Even top Democrats, like Chuck Schumer, are condemning the U.S. non-vote. Still, Israel managed to get through 8 years of Obama with minimal damage. All the fetters are off Obama now. We're going to see the real Leftist. He's emptying the prisons and Guantanamo, Appointing radicals to commissions, trying to do things that he thinks it will be difficult for Trump to undo.
Is now the time to point out that every USPOTUS since the 60's has publicly been against Israeli settlements because they have been and continue to be a major roadblock in any 2-state solution which has been ours and the worlds solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict? Is it also the time to point out that during Obama's administration Israel received more foreign aid (welfare?) than under any previous administration...ever? Netanyahu needs to go f**k himself. He's pissed that the tail isn't wagging the dog. It soon will be again by all appearances.
Husker It might also be the time to ask , Has the USA ever NOT vetoed a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements? If so when?
Personally, I don't think UN resolutions are particularly relevant unless they're backed up by something, and they usually aren't. For the most part, it's just a bunch of international bureaucrats with delusions of grandeur, who aren't any more effective than their predecessors with the League of Nations who had similar delusions of grandeur. Nevertheless, I'm trying to figure out what's so bad about abstaining on this vote. Most people on the Right are just ripping it because we didn't vote with Israel and because they don't like the UN in general (and for good reason). Well, unless it's per se wrong to ever vote against Israel, then that's not much of an explanation. (I think some conservatives actually do think this, because they think there's a religious duty to support a Jewish state. I think they're wrong both on political and religious grounds, but that's another discussion.) So I wonder what part of the Administration's explanation is wrong. Has hostility toward Israeli settlements not really been part of US policy for the last several decades? (In other words, did Ambassador Power lie?) Did the resolution do more than just condemn the settlements? And I'm serious. I honestly don't know the answers to these questions.
Yes, it seems silly when presented in that context; however that little sliver contains some of the holiest places on the planet for the three Abrahamic religions. So the sliver is the window to God ("The eye of the needle?").
I know this is from Wikipedia but if this is true then you can see how someone might consider East Jerusalem to be occupied territory: "During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jerusalem was contested between Jordan and Israel, and on the cessation of hostilities, the two countries secretly negotiated a division of the city, with the eastern sector coming under Jordanian rule. This arrangement was formalized in the Rhodes Agreement in March 1949.[2][3] A week after David Ben-Gurion presented his party's assertion that "Jewish Jerusalem is an organic, inseparable part of the State of Israel" in December 1949,[4] Jordan annexed East Jerusalem.[5] These decisions were confirmed respectively in the Knesset in January 1950 and the Jordanian Parliament in April 1950.[6] On being captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, East Jerusalem, with expanded borders, came under Israeli rule.[7] It includes Jerusalem's Old City and some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, such as the Temple Mount, Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre."
It is easy to forget that there were no settlements prior to 1967. None. Zip. Nada. Yet there was no peace then either. At that time, Jerusalem was strictly divided and the Jews were not allowed to pray at the Western Wall. The Jews want to live in Jerusalem, where they lived for 1000 years. Same for Bethlehem, where the Jewish Jesus was born. Same for Judea. Ever been to Gaza? Not a single Jew lives there. Jews in the West Bank wont bring peace. Peace will come when Arabs decide they want peace. It's that simple (to me at least). Everything else we see but for this is nonsense. It's a shell game played out on a large stage. This country is the only one in this part of the world where women in burkas walk peacefully beside the ultra-orthodox. That little sliver of orange is the sole beacon of co-existence in the whole region. I just dont see this as the problem. It's the solution. IMO, Kerry and Obama are not looking good over this. And while Kerry is at least making an attempt to defend Obama's feckless policy, what does Obama himself do? He hides. Plays golf. So tired of this guy.
Following is the Wiki summary of the death of Benjamin's brother: "Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu Yonatan was Benjamin Netanyahu's brother who died in the raid on Entebbe. Here is a letter from him to Benjamin from Wiki: “Letter to his brother Benjamin, December 2, 1973: "We're preparing for war, and it's hard to know what to expect. What I'm positive of is that there will be a next round, and others after that. But I would rather opt for living here in continual battle than for becoming part of the wandering Jewish people. Any compromise will simply hasten the end. As I don't intend to tell my grandchildren about the Jewish State in the twentieth century as a mere brief and transient episode in thousands of years of wandering, I intend to hold on here with all my might." bystander says: It is my personal opinion that when you negotiate with Benjamin Netanyahu, you are negotiating over the death of his brother. Netanyahu blood as been sacrificed and he is too emotionally involved to do anything other than what he is doing; even if it means he is over-reacting. I think he is representing the Zionist, Diaspora, Holocaust, losing a brother to the Arabs point of view and you get what you get from that emotional trauma.
Kerry said -- "Israel can either be Jewish or democratic it cannot be both." Doesnt this beg the reply that John Kerry can be a globalist or represent America, but he cannot be both?
Millennials not smart enough to connect their vote and their living situation. Hopefully a new policy of tax reform and anti regulation will show them the error of their ways.
You had to know Chuckles Schumer at some point would have to weigh in on Obama/Kerry's latest misstep Chuckles think Kerry may have "emboldened extremists" in his speech
Obama has deployed US special forces troops along Lithuania’s border with “aggressive” Russia. "Tensions between Washington and the Kremlin have reached Cold War levels amid reports Vladimir Putin is deploying nuke-ready missiles in the Russian province of Kaliningrad – which borders Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. And Lithuanian Defence Ministry spokeswoman Asta Galdikaite confirmed America has offered additional military support following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. She said: “The United States was the first to offer additional safety assurance measures to the Baltic countries following the deterioration of the security situation in the region after the annexation of the Crimea.” She added: “US Special Operations Forces presence in Lithuania is one of the deterrents” against military threats by Putin’s aggressive regime, reports the Express..... ******* The US and its Nato allies will send battalions of up to 1,200 to each of the three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – and Poland by spring this year, reports the New York Times." https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2531054/america-special-forces-russian-border-lithuania-obama-putin/
Obama currently has DHS grinding out new Temporary Protected Status amnesties so rapidly that it does not have time to proofread them http://cis.org/north/how-can-you-sw...ontinuously-march-4-2017-when-it-january-2017
Obama awarded himself the “Distinguished Public Service Medal." The military replied with empty seats, and then passed out from listening him talk about himself
