Today Israeli P.M. Olmert said that the "outpost" settlements in the West Bank are a "disgrace." This after our president, George Bush, said the other day that these settlements "ought to go."
It shows 1, how powerful America is. If George Bush had said angrily, all the settlements have to go, get back to the ’49 armistice line now, what would have been the response? And it shows, 2, how impoverished American politics are on this issue. Why is P.M. Olmert making the strongest statements in the discourse about these hateful arrangments? Where is Elliot Engel, author of the Syria Accountability Act? Where is Susan Sarandon, patroness of Leviev, a little bit o’ the settlements on Madison Avenue? Where is Obama? Where is Edwards? No, our politicians are hogtied by the Israel lobby (there–isn’t that better than "stranglehold," Walt and Mearsheimer’s formulation?) and none of them has the guts to say what an Israeli P.M. is saying. Do you have any idea how much influence the U.S. could have over this colonialist folly if it chose to? When is the U.S. going to show leadership?
