Palestinians slam Obama on Jerusalem remark

Jerusalem? ("?" because things change daily.)
File this under: OMG!!!1!! I didn't see this coming.

Palestinian leaders reacted with anger and dismay on Wednesday to Barack Obama's pledge that Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital.

President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the U.S. presidential candidate's pledge to American Jewish leaders [read panderng] and he repeated his demand for a Palestinian state with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.

"This statement is totally rejected," Abbas told reporters in the West Bank administrative centre of Ramallah.

"The whole world knows that East Jerusalem, holy Jerusalem, was occupied in 1967 and we will not accept a Palestinian state without having Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state."

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Palestinian negotiators engaged in U.S.-sponsored peace talks would continue to insist on securing East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as their capital. He said of Obama: "He has closed all doors to peace."

Obama, newly secure as the Democratic nominee for president, said in a speech in Washington: "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

The United States and other international powers do not regard Jerusalem as Israel's capital -- the U.S. and other embassies are in Tel Aviv -- and do not recognise Israel's annexation of Arab East Jerusalem following the 1967 war.

Does this mean I might be somewhat critical of Obama should he become President even though I support Democrats?

Ya bet your sweet ass it does.

BTW, that link (Jerusalem?) under the graphic is to an unbelievable site with screens of links on the subject of the Israeli/Palestinian conflicts.

Note: Headline links to source.

New Israeli settlement plans unveiled on eve of peace talks

click for larger image

What is the fucking point of these peace talks? Israel has already indicated their intentions. They will expand their footprint in the occupied territories regardless.

I think this is what could be described as negotiating in bad faith.

Israel plans to enlarge two settlements in occupied Palestinian territory next year, officials said on Sunday, casting yet another shadow over revived Middle East peace talks.

On the eve of a new round of negotiations, Israel and Hamas ruled out any truce talks to stop what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described as a "real war" between militants and the army in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel has set aside 25 million dollars in the 2008 budget to expand the Maale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank and in the Har Homa settlement in annexed east Jerusalem, anti-settlement group Peace Now's head Yariv Oppenheimer told AFP.

Israel's Pensioner Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan confirmed the report.

About 250 new housing units are to be constructed in Maale Adumim and 500 in Har Homa, known to Palestinians as Jebel Abu Ghneim, Peace Now said.

Via Yahoo! News.

Gaza: the Final Solution in Slow Motion

This is genocide and it is in slow motion. It might be a great tactic, but only sadists and psychopaths would resort to it.

And where's the Bush administration's condemnation? This seems humanitarian to it?

Oh yeah, why the fuck do I keep forgetting the Bush administration is made up of sadists and psychopaths. They undoubtedly see nothing wrong here.

About four o'clock in the morning the pharmacist Salim Madani is in Sufa, the only border post to the Gaza Strip that the government of Israel opens every now and then. They have been waiting for 14 day for a truck loaded with medicines for distribution in the Strip, still stuck on the Israeli side. They have been waiting for permission from the Israeli government so that they may move the load onto another truck so the medicines can move into Khan Yunis on the Palestinian side.

For many months ill Palestinians have been dying needlessly because many other trucks have not been authorized to transport medicines or even any other basic products - to the prison into which Gaza has been transformed. The martyr children Mohammad Turk, Mohammad Helow and Shaban Lulu, are only three of the hundreds of Palestinians that have died in the last so many months as a result of the Israeli and international blockade.

Shifa'a hospital staff in Gaza City pointed out September 5, 2006 that the three boys had died because of renal complications that could not be treated as they had run out of the necessary medicines. The Emergency General Director of the Ministry of Health warned at the time of the imminent danger of death faced by more than six hundred children suffering from renal deficiencies. Since then, actually since Israel occupied Palestine for the first time, it has been very plain that Palestinian children, old people, women and men face the very present danger of losing their land, their houses, their way of life and even life itself, for no other reason other than they are not Jews.

It is also glaringly clear that from that date on that the international community has refused to put a stop to this slow and painful genocide. On the contrary, they have chosen to make it possible in many ways for Israel to carry out its own Final Solution in Palestine: giving them weapons, money, political support and punishing the Palestinians in Gaza with a boycott that cries out to heaven with anguish for its cruelty and brutality.

...

Talking in less technical terms but closer to reality, what OCHA [UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] is actually saying is that the Israelis stop the food at the border until it perishes and the medicines go out of date. In this way " the beasts in two legs" (as the Palestinians are called by the Israelis) fall ill for lack of vitamins, enough food or the essential elements necessary for a healthy life. Then they find that they cannot find any help in medicines that turn out to be ineffective. [emphasis in the original]

Stopping shipments of industrial materials, building materials, household supplies and such is one thing, but three categories of shipments should never be stopped or delayed at the Gaza border crossing.

1. Medicines.

2. Food for the people.

3. Animal feed.

If you want to read more on this, here's the Oxfam page from whence the photo came.

Then there's this headline: Israel approves arms shipment to Abbas. Of course none of those arms will ever be used against Israelis.

Olmert categorized this as "a goodwill gesture". No, a goodwill gesture is to allow shipments of food and medicines.

We live in very strange times indeed.

Via The Signs.

Israel, U.S. May Shun Palestinian Gov't

I have a stupid question. I've seen this in "negotiations" with Iran, Iraq and NKorea, to name a few. Is it still considered diplomacy if you insist the other team play only by your rules? Just asking.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the U.S. and Israel are in total accord on shunning any Palestinian government that doesn't meet international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace accords.

And I won't even get started on how much influence the tiny nation of Israel has on US foreign policy in the Mid-East. Nope. Won't go there.

(read more)

Hamas Cabinet resigns to bring Fatah into government

Heaven forbid the US gives this government a chance to survive.

Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has formed a new government with the moderate Fatah movement, but he faces unresolved internal disputes and a reported warning of a US boycott.

Yesterday, Haniyeh and his government resigned and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah appointed him to form the new team, based on last week’s agreement in the Muslim holy city of Mecca to split power between the two rivals.

Mr Haniyeh has five weeks to put together a new Cabinet. During that period, Hamas and Fatah need to resolve deep disputes over control of the security forces and whether to dismantle a separate Hamas militia.

However, even if the coalition is formed, it appears increasingly unlikely it will win international backing. The new government’s political programme falls short of a key condition by the international community, explicit recognition of Israel. Instead, it contains a vague promise to “respect” international agreements, at best implying recognition.

Hamas is considered a terror group by the US, the EU and Israel, and the Hamas-led government was targeted by a crippling international aid boycott.

Isn't an "implied" recognition of Israel a step forward? Just asking.

The world isn't black and white, regardless of what Bush thinks. Tiny steps are OK. Today the coalition implies recognition of Israel and soon may demonstratively accept Israel. We have to wait and see, but accept what's offered now.

Oh yeah, "considered a terror group" by a psychotic administration, Bush's poodle and a paranoid nation. No problem for me.

(read more)