By Ted Belman
Keep your eye on this. Ban Ki Moon calls for end to ‘occupation’, settlements
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Speaking at a conference on democracy in the Arab world in Beirut, Ban said that “the Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories” and “violence against civilians” must end.
“Settlements, new and old, are illegal. They work against the emergence of a viable Palestinian state,” the UN chief stated.
Ban added: “A two-state solution is long overdue. The status quo offers only the guarantee of future conflict.”
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The Palestinians are considering ending the talks with Israel in Jordan and searching for other alternatives, such as asking the UN to demand an end to construction in the settlements, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported Sunday.
What will Obama do?
Yamit,
You paint an interesting scenario. Not sure it would work out as well as you say, but hey, perhaps through no choice of either yours or mine, we shall see! The way things are going, something new and out of the box has got to be tried. I’d still be very careful about dealing with Russia, though. Remember, all those Russian speakers you have in Israel, they were FLEEING Russia. For a reason! And “President for Life” Putin has pretty much been fleshed out as a Jew-hater.
That said, there is a bit of a possible silver lining, in terms of the potential for an improvement in U.S.-Israeli relations, to the extent that is considered a good thing by those of us here in this forum.
Even if Ron Paul runs third party and ensures Obama’s reelection, as I’m now predicting will happen, the Senate could still turn over, and the House will likely remain Republican. If the Senate turns over, that could mean impeachment. There are certainly abundant grounds for this.
I’d also point out, Yamit, that even though Israel did not have a “superpower” strategic partner prior to ’67, they did have a major power partner in the form of France, where most of Israel’s big-ticket weapons came from up to that time, to include pretty much all of Israel’s air force. Despite some, ah, “problems” with Britain during the Mandatory period and the ’48 war, from the Sinai campaign until the late 60s, Britain was also on pretty good terms with Israel. From ’56 to ’67, Israel could pretty much count on not one, but TWO votes in their favor on the UNSC, and neither of these were American. They were Britain and France. It was Britain that ensured that the wording of UNSCR 242 said “territories” instead of “THE territories”, leaving the status of J&S open to negotiation instead of requiring Israel to return to pre-’67 lines. Imagine Britain doing that today….
“Bring back the draft!” ?? Yamit, the appropriateness of a draft depends on the political military culture of the country in question, and their particular strategic needs. I beg to differ that the volunteer U.S. military “sucks”…what “sucks” is our utterly corrupt political leadership. On the battlefield, U.S. forces perform extremely well compared to most others. The Brits, Canadians, and Australians, all volunteer armies, reportedly are also first-rate, man-for-man, unit for unit.
The problem we’ve had in the U.S. since and including Vietnam is that the considerable prowess of our military is typically squandered and misused by detached, short-sighted and opportunistic political leaders and their equally clueless “advisors”. I do not say this so much out of a warm and fuzzy sense of American nationalism concerning our army; I served in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1988, and it was there that I experienced the most blatant and direct anti-Semitism of my life. Not too much love lost there, believe me.
All that said, I do see a day where the U.S. might indeed re-instate the draft. Not in the near future, but in five or ten years. Even if we withdraw from the world now, the “world” has a way of coming to us. Appeasing Islamists as Obama has been doing – and as a hypothetical President Paul would also do – is not going to bring us peace. Quite the opposite. After we’ve been hit over the head enough times, after a few more all but inevitable 9-11s – or worse – we may very well need a draft so as to, as I said earlier, “..drag that poisonous little prick out from behind the curtain and beat the living daylights out of him”.
Joe Hamilton:
Greetings, fellow Army vet. Your posts are interesting. I’ve heard of that book you recommend, though I have nto read the same. I am well aware from other sources about FDR’s duplicity regarding the Holocaust. This is described in great detail by Mitchell Bard in his book, “The Arab Lobby”.
Like I said, my experiences in the Army were not so good, from the standpoint of being Jewish, with some exceptions. They did seem to go to great lengths to support my being able to practice my religion. I was yanked out of the middle of a field exercise for a Passover service held in a tent for all three or four of us in the entire brigade who were Jewish. There were some officers who had great admiration and respect for Israel…but I encountered others that seemed to have their views informed by “The Turner Diairies”. I don’t think that many of our troops get to go to Israel; most deployed to that region have wound up serving with our Arab or Pakistani “allies”, who in turn whine incessently about America’s support for Israel. I don’t think this promotes a very pro-Israel atmosphere in our military, but maybe you know more about this than I do.
Bland Oatmeal:
If you’re going to post sources of income for candidates, you ought to do a bit more homework first. It was you who were trying to illustrate where candidates were coming from in terms of their sources of support. Yamit is correct that the numbers you post for Paul, as against the obvious effort that his campaign would require, do not match up at all. You should not have even bothered, with such an incomplete – dare I say, “contrived”, in the case of Paul – picture.
That said, it does not surprise me that a lot of the military supports Paul. This has nothing to do so much with his own military service (it wasn’t like he was a line combat grunt or anything like that), but rather, his isolationist foreign policy. The military is tired, sick of being overtasked, misused, and under-appreciated. They want to just go home already. Can’t say as I blame them for feeling that way. I despise Paul, as you know, but I understand where they would be coming from in support of Paul.
They don’t have the $$$ to provide significant support, though. You realize that a lot of the military leads, from a financial perspective, a pretty hand-to-mouth existence. Many are on food stamps, which is a real disgrace.
I strongly suspect that, at some point, it will be revealed that a lot of Paul’s support comes from well-heeled, petrodollar fed Islamist interests. Anyone that will get on national TV, as Paul did on the Letterman show, and blurt out about Michelle Bachmann, “She sure hates Muslims”, is clearly in their pocket. That was not only an outrageous statement, but is EXACTLY the kind of tactic used by Arabs/Moslems themselves. I’ve seen this countless times; you bring up some negative point about them, about Islamic-based terrorism, which is perfectly legitimate and fact-based, and they come back with “Why do you hate Muslims?”, a cheap, transparent little “When did you stop beating your wife?” kind of antic designed to get the object to feel guilty and start saying nice things about Moslems, so as to take the wind out of whatever they said before. That Paul would, out of the blue, without prompting, engage in such nonsense speaks volumes about him.
Who said anything about alignments?
We do not align with anyone, we just give some of them an economic interest and possibly a geopolitical/military interest to balance their other interests in the region. The Russians are not an ideal partner but certainly no worse than America and I have yet to see them throw any of their allies or clients under the bus as America does and not jut to Israel. Do not discount that we have over a million native Russian speakers many of the highest caliber technically and scientifically. Add Oil and Gas concessions we could become more valuable to them than the Muslim clients they now have. I have no expectations from any other nation other than as source for for purchasing, manufacturing and marketing what we produce to who-ever we choose with/out needing American approval.
The EU is insolvent and should collapse within 2 years, at least the monetary union will for sure. Hungary just nationalized their banks and re-wrote their constitution, others to follow. Most of European exports go to other European countries and about 20% to America. Even Germany the economic engine of the EU had a negative 4th quarter in 2011 and Jan 2012 doesn’t look good. They too my be downgraded by S&P.
Collapse of the EU will take America with them. China is ready to explode due to housing bubble which makes Americas look picayune.
There is still a wide technological gap between America/Israel and China / Russia. Israel can supply much of what they need. Israel outside of direct American control will be sought after by all including America and put Israel if we are smart enough in the drivers seat.
I submit that assuming American vetoes in the UNSC allows all of the rest to take extreme positions they might not take if they knew American vetoes were not a sure thing. I think Israel pays too high a price for American vetoes of mostly toothless resolutions as each time America extracts some concession from Israel.
Before 1967 Israel had no superpower patron and we maneuvered between many nations and interests with very high levels of economic growth.
Israel needs to return to a situation similar in principle to what was before 1967 updated to meet current realities.
We don’t need the UN and by remaining in we credit them with undeserved legitimacy thereby becoming de-facto complicit in all their anti-Israel resolutions and policies.
We should never be part of any organization that seeks our elimination and destruction by one means or another.
All of the above consistently vote against Israel in the UN, so I don’t know what this has to do with Ban Ki Moon’s absolutely biased statement. Somebody pointed out that if Israel left the UN, their seat would be taken over by the “Palestinians”. I hadn’t thought of that before, but it’s probably true.
It’s a blasphemy against God, that Israel must continually sit and listen to the rage of the nations in the UN. That said, I think they should continue to be part of the UN until they are expelled. One saving grace of the UN, is that it provides an opportunity for countries to SUPPORT Israel as well. At times, those “countries” have amounted, essentially, only to the U. S. of America. As a nation, we have been favored by God during all the years the UN has been in existence, and our public support of Israel in the UN may well be the reason. That support has been wavering lately, and so, apparently, has our favor with God.
I replied to Yamit, but was spam-blocked. I should have known better than to try to answer a blockhead. Needless to say, his comments are totally inane. To sum things up,
1. Gingrich, besides being in the pocket of Fannie Mae, is essentially backed by one very wealthy man. So much for “democracy”
2. Ron Paul is supported overwhelmingly by US servicemen. Read http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/soldiers-choice/
3. No matter whom you vote for, Goldman Sachs & Co. will win the election. The bankers own Obama, Romney and Santorum.
You haven’t “checkmated” anything.
Aligning with Russia would be insane. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, that. The same people who are now the primary “protectors”, and nuclear merchants for, Iran. Great idea, Yamit. They’d squeeze Israel like a lemon for all they could get technology-wise, then throw the Jews to the wolves first chance they got. That’s what they’ve always done and will always do….by the second bottle at the latest!
China and India are better possibilities. But they don’t like each other at all, so better choose one or the other. India would be good except that even now, with lots of trade and military contacts and warm fuzzy feelings, they STILL vote against Israel in the UN EVERY TIME! Some “ally”….But I’m sure even if there were sanctions, India would go around them. China probably would too.
China is probably the best bet, maybe in some sort of combination with South Korea (S. Korea trades more with China than anyone else). But remember, South Korea is still heavily influenced by the U.S., and an anti-Israel U.S. administration like Obama could put a lot of pressure on them not to play ball with Israel.
China is also rather unstable. It would be a big gamble…remember, there’s no domestic constituency there that would push back if the regime soured on Israel. Not too many Evangelicals in China! Today, there is a big power struggle between the entrepenuerial technocratic class, and the old guard Maoist types. The former Israel probably gets along famously with…the latter, not so much. Not sure yet which one will really get the upper hand in a decisive way. This is not something that is exactly determined at the ballot box over there!
I’m not saying it is impossible, Yamit. I just don’t see a divorce from the U.S. as being as easy as you think. As for the UN, I stand by the scenario I describe. As I said before, the storm MIGHT be weathered, but it will be a heckuva storm. I think it is possible in the long term – maybe within ten years – that the UN will collapse and there could well be a walkout of other major powers. Better to wait for that. Why give the PA Israel’s seat??!! Seems like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face!
You bring up a good point about the Senate, but Obama has proven that he is very tenacious about working around Congress at every opportunity. There are all kinds of ways the executive branch, through executive orders, regulations, and so on, could pursue U.S. compliance with a UN sanntions regime against Israel without the approval of Congress. Look at the way Obama treats Israel now; surely most of Congress does not approve of that, and even the Senate Majority Leader from Obama’s own party has publicly criticized Obama’s policies towards Israel. Made no difference….and if Israel really did align with China at the expense of the U.S. in an obvious way, you think the U.S. Congress would be so pro-Israel then? Losing that would be part of the price, Yamit. It might have to be paid, but there it is. Israel won’t be able to have it both ways.
A historian once described the 1930s as a “low and dishonest time”. The 30s ain’t got nothin’ on the present day.
Things look crappy in many directions. A large part of the reason for this is the moral weakness and base corruption in the developed world, combined with the fanatical cunning of a medieval, bloody-minded “civilization” (Guess who?) that doesn’t know how to do much else, but knows how to bribe and corrupt the shallow and corruptible.
But just like the Wizard of Oz, behind all their smoke and mirrors, there is this feeble, dying, perverted evil little man pulling the levers. When we summon the will to tear away the curtain, drag him out and beat the living daylights out of that poisonous little prick, then maybe, things will start to improve.