and the Obama administration, surprise, surprise, sides with...
Israel.
Israel is busy taking land that does not belong to it, and it is the fault of the Palestinians for not cooperating peacefully.
Abbas has said he won't resume talks that broke off in December 2008 unless Netanyahu accepts the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, with some alterations, and freezes all settlement building there. ..
Netanyahu refuses to commit to anything before the start of talks, but has said he will not give up east Jerusalem. On Monday, he strongly indicated that he would not extend a 10-month freeze on housing starts in West Bank settlements beyond September.
AP
The Israeli regime wants talks to give the press great opportunity for photo-ops... but can't even commit to even the basics. Or even stopping demolishing Palestinian villages.
The Prime Minister refuses to implement the full freeze demanded by Israel's main benefactor (and not incidentally, International law) but expects Palestinians to enter into "talks" as Israel robs. In just weeks, no matter what Palestinians do, no matter what obama says (not that he seems inclined to say anything at all) the Israeli govt will once again continue its appropriation of more West Bank land, it's not like they ever stopped.
Where is this "Palestinian state" supposed to be located, then?
Obama has affirmed that he believes that Netanyahu is a man who wants peace, echoing the words of his predecessor (as he all too often does) when Bush called Sharon a "man of peace". Yet the record indicates anything but, and the world knows otherwise. It did not take the release of this video for many of us to understand this.
In the meantime, the Left in Israel is under unprecedented attack, and nonviolent actions may very well be criminalized under Israeli law.
Imagine if the US congress had enacted a law prohibiting the promotion of boycotts of segregated buses... or grapes or Nestle? Or today prohibited anyone from advocating a boycott of Arizona? Yet the criminalization of those that promote such nonviolent tactics is exactly what may soon be in store for "this only democracy in the Middle East".
For many years now, Israel has boasted about being "the only democracy in the Middle East." It has never been a democracy: it has systematically discriminated against its non-Jewish citizens (for example, it was only this week that Arab villages gained access to public transit), and in order to support the racial purity laws indirectly, it granted clerics control over all aspects of personal life. It permits the existence of courts where women are inherently inferior to men and their testimony is inadmissible. There is no law in Israel that guarantees the freedom of speech, which relies only on Supreme Court decisions, and the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty intentionally left out the right to equality. Israel has never pretended that all its citizens are equal....
Concurrently, the first of three readings of a proposed law voted in a prohibition on calling for a boycott of Israel. As has happened a lot recently, this proposed law defines the West Bank as part of Israel-proper, which has far reaching significance.
Taking a look at the MKs who propose the law, we see quite a long list of the center-right mainstream, from Dalia Itzik, former Speaker of the Knesset and the most prominent MK on the list, to ultra-orthodox Moshe Gaffny. That last name is something of a surprise: the ultra-orthodox are the most active boycotters in Israel. That’s alright, though: the law states (at the end of its preamble) that "the balance between the public good and the best interest of the state and individual liberties is expressed by limiting the definition of the considerations of the individual who sets out to purchase a product or service as a boycott under this law." In other words, if you boycott a particular company because it is cruel to animals, or because your rabbi told you to boycott it, or because your conscience won’t let you uphold the way it uses anorexia-promoting models in its ads, or because it uses slave labor – that would be fine. Only a boycott protesting the existence of the Israeli occupation is prohibited. More here...
Things are not going well. It is time to end "constructive engagement" with this apartheid regime, just as we demanded its end under Reagan and his devotion to it with South Africa. It is time to end US support for a system of oppression. Citizen action is the place to start.