{"id":815,"date":"2010-03-10T02:33:11","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T10:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=815"},"modified":"2010-03-10T02:33:11","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T10:33:11","slug":"does-israel-even-want-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/10\/does-israel-even-want-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Israel Even Want Peace?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It had appeared to me that Joe Biden was beginning to make progress  toward restarting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  Then Israel slammed the door.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"WestBankSettlements\"<\/a> Hours after the arrival Tuesday of Vice President Joe Biden to help launch indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israel announced the construction of 1,600 homes in a settlement block in mostly Arab East Jerusalem<\/strong>, an open rebuff that led Biden to issue a sharply worded condemnation. <\/p>\n

"I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem<\/strong>," Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.<\/p>\n

"The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel<\/strong>." <\/p>\n

The announcement by the Israeli Interior Ministry came during Biden’s first day in the region, the highest profile visit by an Obama administration official. It appeared to catch the administration off guard.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama repeatedly had demanded a halt in settlement construction in order to revive the moribund peace negotiations.<\/p>\n

Just hours before the announcement, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was "optimistic" that indirect talks would begin a process by which a final peace deal could be reached.<\/p>\n

"I am very pleased that you and the Palestinian leadership have agreed to launch indirect talks. We hope that these talks will lead, and they must lead eventually, to negotiations and direct discussions between the parties," Biden said.<\/p>\n

He said his visit was meant to highlight the "unbreakable" bond between Israel and the U.S., especially on issues of security.<\/p>\n

"Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel. There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security," he said<\/p>\n

The Israeli decision to approve 1,600 new settler homes could torpedo the talks before they have even begun<\/strong>, officials from the Palestinian Authority said\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <McClatchy DC<\/a>><\/p>\n

Even though the embedded map is over 18 months out of date, it clearly shows the extent of the Israeli incursion into Palestinian territory.  This indicates that Israel\u2019s intent is to eliminate the Palestinian state, guaranteed by treaty, through attrition.  The timing of Israel\u2019s announcement is a slap in the US face for having the audacity to try to achieve peace.  It shows that Israel does not want peace.  While I have no objection to the US guaranteeing Israel\u2019s sovereignty (in their OWN territory only), I think it\u2019s tome to withdraw the military aid being used for Israel\u2019s predatory behavior toward the Palestinians.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It had appeared to me that Joe Biden was beginning to make progress  toward restarting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  Then Israel slammed the door. Hours after the arrival Tuesday of Vice President Joe Biden to help launch indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israel announced the construction of 1,600 homes in a settlement block in […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}