Just Foreign Policy is an interesting group. Leftleaning, post-Iraq. Tom Hayden's on the board, so is Julian Bond. So are some economic-justice types. Former congressman Tom Andrews of Win Without War. And these good folks are organizing a letter-writing campaign to Jim Lehrer to urge him to ask the candidates at the presidential debate on foreign policy about the Israeli settlements:
Barack Obama and John McCain about their plans to implement U.S. policy
of opposition to Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied
Palestinian territories, which the U.S. government has long
acknowledged is a key stumbling block to peace between Israelis and
Palestinians."
Two other groups behind the letter are the Jewish Voice for Peace out of Oakland and Council on American Islamic Relations. Which hosted Walt and Mearsheimer a year back. This is progress. It's amazing that McCain's retrograde policy re Israeli expansion has not become a huge issue. Journalists can't do it. Obama can't do it. They're all compromised. Maybe the fledgling realist left can.
PBS would never dare to have an honest
examination of the stranglehold over our
Middle Eastern foreign policy exercised by
Zionists, Israel-firsters, and their shabbas
goyim.
What a ridiculous issue. There may be obstacles to peace but they are not the settlements. If there is a deal, the settlements are going. Everyone knows that. What we do not know is whether the Pals can live without a "right of return" turning Israel into another Arab state. Israelis will dismantle the settlements but will not allow Israel to turn into another Arab state. Too high a chance for dictatorship. Too high a chance for an end to freedoms of speech, religion and assembly. I guess just too many liberal democrats among the Israelis! But it is this right of return that has the potential to gum up the deal – not the settlements.
Any Israeli, or anyone 'in the know' will tell you: winning hearts and minds is the key. . . . .The settlements insure no hearts can be won. . . . . It is the same arrogance as the Wall Street bonuses of millions of $. . . . . And it is the same people and philosophy behind both. . . . . And they support the war on terror. . . .
Steve: The question that keeps you up at night is whether "Pals can live without a "right of return" turning Israel into another Arab state"… First of all, what gives you the authority to delegate the rights of others? If Palestinian refugees have a right of return, then by definition it is theirs to employ or not. You have no say in the matter. The second part of your sentence is very basically racist. Get over your hatred of Arabs.
Steve F wrote:
"If there is a deal, the settlements are going. Everyone knows that."
I guess that's news to the hundreds of thousands of settlers, especially those people living in the ring of illegal settlements to the East of Jerusalem – the famous "facts on the ground" that Dubya acknowledged early on in his presidency.
I'd say everyone knows those illegal settlement blocks are staying, providing a huge obsticle to any final peace agreement.