DISQUS

ShannonL · 1 month ago

Poor baby, did the scary black guy tell you to stop building settlements? Nice hit piece.

Jim_Satterfield · 1 month ago

The Rubin piece is a very bad joke. The Israelis have been anything but flexible.

jdledell · 1 month ago

This is a real smear job by Rubin. There is no question that Obama has made some mistakes in foreign as well as domestic policy. He is facing some deep seated and intractable problems. Specifically, Iran has been pusuing nuclear capabilities for the last decade - what success did Bush have.in stopping it? For that matter what changes in arab policy was Bush able to effect - none. Did Bush magically make the Lebanon and Syria problems go away in his 8 years - NO!!!!!! What the Hell was Bush's strategy in Afganistan?????? No one knows. Rubin's commentary is not an objective analysis but merely a hit job for the republican base.

However, it's on the Israeli/Palestinian issue that I have the most objections. Obama made a mistake in calling for a settlement freeze without first knowing Israel's answer - never put a President's prestige on the line without having the result firmly in hand. That being said, calling Netanyahu and Israel's position on settlements benign is a ridiculous mis-representation. The settlement freeze is important because Israel has always used negotiations as a cover to expand settlements. In 1993 the start of the Oslo process, Israel had about 140,000 settlers in East Jerusalem and about 110,000 in other areas over the Green Line. Today those numbers are roughly 200,000 in East Jerusalem and 300,000 in other areas. In other words, while the parties were negotiating the settler population roughly doubled.

Now as to the "limitation" on settler growth that Bibi has supposedly implemented to 3000 units, it is nothing but a lie and a smokescreen. There is no halt. I was just there for the High Holy Days and as a dual passport holder I can go everywhere in the West Bank where all my relatives live. The settlers in ALL the established settlements will readily admit they are building without permits and that they are not part of the 3000. They are proud of it. When I was visiting my niece in Kiryat Arba and looked in amazement at all the building she told me that last month Ariel Atias, current Housing Minister, assured the town council that all the building will be retroactively approved, as usual.

In February when I was in Israel for the elections, I visited Maskiot, a new Jordan Valley settlement that is currently expanding it's permanent structures. I was told that Bibi personally promised these and other Jordan Valley settlers that he would annex the Jordan Valley before he left office. Without the Jordan Valley there is no viable Palestinian state. That is the Likud objective and they will use every trick, bluff and lie they need to make that

Ron Beasley · 1 month ago

Israel should be worried - only one person has come to their defense in the comments thread. The US is the only "friend" the Israeli Zionists have left and that friendship is fading.

rachelmap · 1 month ago

"What have the <s>Romans</s> Israelis done for us?"

But seriously, what have they done for us?

Ron Beasley · 1 month ago

Tom Friedman has a more realistic take. This Rubin comment is outrageous and beyond belief:

Israel is proving flexible while the Palestinian Authority refuses even to talk no matter how much the Administration panders to and coddles it.

spirasol · 1 month ago

While I might agree with the title of your article that's about it....... Everything else you say is an insult to anyone who tries to track what goes on in the middle east and especially with those intransigent Israeli's.
The rest of what you say is pure poppycock and no serous 1st year student of the middle east would agree with you. As for Tom Friedman, the journalist most hated by other journalists, his big solution is to walk away........ not to finally put pressure on Israel, just walk away..........which actually would play directly in to Israeli hands............with no one watching at all they will put not just their hand but their whole arm in the cookie jar.........

Ron Beasley · 1 month ago

The thing that Friedman left out is that when we leave we need to take our military aide with us.

spirasol · 1 month ago

Ah yes, Ron-- now I better understand your post. Yes, take the millions
of military aide, and all the support, including all the stone walling
in UN every time Israel breaks another law. But that would still leave
us with a moral obligation, and moreover, how to lesson one of the major
underlying reasons for the growth of terrorism in the region, --Israeli
intransigence and state terrorism, which kills and imprisons a hell of a
lot more people than the one desperate individual. I have to say I don't
believe it will ever happen. Israel, unbeknowst to most Americans, has
become one of our states, one requiring a budget, military aide, and a
willingness to look away when little brother commits crimes against
humanity.

AustinRoth · 1 month ago

Oh my dear, yes. What oh what is the world coming to? Criticizing the One?

Why, it is obvious that Rubin, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the NY Times, the LA Times and ANY organization or individual that does so cannot be discussed as 'legitimate news'.

DLS · 1 month ago

Obama fails to continue his 24-7 miracle making, the lib Dems falter from their overreach and wrongdoing in Congress, and myths are shattered, the continued reality in the world disrupts PC dreams -- no wonder the kids are angry and lashing out at Rubin and other PC violators and critics of all kind.

Straying from the Shining Path ist verboten!