Ok now guess what? After all the hostility and rhetoric that erupted after President Obama said Israel and the Palestinians must reach a peace settlement based on the pre-1967 borders Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu suddenly announced a couple days ago that Israel and the Palestinians should resume peace negotiations with no pre-conditions.

That actually should have been a pretty big announcement but instead since it seemed to fall on dead ears Netanyahu is now publicly stating they should negotiate with the Palestinians on the Pre-1967 borders.

Wow, what a complete change of heart all of a sudden. What do you suppose caused that?


Israel 'sees border talks if PA drops UN bid'
Prime minister said to be willing to negotiate pre-1967 borders if Palestinians do not seek UN recognition next month.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/201182105413548137.html

I think its pretty clear now that president Obama was right to warn Netanyahu that unless they returned to negotiations with the Palestinians they US would be unable to prevent the Palestinians from going to the UN seeking UN recognition as an official state.

 

Did any of you know there's a 5-Star Hotel in Gaza? I sure didn't and it just sounds insane. But I'm wondering if they know something we don't?

Arcmed Al-Mashtal Hotel: New 5-Star Resort Opens Amid Poverty In Gaza Strip



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/06/al-mashtal-hotel-gaza-strip_n_920101.html

 

Here's another signal the Palestinians are preparing to seek Independent State Status in the UN which would tend to set up another showdown that would depend on a US Veto to stop.

What I didn't find on it, however, was a date of when this might happen which I'm pretty sure will quickly become a major US campaign issue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/14/palestinian-independence-un_n_926393.html


And in the meantime I still don't know what to make of the protests going on in Israel. I'm waiting to see if the protests successfully spread but am also still at a loss of just what kind of social justice these people are protesting for other than sort of an Israeli version of "The rent. Is too damn high."

 

Since Israel has been bombing and conducting raids inside Gaza I didn't think it would be long before there were reprisal attacks on the part of the Palestinians. And I think that has happened but this story raises a lot more questions for me than it answers.

Deadly attacks across southern Israel
Israeli media and officials say at least five killed in three attacks on Israeli vehicles near Red Sea city of Eilat.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/201181893519247218.html


And here's the question that bothers me. I've read hundreds of stories about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and terrorist attacks just like this.


But this is the only story I've ever read about attacks that don't have the word Palestinian in it anywhere. Gaza? Yep. Hamas? Yes. But Palestinian? Nope.



I can't help but wonder why that is?

 

Here's a few more details about the attacks in Israel and while the term Palestinian does appear in this story once again it actually raises more questions than it answers including just who is really can logically take revenge against; i.e. Can you take the chance of bombing Gaza in retaliation for attacks in Israel and then have it proven the residents of Gaza didn't have anything to do with it?

I don't think so. That would be a public relations nightmare just so coincidentally right before the Palestinians go before the UN and ask for recognition as an independent state.

And I don't think attacking Egypt would go over any better.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/southern-israel-attacks-sinai-penninsula_n_930168.html

 

So peace still eludes this benighted country(s). When will they realise that they are both in the wrong and put aside religious differences and make a serious attempt at peace, when the bombs and bullets run out or when they are throwing rocks at each other.

 

I'm not sure because from what I read Israel went ahead and bombed Gaza anyway just in case they are responsible.

But I'm pretty sure the bullets and bombs won't stop until after the foreign aid does which is why I advocate for cutting off all aid and support to both Israel and the Palestinians.

I think that's the best way to stop everything else.

 

Yes but the political lobbies in the US and EU are far too strong, and the Arab states and Russia will continue to arm the Palestinians, so I guess we are going to be in this state for a few years yet. The one thing the Palestinians could do but won't is to just sit down and protest peacefully, just sit and sing songs, then the world will see who the terrorists are, the Israelis could do the same. How can we expect the next generation to be peaceful when they are taught hatred from the cradle.

 

Israel

I'm going to climb way way out on the radical slender end of a very shaky limb.

I say "tell everyone to get the hell out of the area". and nuke the shit out of the disputed zone. This will end all of this stupid I want, you want, they want shit. The bomb need not be very powerful, but it will keep all of these restless types out of the area for a verrry long time.

Radical, dangerous, and wouldn't solve a damned thing, but wouldn't it drive the religious types NUTS. Beside it would be fun to watch. CNN TNN NBC hell every news agency in the whole fucking world would run the item for years. Even more than Jackson, Benet, Peterson,etc etc combined.

 

Don't you think the US has a big enough target painted on it without giving the extremists more excuses.
The way forward is to cut off all aid both financial and military to both sides, when they are reduced to throwing rocks and eating oranges, dates and curried goat maybe, just maye they will realise the futility of their argument.

 

Opps, we hear about some country recalling their ambassador from some other country all the time but Egypt recalling their ambassador from Israel. That's a little different and I fear could be a bad sign.

And the incident is no minor matter. It seems an Israeli helicopter "accidentally" killed some Egyptian border guards.

This is on top of repeated air strikes on Gaza but the real difference is ever since the 1970's Israel has not only been allowed to exist but actually prosper and have a pretty hand in the Middle East because the US and West had bought off Egypt to accept Israel in exchange for being the Second most powerful nation in the region.

Which Egypt agreed to and are armed second only to Israel thanks to the US and other western countries. That kind of kept everyone else off Israel and actually resulted in Egypt more or less protecting Israel.

But of course that was all because of one man. Murbarack and he ain't there no more. This could be a very dicey situation it looks to me.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/201182035246810338.html

 

I'm not sure about the EU but here in the US while the Israeli lobby is still a formidable force there is no longer the simply unapproachable power they used to have.

I mean in the past a Washington politician could not even criticize Israel without 1,000 lobbyists hitting the streets and a few hundred Congressman jumping on the band wagon the next day.

Now the Obama Administration and President Obama himself have publicly opposed Israel and about the best they can do is get a few reactionary Congressmen to mumble objections and nutcase losers like Glenn Beck to take up their causes.

That's not just a fall from grace. That's a plummet.

It always surprises me when I encounter someone so short sighted, naive, and ignorant of the real world as you are.

Two words to show you that what you're really proposing is the end of the earth and human existence as we know it. China and Russia.

As in like only a fool would think those two nations would stand by and just watch the US launch a nuclear attack.

 

Yes I heard the criticism over here, but the aid still goes there and the weapons are still rolling off the plants and finishing in Israel.

 

Well and don't get me wrong, just in case I got a little carried away there. I've been saying for decades the solution is to quit funding Israel and the Palestinians. And as a side note we're talking Palestinians now, but since the 70's its been Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Paying them off with military might just slightly less than what we gave to Israel. All knowing of course that it was a safe bet because Israel had nuclear arms and they were actually arming Egypt and Saudi Arabia to have power over their own Arab neighbors.

And as bad and potentially explosive as that kind of policy is I sure haven't heard President Obama (or anyone else in the government) say anything about changing that and has never so much as whispered or even hinted at cutting off funding and support.

No Israel and their friends and lobby are still too powerful for that but I do see President Obama pushing Israel in ways I've never seen before and getting away with it.

 

fuck em it aint none of our business. if they want to make hamburger out of each other, so be it. just keep the shit over there

 

Opps We Missed

This is another one of those stories where I don't think we're getting the real truth although I suppose it could be as they say.

But anyway apparently rockets from Gaza missed Israel and hit Egypt today.

Now just how the hell did they manage to do that? It looks to me like Israel is west of Gaza and Egypt is east of Gaza.

And don't look for a lot of explanations or if you do I hope you have better luck than I did.

All I've been able to find is that according to Egypt it was some kind of Accident where they were shooting at Israeli border crossing and over shot hitting Egypt instead.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/21/gaza-rockets-land-in-egypt-amid-tensions-with-israel/

 

I think there's a new twist in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and its one I never thought of or heard of involving the Palestinian's efforts to seek statehood through the UN.

And up until now, to me at least, it was totally predictable with the US caught in the contradiction of trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace agreement on one hand but on the other hand doing Israel's bidding for them if the Palestinians are successful in being recognized by the UN the US will use its veto power to nullify the ruling.

Which is of course why the US is strongly encouraging the Palestinians to delay going to the UN seeking recognition as an independent State and continue negotiating with them and Israel. But what jumps out at me is why should they? The Palestinians have an excellent chance of succeeding in at least a majority vote in the UN and the US veto exposes both Israel and the US as hypocrites and lends credence that's its Israel leading the US not the other way around.

But then this caught my eye today in one of the stories about the US efforts to get the Palestinians to stall on their proposal.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/04/u-s-tries-to-stall-palestinian-statehood-bid-report/


I know that's just so much diplomatic jargon but I see raise status to state instead of entity and International Criminal Court. That seems like a lot to me and I wonder if the Palestinians will be willing to take that deal.

 

The Palestinians have reportedly begun their campaign for UN recognition as an independent state but I don't think that has the potential for any new acts of war that the deteriorating relationship between Israel and Turkey is.

They've already gone through of all the normal diplomatic spats of recalling their ambassadors. Then they went a step further and reportedly cancelled all mutual security agreements.

But now Turkey is saying they will sponsor a new "flotilla" to break the Gaza blockade and this time escort it with fighter planes. Now I can see that escalating very quickly to all out war. And not the kind of war Israel is used to because Turkey is powerful enough and armed enough to really strike back and hurt Israel.

I'm not sure Israel as we know it can continue to exist in this kind of international pressure cooker before the hardliners crack from both the external and internal pressure. And we can only hope they crack the right way.

Israel calls Turkey’s threat to send warships ‘grave and serious’


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/...ys-threat-to-send-warships-grave-and-serious/

 

Another counter-example to the Democratic-Peace Hypothesis. Suck it, Dick Cheney!

 

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.fe11c1b55d60e484a37a458dccdd1b34.401