Obama’s Foolish Settlements Ultimatum

U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to confront Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Israeli construction activity in East Jerusalem has been greeted by a hail of praise, especially from people impatient to proceed with peace negotiations with the Palestinians. The belief seems to be that meeting this issue head-on will accelerate progress toward an agreement ending a conflict that has festered for generations. The historical record suggests a different conclusion.

The assumption that a faceoff over construction in Jerusalem will advance negotiations has not been subjected to much scrutiny. But the last two decades show that progress has occurred not when this issue was put first, but when it was finessed and left for the final status negotiations on Jerusalem.

Consider this: If, 17 years ago, U.S. President Bill Clinton or Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat had insisted that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin freeze all settlement construction, including in Jerusalem, before Arafat would sit down with Rabin, there would have been no Oslo agreements. By Rabin's own account, in comments before the Knesset, Israel's parliament, he had to fudge the issue.

"I explained to the president of the United States," he said,"that I wouldn't forbid Jews from building privately in the area of Judea and Samaria ... I am sorry that within united Jerusalem construction is not more massive."

The same year as the famous handshake on the White House lawn, 1993, the Rabin government completed the construction of more than 6,000 units in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of East Jerusalem, out of a total of 13,000 units that were in various stages of completion in areas of the city that had been outside Israeli lines before 1967.

So Arafat did sit down with Rabin, even while Israel's construction in Jerusalem continued. And, on Sept. 13, 1993, the Oslo peace accord was signed -- by the same Mahmoud Abbas who refuses to sit down today. And on October 14, 1994, Rabin, who built homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Altogether, Israel completed 30,000 dwelling units in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem in the four years of Rabin's government. Even the Jan. 9, 1995, announcement of a plan to build 15,000 additional apartments in East Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the 1967 borders (especially Pisgat Zeev, Neve Yaacov, Gilo, and Har Homa) did not stop negotiations, which resulted in the Oslo II accord of September 28, 1995. Israeli construction continued while Abbas and Rabin signed an historic accord.

And what was the American policy toward Rabin's construction of Jewish homes in East Jerusalem? Mild annoyance.

On Jan. 3, 1995, the State Department spokesman said mildly, in response to the Rabin government's announcement of expanded construction, "The parties themselves ... have to judge whether it presents any kind of a problem in their own dialogue. The important thing is to continue to meet." The spokesman added on Jan. 10, 1995, "We admit that settlements are a problem, but we ... enjoin the parties to deal with these issues in their negotiations."

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SIR_MIXXALOT

7:45 PM ET

April 1, 2010

Open letter to FP

Open letter to FP editors:

when a rational person reads the name "Stephen Rosen" he discounts what this zionist spy snake writes.

Good day.

8:08 PM ET

KSM

Steven J. Rosen served for 23 years as foreign-policy director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and was a defendant in the recently dismissed AIPAC case. He is now director of the Washington Project at the Middle East Forum.

Nuff said.

FP: why not a column by Khalid Sheik Mohammed to balance your spin?

MUSTNOTSLEEP14

8:41 PM ET

Agreed

This source is worthless.

REALIST

6:34 PM ET

April 2, 2010

Antisemite in sheeps clothing.

Mr. Rosen is the epitome of circular reasoning. The logical fallacy works as follows:

Antisemitism exists. ---> According to Mr. Rosen, if President Obama or anyone else who is against their policy must be antisemitic ---> Why should we believe that President Obama, etal are antisemitic? ---> Because Mr. Rosen, Neo-cons, AIPAC, several US congressional leaders, some Christian fundamentalists, Illegal Settlers and Zionist, to name a few, have cornered the market on who is and who is not an anti-Semite. ---> Why should I believe in what Mr. Rosen, etal have to say? ---> Because antisemitism is the inspired word of Mr. Rosen, etal!

The truth is far from Mr. Rosen, etal's false reasoning.

First, by definition antisemitism is a person or groups of people that are against Semites. Semites are, by definition, an ethnic group of nomadic tribes that roamed Arabia and Mesopotamia that speak various Semitic languages including Jews, Arabs (STOP THE PRESS!) and several other tribes. Therefore, Jews and Arabs are both Semites because they speak languages originated from a certain region.

Second, The Israeli government has corralled and victimized the Palestinians for far too long in open prisons called the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The atrocities committed by the Israeli governments, fully documented by the UN, and measured against the Palestinians are in par, as some people will tacitly state, or worst than atrocities the Nazis committed against Jews in Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow and Lviv, to name a few.

Who is the REAL anti-Semite in our day and age? The antisemitic policies Mr. Rosen suggests that are being conducted by President Obama, etal whose only desire is to equitably resolve a long standing dispute between two Semitic tribes by promoting a two-state solution with all the rights granted to a sovereign Palestinian nation next to Israel. Or, the antisemitic, apartheid policies conducted by successive Israeli governments since 1948 to systemically and ethnically cleanse their Semitic cousins, the Palestinians.

Finally, the Holocaust is mourned by all of us. Nazi Germany's systematic persecution of Jews during 1939-1945 was a horrible act that should NEVER be repeated by one human being to another human being. Yet successive United States and European government policies, to date, condone successive Israeli governments' persecution of Palestinians since 1948 to the present.

For far too many decades, the guilt of Americans and European for the atrocities committed against Jews have legitimized Israelis current actions and circumvented any attempts to reach an equitable solution. Mr. Rosen's vitriol, antisemitic taint on any person that does not tow line should and is ending. The days of a chalice filled with righteous hubris by Mr. Rosen, etal has come to pass. We the people of this world clearly see, acknowledge and fight antisemitism in all shapes and forms. Nazi Germany was soundly defeated and so shall antisemitic acts of a de jure discrimination policy conducted by an apartheid state such as Israel.

LONG LIVE ANTISEMITISM FOR ALL TRIBES!

JEFF BLANKFORT

12:43 AM ET

April 6, 2010

Oslo was like Munich except...

Steve Rosen speaks of Oslo as if it was anything but a surrender of Palestinian land on the part of Yasser Arafat who had been kept alive for just such a purpose. As even Rosen notes, Rabin kept building settlements in occupied Palestine while Arafat kept his mouth shut.

The most succinct comment on the Oslo agreement was made by Shlomo Gazit, a former head of Israeli intelligence, one of the Israeli negotiators at Oslo, in responding to a Jewish critic in a San Francisco synagogue a few months after it was signed.

As this particular gentleman who, judging from his accent was a German Jew, ran down the aisle shouting, "It's another Munich!," Gazit put his hand up and calmly said that while he did not like to make such comparisons, "if it's Munich, we're the Germans and the Palestinians are the Czechs." So much for Oslo and so much for Steve Rosen.

BOWSER0128

8:38 PM ET

another take

heres another take- bibi should accept the obama settlement freeze to prove that palestinian political realities are the real hurdles to peace and not settlements

http://israel.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2010/04/01/call-the-palestinian-bluff/

DEPETRIS@WORDPRESS.COM

10:32 PM ET

Take responsibility for your actions

Why do Israeli lobbyists in Washington always feel compelled to blame the United States whenever something goes wrong in the Mideast peace process?

The right-wing Israeli Government continues to build in parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem- areas that have never been accepted or legalized by the international community and the United Nations- and the Americans are to blame for the failings of the past year? It's not the United States building these settlements on Palestinian land...it is the Israeli Government that is building in order to deliberately carve up any hopes for an independent Palestinian state.

Here is a quick news flash that some on the Israeli right seem to forget; the world has never recognized Israel's expansion into the West Bank, or in East Jerusalem for that matter. Time and again, U.N. committees have asked the Israelis to scale back their settlement building, and time and again, the Israelis refuse to comply. Now if Israel's growth past the 1967 lines was legal and legitimate, this wouldn't be that big of an issue. But as everyone surely knows, the U.N.'s official policy says the exact opposite.

Comply with global protocol and maybe the peace talks could go forward. Or we could simply pass the buck and blame the United States for Israel's self-destructive behavior.

-Dan DePetris

http://www.depetris.wordpress.com

KMANSFIELD

2:05 AM ET

61 years and what progress for palestinians?

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Frederick Douglass

3:19 AM ET

Obama does not go far

Obama does not go far enough.

We need to cut off the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ US taxpayers send to the Apartheid Zionist war criminals that are the right-wing Israeli government.

5:11 AM ET

An even better idea is the

An even better idea is the one state solution and FP is running an article on that.

4:03 AM ET

Why is there Terror against the US and why are US troops dieing?

From the CIA:

"While it is hard for Americans to hear, we are at war with a steadily growing number of young men and women in the Muslim world because of what the U.S. government has done in that arena since 1945. The current slate of U.S. foreign policies toward the Islamic world generates the basic and most compelling and uniting motivation for our Islamist enemies."

http://thehill.com/special-reports-archive/699-homeland-security-january-2010/75531-when-troops-and-cia-officers-die-for-a-fantasy

When troops and CIA officers die for a fantasy
By Michael Scheuer - 01/12/10 06:25 PM ET

The men and women of the U.S. military and intelligence services are the most important part of America’s defense capital. When they enter the service of their choice they are well aware of the implicit contract between the nation and themselves. In return for their career, America has the right to call on them to go into harm’s way, very often at the risk of their lives. I have never known a Marine, a soldier or a CIA officer who did not accept this reality, and I have never known one who balked when called on to deploy. That said, each I have known — and I suppose all — hope that if defending America costs his or her life, the cause for which it is spent is clear and worthwhile. It is precisely on this point that the U.S. government’s executive and legislative branches are lethally failing these men and women.

The events of the past three weeks throw into sharp relief that we are sending our young men and women overseas to fight an enemy that does not exist. Among the first thoughts expressed by President Obama after the near-miss al Qaeda attack on Christmas — and then echoed by his lieutenants, various members of both parties in Congress, and numerous pundits — was that the young Nigerian bomber hated our way of life. And since seven CIA officers in Afghanistan were killed by al Qaeda on Dec. 30, the same thought has been expressed by the same people.

This central thought has been accompanied by additional assertions, among which are the attackers were nihilistic Muslim fanatics and the attackers’ motivation has nothing to do with Islam. The sum and substance of the U.S. bipartisan political elite’s response to recent events has been — as it has been since 1996 when Osama bin Laden declared war on America — that the Islamist terrorists hate us for who we are and how we live, not for what we do.

This contention is a fantasy. It is fair to say that all the U.S. Marines, soldiers and CIA officers who have died in Afghanistan since 9/11 and in Iraq since Saddam’s removal have died fighting an enemy that does not exist. In numbers now approaching 6,000, these men and women have bravely fought and died in combat against an enemy whose main motivation U.S. political leaders have consistently denied. No U.S. soldier, Marine, or CIA officer has been killed by an Islamist fighter who took the field because America has women in the workplace, beer is available in ample supply, and there are early presidential primaries in Iowa every fourth year. Indeed, Islamists motivated by such issues would not rise to the level of a lethal nuisance; they certainly could not stymie the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The young Nigerian in Detroit and the Jordanian bomber in Khost and his wife have told America’s Marines, soldiers, and CIA officers what they already surely sense, but what their political leaders deny. Both attackers cited motivations that pivot on U.S. support for Israel against the Palestinians; U.S. occupation of Muslim lands; and U.S. attacks on their fellow Muslims. The three individuals’ words echo the components of U.S. foreign policy named by bin Laden in 1996 as the causes of war — which also include U.S. support for Arab tyrants and exploitation of Muslim energy resources — and which polls show 80 percent of the world’s Muslims identify as attacks on their faith.

While it is hard for Americans to hear, we are at war with a steadily growing number of young men and women in the Muslim world because of what the U.S. government has done in that arena since 1945. The current slate of U.S. foreign policies toward the Islamic world generates the basic and most compelling and uniting motivation for our Islamist enemies.

Should some of these policies be changed? I surely think so, but that is a discussion for another time and broad public debate, perhaps during the 2010 midterm elections. For now, the discussion must focus on our enemies’ motivation and the knowing failure of U.S. leaders in both parties to be honest with our fighting forces. If we fail to understand that motivation, America cannot shape a war-fighting strategy to either defend those policies or defeat the tenacious, talented, religiously motivated, and growing foe our soldiers, Marines, and CIA officers are now losing to in the field. Those men and women — and their parents, spouses and children — deserve to know they are risking their lives to defeat a skilled and enduring enemy, one who is motivated by the impact of U.S. policies, and one that genuinely threatens America. They are not fighting the cartoon-like foe described by their political leaders for the past 15 years.

Scheuer is a former senior CIA officer and adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University.

5:14 AM ET

Thank you Rosen! Due to your,

Thank you Rosen!

Due to your, and Netanyahoo's hard work, people are now advancing the one-state solution:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/31/whos_afraid_of_a_one_state_solution

Thanks buddy!

MRGERSON

7:40 AM ET

For Steve Rosen

There is no place called "East Jerusalem".

Accuracy is more important than politically accepted terminology.

7:52 AM ET

BUDAHH

8:28 AM ET

You guys are all forgetting one thing

sorry to ruin the pro palestinian party but, do you guys remember after 9-11, the palestinian people were one of the only peoples in the world which went on into the streets and started dancing as if it was indapendance day and they were giving out candy in the street,because they were very happy that day for some reason, if the U.S was in trouble Israel is the only real ally it has in the region, how much do you think it costs the U.S to install democracy in the middle east, how many trillions and lives it took, what is 3 billion a year for the U.S it is chump change for a true ally and a democracy which is already in existance.
You guys think that the muslim brotherhood and it's allies which originated in Egypt before Israel's existed, only changed their views about the west because of Israel?
You guys are all living in a draem, you don't understand the middle east and it's people, those who want to hate will find a reason no matter what, those who want peace will try to find it no matter what, that guy is a zionist but he knows what he is talking about, don't you agree that after so many years the man learned a thing or two.

7:49 AM ET

April 3, 2010

It's time to join the human race.

I don't remember that, but what I do remember though, was Chuck Schumer and the NY Governor David Patterson giving speeches, declaring the righteousness of the IDF methods of the relentless bombing of Gaza before dancing in the streets with like minded israel supporters during the Gaza Massacre.
http://open.salon.com/blog/anggiaputrinilasari/2009/12/28/jews_continue_to_say_not_in_our_name

Perhaps you have confused them with the dancing israelis who filmed the falling of the buildings while celebrating, and were reported by neighbors watching them. They were picked up near the bridge and a large amount of explosives was found in their van. They were deported to Israel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbLpMnGVm0Q
http://www.todayscatholicworld.com/dancing6.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw

8:02 AM ET

BUDAHH's mini-me rhetoric

Here is the debunking of the myth that Palestinians were celebrating during 9/11

The event shown was from 1991- all ginned up to maximize hateful feelings toward zions enemies.

http://internetscofflaw.com/2008/04/21/urban-legend-claims-palestinian-911-celebration-video-is-fake/

So now we can say it's actually zionists who celebrate by holding dances in the streets, or picnicking upon a hill overlooking deadly carnage, like during cast lead.
Proud?
The zionists greatest export to American has been anti-muslim hysteria into our country. It's damned sad.

10:01 AM ET

Kmansfiled you obviously are either arab or a liar

If you don't belive that it was the Palestinian poeple on 9-11 2001 than you are were either brainwashed by the lying arab media, or you are trying to protect your arab brothers which is wierd because arabs usually don't care about other arabs. Ask any serious journalist ask the palestinians themselves, ask the us goverment, its funny how they recieve most of thier aid money from the U.S but they still dance when Osama killed 3000 of them, just so you understand the hate and rage in these people, they were giving out candy to little kids to celebrate 9-11. You are straight up lying if you are claiming those video's are from 1991 or something, pure lies and don't try to change it around because you know that it is the arabs who are trying to delegitamize Israel in any possible way they can, and as we see here lying does not stop you from trying to achieve that goal.

12:31 PM ET

Taxi where do you get this sh...t, it makes no sense

Why would Israel do anything against America which is our biggest ally and friend, Israelis suffer from terror since the day the country was born, you guys don't understand the middle east and how stuff works here you are either baby fed lies by Arab propaganda or you are just making stuff up because you are ignorant.
Israelis love America and that story just makes no sense, it is like some crazy conspiracy theory which is sucked up form the thumb

DECONSTRUCTOR

8:56 AM ET

It is really sarcasm and

It is really sarcasm and idiotic to qualify the withdrawal of Israelies from Gaza settlements as "unprecedented achivement". In the first place, there must not have been these settlements there and furthermore these settlers were all moved to the West Bank settlements coz the costs of settlements, from material and military point of view, were not sustainable in the long run for Israel.

Moreover, can can a renowned jounral like FP acclaim independence when such lobby-oriented and expressively Zionist like this author advances the interests of its group and at the same time the similar opportunity is not given to a Palestinian author in this respect field?

BIRDMAN3725

9:00 AM ET

Settlement Option

The US has been a patsy for the Israeli's intransigence on the settlement issue. Obama hasn't gone far enough. If Israel does not abide by previous agreements then our aid to them should be CUT OFF. Their abuse of Arabs under their control and authority is a moral outrage and unworthy of our support.

9:06 AM ET

ZENC

9:17 AM ET

Time for a new approach?

Perhaps we should use the Soviet approach and make both parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more amenable toward mutual peace by inducing a greater fear for us (the United States) than they have hatred for each other.

It's a time tested approach employed by many empires through the ages and it could work something like this... instead of military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Palestine, we could instead use those resources to conduct aerial bombing raids against randomly selected targets in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

One can presume that within a rather short time, these two groups would realize that they have far more in common with each other than either previously supposed. A treaty acceptable to both parties would shortly follow, and then some time later the bombing could be scaled back or stopped altogether.

A Win/Win solution, as peace would be achieved and their common heritage would be embraced and (after the initial expense of the bombing sorties) the United States would save literally billions on foreign aid to that area.

MIKE_THE_REVELATOR

10:23 AM ET

Enough, already

Ever since the last mini-war, articles like this REALLY put me over the top. The ultimatum blew what? Put a very short halt to their outrageous actions against the Palestinians, which occur every day? Or then again, maybe not.
F*** Israel.

JACK DAVIS

10:24 AM ET

Yes, Obama IS foolish....

What is needed is some serious pressure on the Palestinians and the Arab world, to wit:

Full and unconditional diplomatic recognition of Israel.

Full and unconditional recognition of Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.

Full cessation of all acts of war against Israel, including but not limited to: full cessation of all economic boycotts and embargoes against Israel; full cessation of military action against Israel by independent states (Syria, Iran) AND their proxies: Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, ET. AL. (that is, EVERY single proxy).

If the Palestinians and their Arab enablers are serious about peace, let them forswear all acts of violence against Israel and all calls for Israel’s destruction.

Then we can talk. Until then, no deals.

BETZ55

11:16 AM ET

More BS hasbara from and AIPAC shill

Hey Rosen, go back to Israel if you love it so much, no man can serve two masters.

The settlement freeze is not a ‘precondition’ as Israel and AIPAC are now campaigning for, but an obligation Israel undertook when it signed on to the 2003 international roadmap for peace plan.

The Palestinians don't have any conditions to resume negotiations. It's time for Israel to drop its conditions that obstruct peace in the ME. It’s about Israel and its settlements, incursions and assassinations. It's not a Palestinian condition. It's an Israeli commitment from Oslo, the Arab Peace Initiative and the Roadmap that Israel needs to respect.

It is a matter of record that Mahmoud Abbas participated in 18 years of direct negotiations with seven Israeli governments; all without the settlements freeze.

In which time the settlements and their associated infrastructure grew exponentially. What do you suggest, that Abbas sit down for another 18 years of negotiation while Israel continues it's apartheid rampage? He has wised up to the problems of his previous approach. More power to him.

While he declines negotiations the world is now seeing the it's not the Palestinians that were the problem as defined by the Israeli's but the Israeli's themselves.

The acquisition of territory by war is inadmissible, and thus all settlements, whether inhabited by Zionist extremists in Hebron or apolitical suburbanites in East Jerusalem, are illegal. The world community has long recognized that a reasonable two-state solution requires a division roughly along the 1967 lines--including in Jerusalem--with at most minor adjustments.

President Eisenhower was not afraid to threaten economic sanctions in the face of Israel's refusal to withdraw from the Sinai after the 1956 Suez war; nor was George H.W. Bush when Israel refused to halt settlement construction. President Obama must be prepared to do the same.

Isn’t this the exact type of dialogue that Israel, AIPAC, and Rosen wishe to take part in: peace talks with no conditions, no deadline and no specific end, while it persists in building its illegal settlements in flagrant violation of international law, unabated?

If you actually want peace, you don’t build illegal settlement colonies in the Palestinian capital or on Palestinian land.

There was no true end to the Israeli occupation of Gaza, for Israeli forces retained control over its borders, coastline, and airspace; refused to allow Gaza a functioning airport or seaport; continued to control Gaza’s electricity, water and telecommunications networks; and reserved the “right” to launch military incursions at will---which it has repeatedly done since its “withdrawal.”

Finally, Obama is finally realizing what most Americans are coming around to and that is that Israel is not a friend or an ally of the United States. Israel drains the US economy, sells sensitive American military technology to powers hostile to the US or that have US arms embargoes against them, Israel spies on the US regularly, and their intransigence in regards to peace process is not turning Israel into a pariah state but is dragging the US with it.
Worst yet, Israel's refusal to sign the NPT and be open about it's nuclear weaponry makes the US an open hypocrite when we rail against Irans nuclear development. We are at the point where Israel is not an asset and can't even show common courtesy to their American 'allies' with friends likes these, who needs enemies?

WILL2713

4:15 PM ET

fourth geneva convention

building on occupied terrritory and displacing native population is a war crime in viollation of the 4th geneva convention. it is also a violation of numerous UN resolutions. we hanged Saddam Hassam al-Tikriti for less.

5:45 PM ET

YOu don't understand the geneva convention

It is a crime to remove a populationa and force them to settle somewhere, which Israel is not doing to settlers they chose it.
Learn the law before you start hanging people mr human rights

MARCO01

6:00 PM ET

wgara

Who gives a rats a$$.

In 1967 Israel was attacked by the Arabs, which then got their a$$es decisively kicked, oh and they lost some land in the process. That's life and the way it go's in history since the beginning of man.

The Arabs want to endlessly whine about it... well come and take the land back then. Oh you can't, well then shut the phuck up!

Obama , he's a tool & an a$$. So who cares who blames who.

Everything else is just window dressing over the years. Get over it! Nothing is gonna change. You can keep throw rocks and get hot molten lead sent back up your a$$ or you can spend your efforts building up your economy & getting on with your lives, moving forward & go exist with the Israel you will never defeat.

But ya just can't fix Stupid!

Nobody is gonna come and fight your fight, or care really much either. We'll just keep on waiting for ya to learn. You can hate the Jews, but they are NEVER going away.

And the land you lost, well they are putting up nice condo's there. Yea I got an idea, get along with Israel, make peace, trade & prosper with them and maybe someday you can buy one of them condo's.

You think!

8:25 AM ET

Nope. Israel planned and attacked Egypt.

This was an extension of the suez crisis, where france, britain, and Israel planned an attack on Egypt, because Nassar was opening up channels with the soviets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_CrisisOperation Kadesh: The Israeli operation in the Sinai Peninsula

Operation Kadesh received its name from ancient Kadesh, located in the northern Sinai and mentioned several times in the Hebrew Pentateuch. Israeli military planning for this operation in the Sinai hinged on four main military objectives; Sharm el-Sheikh, al-Arish, Abu Uwayulah, and the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian blockade of the Tiran Straits was based at Sharm el-Sheikh and, by capturing the town, Israel would have access to the Red Sea for the first time since 1953, which would allow it to restore the trade benefits of secure passage to the Indian Ocean.

The Gaza Strip was chosen as another military objective because Israel wished to remove the training grounds for Fedayeen groups, and because Israel recognised that Egypt could use the territory as a staging ground for attacks against the advancing Israeli troops. Israel advocated rapid advances, for which a potential Egyptian flanking attack would present even more of a risk. al-Arish and Abu Uwayulah were important hubs for soldiers, equipment, and centres of command and control of the Egyptian Army in the Sinai. Capturing them would deal a deathblow to the Egyptian's strategic operation in the entire Peninsula. The capture of these four objectives were hoped to be the means by which the entire Egyptian Army would rout and fall back into Egypt proper, which British and French forces would then be able to push up against an Israeli advance, and crush in a decisive encounter.
On the first day of the conflict, because Israel's intelligence service expected Jordan to enter the war on Egypt's side,[26] soldiers were stationed along the Israeli-Jordanian frontier. The Israel Border Police militarized the Israel-Jordan border, including the Green Line with the West Bank, during the first few hours of the war. This resulted in the killing of 48 Arab civilians by the Israel Border Police, and is known as the Kafr Qasim massacre. This event and the resulting trials of officers had major effects on Israeli law relating to the ethics in war and more subtle effects on the legal status of Arab citizens of Israel.

AMINOAIR

7:06 PM ET

All seems too familiar!

Israel clearly hasn't the slightest incline -nor are they compelled- to advance the two state solution, the quicker you get that in your heads the clearer the picture becomes.

As for this unworthy piece of dribble, the author suggests Obama show mild discontent at Israel, and instead let them finish building, -after all, what’s another settlement on occupied territory- condemn Iran as the main threat to mid east peace, bring about another fruitless bout of "peace" talks, which will inevitably breakdown when growing Palestinian frustration with Israel's intransigence culminates in hamas or other firing a few so called rockets across the border, and provoking a typically harsh Israeli response in the process. Israel is defending the rights of its citizens to live peacefully without fear, with complete disregard for that most basic right for the Palestinians, a state of their own......... anyway, we're back to square one and its déjà vu all over again. Just this time the Palestinians are a little worse off than they already were with less land to their name.

As for where Israel is headed, and when enough is enough, your guess is as good as mine.

Solution?? Only a real and decisive effort from the US and only the US could compel Israel to genuinely endorse any meaningful solution, but somehow I can’t see it happening, at least not any time soon.

ARGONNE18

8:05 PM ET

How does one characterize a Rosen

He spent decades lobbying for an country born of ethnic cleansing and espousing a master race theology that delivered jews only roads, jews only laws, jews only expansionist leibenstraum policies, bombings, beatings, bulldozings, invasions, a renegade nuclear program, massacres, murders,and massive interference in US politics, bribes, and spying of course. Mr. Rosen not only beat the drum for all this jack-booted nazism, he sold his own country out to do so. Why did FP hire this Quisling. I would not allow him to write on my toilet paper.

12:07 AM ET

Good One!

Succint and to the point. Why di FP hire the ass hole? Wjy don't they hire Erekat or Faayid to write something? Your are right, I wouldn't allow Rosen to write on my toilet paper. He is toilet paper.

ATILLA

7:05 PM ET

NETANYAHU VS OBAMA

OBAMA ISN'T QUALIFIED TO LICK SHIT FROM NETANYAHU'S SHOES AND I THINK BIBI SHOULD SHOW HUSSEIN HOW A LEADER ACTS

10:20 AM ET

April 5, 2010

Settlements

"Progress has been made when the US has used finesse in negotiations"??????? What progress? It's time to make the Jews live up to their agreements or suffer the consequences.

WALKTHEWALK

10:24 PM ET

Rosen's article makes the point for the President's position

Mr. Rosen recites the tens of thousands of settlements that were built by successive Israeli governments "while negotiations continued."
Each group of settlements not only disposses others without a counterbalancing benefit to them, but with the security, roads, and tendency of settlers to take the law into their own hands (and never be prosecuted) a multiplier of bad feelings from frisking people on what used to be their own turf to wanton shootings of youths.

The real problem no one is addressing is that Israel wanted the land but not the people there--it now has both. If Obama says nothing he implicitly becomes an enabler of settlements. It is time to say enough, and he said it.
If the right wing coalition that governs Israel can't deal with this, maybe rather than supporting the position of the Israeli government du jour AIPAC could actually think...independently! This would be a first!

Mr. Rosen is certainly smart enough for the task--how about it Mr. Rosen, isn't it time to break from the official Israeli government position? To be your own man?

Show AIPAC a better way.

Shalom.

Foreign Policy Magazine

Inside National Security

History shows that progress toward Middle East peace happens when U.S. presidents use finesse, not unreasonable demands, to move negotiations forward.

BY STEVEN J. ROSEN | APRIL 1, 2010

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