Time to end the settlement project

by Ghassan Khatib

The recent settler violence in Hebron, which was described by Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, as a pogrom, brought to the attention of Israelis and Palestinians the grave danger that settlements and settlers represent.

But the riots in Hebron were in fact different only in terms of the level of violence. Otherwise they were part of an orchestrated campaign of settler violence that has been in increasing evidence this past year. The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot reported 675 violent incidents by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, mainly against Palestinian citizens, but also against Israeli soldiers.

The large-scale and organized nature of these activities indicates that they are not spontaneous, scattered and individual initiatives but rather the result of a political position that aims at achieving political objectives.

This would not be the first time settlers and settlements are deliberate political pawns, whether for their own aims or those of Israel. Over the years, Israeli governments have used the settler presence in the occupied Palestinian territories at certain times in order to achieve specific political objectives.

Indeed, the settlement project was started as a political strategy with which to indicate Israel's intention to hang on to certain parts of the West Bank. Later, particularly in the mid-1980s and under Likud governments, the settlement project became intentionally arbitrary, an indication that actually Israel intended to hold on to all the occupied West Bank. That's when settlements expanded everywhere.

The recent negotiations and the news emanating about a solution that might differentiate between settlement blocs that Israel wants to annex at the expense of small and scattered settlements, seem to have provoked the increasingly powerful right-wing pro-settler groups in Israel. These groups want to put an enormous price tag on any retreat in the settlement process.

lots more...
http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/pal1.php

Hamas fires 200+ rockets and mortars into israel and they are *resistance*. They target Israel in general....civilians..children...it's all good in the name of *resistance*

Israel responds by taking out the rocket sites and they are guilty of war crimes and genocide if any civilians die?

Just want to be on top of the spin

Hamas fires rockets into Isreal. Isreal responds in an equally violent fashion. It is the same thing that has gone on for decades, and the result is the same--more tension, more war, and less peace.

If both sides are for a solution to the problem, they must do something different. The main problem, I think, is that too many on both sides are not looking for a solution--they wish to keep up the violence and killing.

With no beginning and with no end. Violence breeds violence. It will take both sides renouncing violence for peace to be realized.

leading to an estimated 75% malnourishment rate among over half the inhabitants in Gaza--that is all good and well?

Israel kept the borders open to shipments while be hit by rockets.

What do you want them to do?..Lay down and die?

Blockades of Gaza in no way equals your claim of "keeping borders open to shipments"

Hamas fired 200 rockets and mortars at Israel and I saw no handwringing here about war crimes but when Israel responds hell breaks loose

It was in response to the humanitarian crisis that Israel promoted, even during a truce, that has killed thousands and left many thousands more without food or water

Does ANY country get all their food from one country?

Why is it Egypt won't give supplies? Why is the country being bombed supposed to supply food to the bombers?

Why would they waste their time trying after being turned away?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_mideast
check

Israeli assault on Hamas kills more than 200 (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

check check

:evilfrown:

uhhh

... but nah, it's just the wheels in that lower primate brain of yours trying to spin. :hi:

punk is gone.

It can also apply to my disposition, the vast majority of the time. However, if my bullshit detector goes off, or I'm brutally berated or insulted on these boards with no just cause whatsoever, the fucking gloves come off and I'll say what I damn well please. :hi: