Stuart Appelbaum
A few weeks ago US ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman upset the lobby when he said that Israel’s actions were fostering anti-Semitism in Europe.
Well NY labor leader Stuart Appelbaum has adopted a similar argument, blaming the crisis of the two-state solution on Israel. He says that Arab contempt is being fed by Netanyahu’s high-handedness. The NY Jewish Week’s Doug Chandler reports on a speech to the Jewish Labor Committee last week by its president, Appelbaum, and the walkout by a Netanyahu gov’t official. The occasion was a Human Rights Dinner:
Speaking before more than 350 guests, most of them from various trade unions, Appelbaum condemned what he called “new expressions of contempt for Israel within the Arab world,” a reference to the movement to delegitimize Israel. That contempt, he said, is at least partly rooted “in the conviction that Israel will never accept the right of the Palestinians to an independent state.”
But Appelbaum added that Israel was “cursed with a right-wing coalition government that’s regularly giving credence” to that point of view. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “talks a good game about a two-state solution,” he said, his administration “shamelessly” promotes “the construction of illegal settlements on the West Bank” — a policy that “severely impedes negotiations.” It’s a situation that Appelbaum likened to the employer “who comes to the bargaining table, telling us he wants a contract that’s a win-win for both sides, while, at the same time,” instructing his lawyers to work on petitions that would decertify the union.
As a result, he said, Hamas, which he branded a “terrorist” organization, is winning new support, while moderates who were once ready to negotiate peace are now backing away from that stance.
As Appelbaum concluded his remarks, calling on guests “to send a message” to the Israeli government in favor of “good-faith negotiations,” Shlomi Kofman, Israel’s deputy consul general in New York, rose from his table and walked out of the event. Meanwhile, the remarks seemed to elicit a lukewarm response, failing to win the robust applause that followed other speeches
Thanks to Meretz USA.
W h a t ? ? ?
Netanyahu and ” Good Faith negotiations”?????
A contradiction in se.
Hardly conceivable even after re-incarnation.
Which body would survive such a soul??????
O.K.
But still the bizarreness of the foreign country Israel being an issue in everything in the US from union bosses to political parties to churches…is the most bizarre aberration in the history of the US.
I don’t think there is any parallel comparison in country in the world having this kind of foreign country fetish , ever.
Drip drop, drip drop…
Reading the news today that several MKs want to ban MK Ahmed Tibi from the Knesset for being a ‘traitor’ and the fact that ‘Baby Bibi’ Danny Danon wants to introduce a bill that will ban a MK if 75 % of the Knesset votes for it, makes me wonder, in light of the Republican party’s official stance as going for a One State.
There are now almost 750,000 settlers beyond the green line. They’ll get beyond a million within this decade.
So, how much longer? How much longer will the world pretend that the 2SS is viable (and ignore the fact that the only way Israel agreed to it was when they could build settlements like crazy, like Ehud Barak did)?
When will the narrative shift that we’re dealing with a de-facto One State, which denies millions of it’s citizens the right to vote and is on the cusp of banning all Arab parties from the Knesset which had a ceremonial token role anyway?
And what happens when the narrative shifts?
I’m willing to bet, since I am poor, nothing than for the sake of it, that it’ll happen within 5 years. I think that if Iran wasn’t going to get attacked soon we could look at a 3 year window, but the Iran needs to happen first and the aftermath has to play out.
So within 5 years is my baseline scenario, somewhere around 2017. And I’m talking major turning point, even the conservative outlets too(aside from the fantical pro-Settler WSJ) like the British Telegraph, the American National Interest and so forth. Even these people. Not just as a possibility, like now, but de facto conventional wisdom as established truth.
Anyone want to bet against and/or differently, and if so, why?
So, applebaum and meretz want to put a different face on the same policies – shocking- we’ve been watching this movie for years. the israeli “left” is no better than the right, they are just better at paying fealty to the big boss, the US
if I were a US “labor leader” id be careful about attacking others for “talking a good game” but not following through, or carrying out a different agenda, this seems to be the trademark of US “labor leaders”…..
This is great news. Labor leaders at a public meeting, to the Jewish Labor Committee no less, calls N’hu’s bluff. Places blame where it belongs.
Drip, drip, indeed.