says that Obama engaging with Hamas could cause all kinds of problems. I'm sure. And how is it engaging with Israel?
The Guardian has reported that Obama plans to talk to Hamas. And speaking of Aaron David Miller and the peace process, Glenn Greenwald lighted on this in his steel-trap-mind kinda way:
Long-time Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller, in Newsweek, earlier this week made one of the most startling revelations in some time -- that in all the time the U.S. has supposedly been attempting to forge a Middle East peace agreement over the past 25 years, it never once, in any meaningful way, raised with Israeli leaders the damage that comes from Israeli settlements. Specifically, said Miller: "I
can't recall one meeting where we had a serious discussion with an
Israeli prime minister about the damage that settlement activity —
including land confiscation, bypass roads and housing demolitions —
does to the peacemaking process."
Miller also thinks that the I-P issue is a very distant third on Obama's priority list and intimates that he doesn't think much will change with respect to the US-Israel issue.
Can we sue our leaders? This is unbelievable. Bush Sr. didn't raise it?
Bush senior definitely raised it. He threatened to withhold the aid to Israel, and was given the most solemn undertaking that the settlement construction has halted. The money got released, and the settlement construction restarted the next day.
He recalled (I'm paraphrasing): "There is only one of me, and a thousand of Israel's lobbyists descended on Capitol Hill".
And that spelled the end of his political career, which his son took to heart. At least he didn't get assassinated like JFK while he was on
Israel's ass for transparency regarding their nuclear plant.
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Israel as Samson: Wild, irrational, thuggish, untamed, covetous, given to religious obsessions, the incredible hulk able to carry away the city gates of Gaza but ultimately vulnerable. The really scary thing about Samson is that, filled with self-pity and self-righteousness even after committing atrocities against so many Philistines, he’s prepared to kill an additional 3000 and himself by bringing down the great hall on top of everyone’s head.