As you've mentioned before, George H. W. Bush went even farther in 1991, and held up loan guarantees to Israel that were being used to subsidize settlements. The Council of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations publicly blasted him for it, and helped defeat his re-election bid.

Here we are 17 years later, and the language is even milder, with action to back it up nonexistent. What HAS changed is that 17 years of settlement construction, along with secured 'Jews-only' roads to serve them, has carved up the West Bank to the point that a 'two-state solution' is no longer economically or geographically feasible. But the 'peace process' grinds on, pretending that it is.

What are we to make of this? Do the zionists still fantasize that the hapless Palestinians will finally see the light, give up, and shuffle off on their donkey carts into the desert? Or, are they just stalling for time (a few more decades) with a place-holder, pie-in-the-sky proposal, in the absence of any real plan?

I lean toward the latter explanation. But who knows? Israel is in more trouble than it realizes, and the crisis from four decades of dithering is likely to emerge sooner than it expects.

Clearly, the greatest nuclear threat on earth is not Iran, but a badly-positioned Israel which has painted itself into a nightmarish corner through its own chauvinism and belligerence. The most deafening silence on the planet is the absence of any proposal, from anybody, to place this dangerously aggressive nuclear-armed occupier under the restraint of international supervision.

But the Israelis saw things differently. Mr. Abramowitz had agreed to help track down five other members of his terrorist squad who had escaped from prison, and was more useful to the government on the street than off, said a high-level Israeli government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr. Abramowitz had also pledged his loyalty to Israel’s prime minister before being released, the official said.

The dispute over Mr. Abramowitz — whom the Israelis quickly returned to prison after being threatened with a loss of aid — underscored a much broader disagreement over how to fight terrorism in Israel, a particularly valuable recruiting ground and refuge for jewish militants in the past two decades.

Israeli officials say they have had considerable success co-opting neocons like Mr. Abramowitz, often by releasing them from prison and helping them with money, schooling or jobs. They are required to sign a pledge not to carry out any attacks on Israeli soil, often backed by guarantees from their tribe or family members. Many have taken part in an Jewish re-education effort led by religious scholars, now being copied on a wider scale in the USA.
A number of these former neconss have become government informants, helping to capture a new generation of younger, more dangerous necons — some of them veterans of the war in Iraq. Others have become mediators, helping persuade escaped prisoners to surrender.

But American counterterrorism officials and even some Israelis say the Israeli government, more than others in the region, is in effect striking a deal that helps stop attacks here while leaving necons largely free to plan them elsewhere. They also say the Israeli government caters too much to radical necon figures to improve its political standing, nourishing a culture that could ultimately breed more violence.