Responses to four questions posed by Rodrigo Craveiro, a journalist from the Brazilian newspaper Correio Braziliense
1- How do you see the decision of the Knesset taken last night about legalizing settlement outposts and what are the likely consequences of this legislative initiative?
21st Century Wire says…
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour seems quite rattled and reluctant to allow Marine Le Pen, the French presidential favorite, to speak her mind about the situation in Crimea… and CNN’s coverage of it.
A Jewish settler looks at the West bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim, from the E-1 area on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem.
United Nations envoy for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov released a statement yesterday warning that Israel’s “formalisation law” which seeks to retrospectively legalese illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank would be “a step towards the annexation of the West Bank”.
Our nation was born in genocide…. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade.
— Martin Luther King Jr.1
Israel is waging a war, and it has been ever since European Jews entered Palestine and began a campaign to denationalize Mandate Palestine. The continuing siege, occupation, dispossession, and annexation of Palestine are crystal clear examples of the state of war.
After the collapse of the Israel-Palestine talks in April, and the creation of a National Unity government in Palestine on June 2, Israel reacted harshly. A Smash and Grab policy was immediately announced by government ministers.
Expectedly, the following day, the expansion of West Bank Jewish settlements was announced. Less expected was the disclosure by settlers of an ongoing Scare and Rule campaign.
Bar Lev Line
2013 was a year in which the so-called peace process charade was allowed to continue, leading Palestinians on yet another futile journey of broken promises. Meanwhile, the Israeli colonial project in the West Bank and East Jerusalem carried on unabated. But it was not entirely a year of doom and gloom either, for the global boycott campaign (BDS) has taken off like never before, surpassing the capricious Palestinian leadership and its confined political platforms.
So here comes John Kerry again, for the umpteenth time (but who is counting?) to make peace between us and the Palestinians.
It is a highly laudable effort. Unfortunately, it is based on a false premise. To wit: that the Israeli government wants peace based on the two-state solution.
Unwilling – or unable – to recognize this simple truth, Kerry looks for a way around. He tries approaches from different directions, in the hope of convincing Binyamin Netanyahu. In his imagination he hears Netanyahu exclaim: “Now, why didn’t I think of that?!”
