Clinton: Israel settlement offer "unprecedented" (Roundup)

Jerusalem - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday called Israeli concessions on construction of settlements in the West Bank 'unprecedented.'

The remarks came after the top US diplomat held meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Clinton also insisted that a total freeze on settlement was not a precondition for peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

'There has never been a precondition,' she said, in a shift from earlier US demands for a settlement freeze. She added that the settlement freeze 'has always been an issue within the negotiations.'

Israel has offered to halt construction in the settlements except for the completion of 3,000 housing units already being built. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject a complete freeze on the settlements. Like previous Israeli governments, he has also rejected to negotiations on the situation in east Jerusalem.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1510590.php/Clinton-Israel-settlement-offer-unprecedented-Roundup

Netanyahu refuses to freeze what amounts to land theft amd refuses to negotiate regarding the ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem.... But... Clinton's fawning over him for it anyway.

Damn. You'd almost think it was Israel giving us billions of dollars of swag, instead of the other way around!

US "Suckered" Again in Israel

By Michelle Campos

In the Israeli cultural lexicon, there is no bigger insult than "freyer." Hebrew for "sucker," it describes anyone who pays too much for anything, stands quietly in line waiting his turn, or generally is too weak to get his own way, on his own terms. When I lived in Jerusalem, a recurring television commercial for baby diapers featured one dry baby triumphantly saying to a wet baby: "I'm no freyer!" Aggressive, blunt Israeli society eats freyers for lunch.

http://www.counterpunch.org/campos0421.html

The Roadmap, agreed to by the Quartet, says the following:

"Phase I (as early as May 2003): End to Palestinian violence; Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze on settlement expansion; Palestinian elections."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_map_for_peace

Hillary = untrustworthy if she is going to lie so blatantly. The US has always supported Israel on preconditions outlined in Phase 1 of the Roadmap. She no longer has any credibility.

America to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan except for the ones already there and the ones enroute

:thumbsup:

heads exploding in the morning. And then the squawks of "they betrayed us!"

lol:nopity:

a self-evident truth.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the U.S stance toward Israeli settlement building to worried Arab allies on Wednesday, saying Washington does not accept the legitimacy of the West Bank enclaves and wants to see their construction halted "forever."

Still, she said an Israeli offer to restrain - but not halt - construction represents "positive movement forward" toward resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Clinton met for an hour with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a hastily arranged stopover in the Egyptian capital to soothe Arab concerns that Washington is backing off demands for an Israeli settlement halt. The fears were sparked on Saturday when Clinton, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at her side in Jerusalem, praised his government's offer as unprecedented.

She has since tried to clarify the remarks, saying that the Israeli offer does not got far enough. Still, she has indicated that the Palestinians should resume negotiations with Israel without a full settlement halt as they demand.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1125812.html