I've been out of the loop the past two days taking Israeli military/security expert Yossi Alpher around town for meetings, so I am still digging out from two days worth of missed news articles. One article which I just pulled up left me flabbergasted, both at the chutzpah of Israeli officials who it appears will go to any lengths, including blatantly re-writing history, to avoid taking action - as required of Israel under the Roadmap - to remove settlement outposts that even Israel recognizes are illegal - and at the way that the statements of these officials seem to go utterly unchallenged.
The article in question is entitled, "Israel won't
honor outpost pledge". The article quotes various Israeli officials
stating that Israel no longer views itself bound by previous pledges to
remove outposts, based on the argument that those pledges were made in
the context of other "understandings" with the Bush Administration that
would permit Israel to build as much as it wants in areas that Israel is
likely to retain under an permanent status agreement.
Which seems to intuitively make sense: the position of the Netanyahu government is that such understandings existed, and that the Obama Administration changed the rules when it came into power. (Of course, there is no proof that such understandings existed -- since even Israel and Eliot Abrams argue that they were "secret," but no matter...).
But the devil here is in the details. Well, actually it is in the very clear and easy-to-find-if-you-bother-to-look official record. Because there was nothing secret about the text of the Roadmap, and Israel was in no way secretive about its reservations about the Roadmap - in fact, it published a list of 14 reservations.
If you go back and read the Roadmap you will find that it states, clearly and unambiguously, that in Stage I Israel (a) "immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected after March 2001" and (b) "freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth)." Nothing about understandings there.
So that must mean that Israel used the 14 reservations to clarify its position - to make clear that commitment (b) was actually not a real commitment, since Israel had secret understandings, and that commitment (a) was contingent upon the US ignoring commitment (a), based on these secret understandings...
But no. There is no such position in the 14 reservations. Perhaps there were originally 15 and they decided to leave this one out to make it an even number?
Which seems to intuitively make sense: the position of the Netanyahu government is that such understandings existed, and that the Obama Administration changed the rules when it came into power. (Of course, there is no proof that such understandings existed -- since even Israel and Eliot Abrams argue that they were "secret," but no matter...).
But the devil here is in the details. Well, actually it is in the very clear and easy-to-find-if-you-bother-to-look official record. Because there was nothing secret about the text of the Roadmap, and Israel was in no way secretive about its reservations about the Roadmap - in fact, it published a list of 14 reservations.
If you go back and read the Roadmap you will find that it states, clearly and unambiguously, that in Stage I Israel (a) "immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected after March 2001" and (b) "freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth)." Nothing about understandings there.
So that must mean that Israel used the 14 reservations to clarify its position - to make clear that commitment (b) was actually not a real commitment, since Israel had secret understandings, and that commitment (a) was contingent upon the US ignoring commitment (a), based on these secret understandings...
But no. There is no such position in the 14 reservations. Perhaps there were originally 15 and they decided to leave this one out to make it an even number?
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The "Destruction of the European Jews" by the Nazis was incredibly horrendous, but given the way the Israelis have treated the Palestinians and ignored world opinion on the colonisation of the West Bank and other abuses of the Palestinians one can understand why the European Jews were such an easy target for the Nazi regime.
Richard La Brecque,
Considering the persistence of anti-semites of your ilk, it is not surprising that many Israeli Jews still remain paranoid thinking that everyone is out to get them.