This takes crust. Benjamin Netanyahu went on Face the Nation yesterday and lectured the U.S. on open housing and “ethnic purification” even as he’s trying to swallow up Jerusalem for the Jewish state.
After your meeting with the president last week, the White House issued what some call “a very sharp rebuke,” host Bob Schieffer began. That statement, by State’s Jen Psaki, was that the latest Israeli settlement announcement would alienate Israel from its closest allies and doom the two-state solution.
Netanyahu said three times that he was “baffled” by the criticism.
Well, first of all I had a very good meeting with the president. And I was baffled by this statement. Because it doesn’t reflect American values. What we’re being criticized for is that some Jewish residents of Jerusalem bought apartments legally from Arabs in a predominantly Arab neighborhood. And this is seen as as terrible thing. You know Arabs in East Jerusalem, Palestinians, buy apartments, thousands of them in the Jewish neighborhoods in West Jerusalem. Nobody says you can’t do it. If I said to you some place in the United States, Jews cannot buy apartments here. There’d be an uproar. I don’t accept this thing.
I mean, Jews can buy private homes in Arab neighborhoods, Arabs can buy private homes in Jewish neighborhoods. It’s their right. We don’t want to accept something else. And I was absolutely baffled by this. It’s against the American values and it doesn’t bode well for peace. The idea that we’d have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace– I think it’s anti-peace. I think it works against peace. I don’t think it’s a principle that should be condoned, it should be condemned.
Did the president bring it up in the meeting? Schieffer asked. Nope, Netanyahu said.
He raised the general issue of settlements, and I said I think we should address the larger issue… Are the Palestinians ready to recognize a nation state for the Jewish people, the way that we are willing to recognize a nation state for the Palestinian people. Are they finally willing to come to grips with the existence of Israel and can we create security conditions on the ground? … That remains the real issue. We talked at that level, we did not talk in the specifics of this particular criticism.
You’re about to announce a larger settlement? Schieffer asked.
It’s not a settlement. These are neighborhoods of East Jerusalem… This is three minutes from my office. This is just a neighborhood in Jerusalem. And in this neighborhood that is now being planned, there are about 2400 units. What they didn’t tell you is that 700 of those units are designated for the Arab residents of Jerusalem. They need housing, the Jewish residents of Jerusalem need housing. Why shouldn’t it be? What is this affront to peace. Why can’t Jews and Arabs live together?
I think actually this whole line, that says that Jews cannot buy apartments in Jerusalem, you know, the capital of the Jewish people for the last 3000 years, since King David, or you cannot have mixed housing projects for Jews and Arabs, I think this is anti-peace. I think condemning it is wrong. I’m frankly baffled by it, I think it’s not the American way.
Amazing performance; and Schieffer was completely flatfooted. Israel is completely the Judaization of Jerusalem. Here is Peace Now’s analysis of the latest settlement, Givat Hamatos,which it says is designated for Israelis, not Palestinians, and is intended to ring East Jerusalem with Jewish settlements, foreclosing any possibility of a Palestinian capital in the city, a linchpin of the two-state solution. Netanyahu’s argument would be like Saddam Hussein saying, it’s racist not to allow Iraqis to build or buy in (occupied) Kuwait. And note that Jews can live anywhere they want around the city, but tens of thousands of Palestinians are prohibited from moving back to stolen property in West Jerusalem.
Note that Obama doesn’t bring things up with Netanyahu in their meeting. Obama is said to loathe Netanyahu. Just going through his paces when they meet. Nothing substantive.
>> Note that Obama doesn’t bring things up with Netanyahu in their meeting.
Barry’s a Nobel Peace Prize winner – it makes sense that he’d want to remain on peaceful terms with Bibi.
Barry is not on peaceful terms with the Palestinians because the Palestinians are Hamas* and Hamas is terrrrrrr, and peace kills and maims and tortures and cluster-bombs and occupies and “shocks and awes” and colonizes and regime changes and white phosphorizes and massively collateral damages terrrrrrr. That’s what peace does.
(*And maybe also Iran and ISIS.)
“Note that Obama doesn’t bring things up with Netanyahu in their meeting. Obama is said to loathe Netanyahu. Just going through his paces, when they meet, then. Nothing substantive.”
It was Netanyahu who said it wasn’t brought up.
He’s a confirmed and proven fabricator and liar. I just wish our MSM wouldn’t give him airtime to do his awful “victory of genocide of Palestinians lap” over and over again.
Netanyahu the Truthteller: “It’s not a settlement. These are neighborhoods of East Jerusalem… This is just a neighborhood in Jerusalem….What they didn’t tell you is that 700 of those units are designated for the Arab residents of Jerusalem.”
Folks, it’s all been just one big misunderstanding the past 66 years. We love Palestinians, we want to live with them so much that we demolish their family homes so that they will move into our apartment blocks. We do it for them. But you know, the food ain’t so bad either. We cook hummus together and sing around the campfire at night. Our core belief is sharing. All good American values that we receive along with the generous annual check and F-16’s.
“Are the Palestinians ready to recognize a nation state for the Jewish people, the way that we are willing to recognize a nation state for the Palestinian people.” nietanyahu
Hmmm??.
The Likud charter says different.
a. “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel.”
b. “Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem”
c. “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.”
d. “The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.”.
Doesn,t Obama have a copy of the Likud Charter to dump in nietanyahu,s lap and then tell him to go home and amend it to demonstrate proof of his claim above.
To get a look inside the skull of bibi the peace maker read the following.
“By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man”
http://972mag.com/everything-elliott-abrams-knows-about-israeli-settlements-is-wrong/96418/
“Furthermore, in peace talks Netanyahu has refused to present any map that denotes his hopes and plans for negotiated borders. He has also consistently refused to treat agreements reached in previous rounds of negotiations as points of reference, or starting points, in any peace talks in which his government engages. In other words, according to Netanyahu, there is no land destined for a future Palestinian state — only land earmarked for future annexation by Israel.”972mag
Netanyahu: “Why can’t Jews and Arabs live together?”
They could before the Zionist criminal project started to take over the country and drive out it’s majority, because of their faith.
They still can in Palestine, if both have Palestinian citizenship and the Goverment of Palestine agrees to this housing project. They can’t if Non-Palestinians (Jews, Arabs or anyone else) are illegaly settled there under occupation and the occupier decides to illegaly builds houses for them.
This is about having the certain citizenship and not about belonging to an ethnoreligious group or what racists like Netanyahoo thinks it is about. And when it comes to the crime of settling under occupation, Israel with its borderline criminals are not different from others. Read the Nuremberg Trial for that matter.