An Israeli friend of mine pointed me to this March 2016 speech by Prof. Asher Susser on YouTube. He teaches courses on the Middle East and Israel on Coursera (well worth the time, if you are interested in the history of the region). His positions dovetail with what Kerry said today about expanding settlements and the extremist government behind PM Netanyahu. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U44kliaoo5E
Calm down, people⌠Jared will have this all settled in the first 100 days. He will be Trumpâs closest confident (after Vlad) and use his worldly experience to fix all things Middle East.
With any luck Bibi will end up in jail.
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Be still my beating heart! Thank you for posting that.
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Do I hear you singing, @tena?
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I sincerely hope not because I cannot carry a tune. hahahaha
But the sentiment fits at the moment.
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People forget but Netanyahu came right out and said during his election that he does not believe in a two state solution. He admitted it because he was desperate and was going to lose so he had to motivate the hard liners and get them out to the polls,and it worked.
and that pattern of telling hardliners what they want to hear to get out the vote is working too often . . . .
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Somehow I feel that things are not going to get better in the Middle East when Trump takes charge. And I donât think Israel is going in the right direction with the settlements. It seems like it will make peace so much harder.
Dermer was practically unhinged on All Things Considered last night. Robert Siegel, to his credit, was having none of it. It was almost like witnessing journalism. Although it would be hard to recognize after all of this timeâŚ
Congress is apoplectic and wants âsomethingâ done regarding the UN and some of the things on the table will require legislation.
Yes, All Things Considered. It was gratifying to hear some pushback from Siegel, but it was like arguing with a meth-Harpy. You could hear the winds of the post-fact world a-blowinâ. Baby stepsâŚ
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Kerry is correct. He has been quite prescient on where things have been going in the Middle East lately. While much has been made of Trumpâs decision to appoint David Friedman, a hardline NY bankruptcy lawyer as US ambassador to Israel, Rex Tillerson probably isnât interested in such small beer. The Israelis, displacing more people than the entire population of Finland, probably wonât get rewarded for a Crimea-like annexation of the West Bank and Gaza. It just makes the Middle East less stable than it already is, and if you are an oil guy, you want stability. Since Bunker Hunt lost his shirt in the nationalization of Libyaâs oil reserves, the state department has been pretty clear that complaining about âviolations of international lawâ donât carry much weight in resource husbanding of international corporations. Instead, the idea is to own the political elite in that country and make sure their benefits are better than what they could get from simple rent-extraction from their own people. Tillerson will probably tell Bibi to cool it. Itâs nice that you get to address the US Congress and receive billions in direct military aid, as well as indirect aid, but that only works as long as Israel policy is treated as separate domestic policy, not too different from Cuba policy a few years back. But things change. Much of the worldâs oil may never be pumped if we transition to other energy sources if the oil industry becomes too much of a driver of social and economic instability.
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critics of israels policy towards the Palestinians and its leadership under bibiâŚhave certainly been affirmed by what has come out the last few days.
obama the best friend historically towards israel was treated by bibi and his cohorts in a way that would make the white supremacists blush.
and it never ends as we witness the adl continuing their meddling and interference in the democratic party by instigating a witch hunt against the âmuslumâ guyâŚwho is running for the DNC chair.
with veterans sleeping in parks it is time to withdraw ALL support financially for the current apartheid regime run by bibiâŚand give that 3.8 BILLION dollars a year to wards their well-being.
and i believe it is time for chuckie to step downâŚsince the country needs a strong opposition to the fuhrer⌠not one who embraces his corporate schemes to steal the nations assetsâŚsomeone who realizes being a senator is about serving THIS country FIRSTâŚand not being a lap dog to a pretender who seeks to enrich himself as much as he can get away withâŚsimply because he is of like mind to bibis despicable nature.
just WHERE is your alliance chuckie?..is the question i want answeredâŚif turn about is fair play.
right adl?
btwâŚas i predicted months agoâŚwe are well on the wayâŚtowards a nuclear attack against IranâŚwhat happens after that is anyoneâs guessâŚEXCEPTâŚthe pretense of the USA not being a police state will evaporate as quickly as one can sayâŚâYOU have insulted the fuhrerâ.