and other mainstream and right-wing groups and opposed by J-Street and organizations on the left, actually ends up weakening them. The attempt to blot out the differences between a boycott of Israel and of the territories actually highlights them. The boycott of settlements, in effect, has now been officially stamped “kosher” by the State Department.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.663831

Congress already took care of it for him. There will be no US government boycott of anything in Israel or the settlements so this statement is totally toothless.

sorry Congress doesn't dictate foreign policy

and congress most certainly DOES take care of that and while you continue to ignore it, the vast majority of Americans STILL support Israel and will never take the Palestinian side - even when they think Israel goes too far. And I have no idea what birth certificate situation you're talking about. Your delusion about Americans being on your side only hurts you in that it, in no way, reflects the reality.

The defiant rebuff of the Congressional bill comes in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding Menachem Zivotofsky that rebuffed Congressional attempts to force the administration to record “Israel” next to his city of birth “Jerusalem.” The State Department statement says, in effect, that a bill on trade authority cannot force the administration to change its longstanding policy towards Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. And just as the Zivotofsky decision weakened Israel’s hold on Jerusalem, the boycott decision only delegitimizes the settlements more than ever before.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=107904

what will Congress do exactly how will it over ride the State Departments explicitly stated policy?

will it defund the State Department over Israeli settlements? really the rest of your post addresses exactly zero of what was said in my comment, I have no delusions about Americans but I also trust the State Deparments policies in this and they have presidence here

and smile at the thought this supreme court decision weakens Israel's hold on Jerusalem. Let me ask you something - can you remember the last time - really any time - that the State Department was able to overrule Congress in matters of foreign policy - especially when it comes to finances? I admire your tenacity if not your hold on reality.

odd that you'd seem so insistent that Republican controlled House and Senate (Congress) will be able to over rule a Democratic POTUS and State department

That's who controls foreign policy. Has even one elected US official brought forward a bill to:

stop, hold up or even lessen aid to Israel?

stop weapons (including Iron Dome) from being sent without qualification?

The State Department can whine all it wants about whatever it wants - they quite simply have no control and the President has not even come forward to suggest either of the two things that I used above. The settlement issue in terms of BDS in the US is irrelevant. Most US citizens aren't going to look at labels to see where in Israel stuff is made. It's like those who only buy "made in the U.S.A" products. A really lovely idea and some people are passionate about it, but has it lessened our imports even one dollar? The answer is no.

that's why we have this little thingy called "separation of powers" , the State Department runs on around 1% of the budget, money isn't going to do much here

by European entities as part of trade agreements.

But, the State Department essentially said "we will do that for goods made in Israel, but not for the occupied territories, since those are not part of Israel."

....they don't enforce the law.

Enforcing the law will take place in the courts & state level where boycotts of settlements won't be okay. This is now a law and at the state level, courts cannot just annul laws that the POTUS signed onto. Besides, the 1970 anti-boycott acts and this FTA law apply to the settlements as well as Israel proper.

J-Street knows this. That's why they were against the bill before it became law (worried about BDS conflating settlements with Israel). J-Street is for boycotting settlements. They're not going to do cartwheels due to this message from the State Dept.

In plain words, this bill is still bad for BDS'ers, as well as those wanting to boycott settlements.

and courts you mean like the birth certificate issue ya bring it on all the way to the SCOTUS

states, in fact states mandating that businesses must cooperate with the settlement enterprise may well find themselves being sued

that people here don't realize who actually runs the money and still think the majority of Americans agree with them - ALL evidence to the contrary. That delusion is just one of the many reasons the Palestinians don't have a state yet. Always good to see you, Shira.

they can not do much else because they do have authority over foreign policy

the State Department - what a laughable concept. The State Department has no real power (and they shouldn't as they are not elected). One of these days you're going to have to accept that ONLY Congress holds the purse strings and I think they've made their position - both Democrats and Republicans - on this issue pretty clear. And really, thinking the state department has ANY power over foreign policy is laughable.