That's because the request is not modest and cuts to the heart of Israeli strategy. With current demographic trends, even many on the Israeli right realize that Israel will eventually have to acquiesce to a two-state solution. If the West Bank and Gaza aren't jettisoned, Arab population expansion, which is higher than Jewish growth, will eventually make the Jews minority rulers in an ostensibly democratic state - similar to apartheid South Africa. Thus, if democracy with a Jewish majority is to be preserved, the Palestinians will have to be given some sort of a state.
That said, the longer that outcome can be delayed, the better for Israel because proliferating and expanding Jewish settlements can continue - thereby grabbing greater amounts of the best Palestinian land and leaving the Palestinians the meager scraps. Any affirmative Israeli response to U.S. pressure to halt settlements would ruin this underlying Israeli strategy of getting more Palestinian land while the gettin's good.
Note that Isreali strategic interests do not always coincide with American interests. Considering the amount of money poured into Isreal by the US we should have far more leverage with them than we do today. The last American president to really sock it to them was G H W Bush, who had the gall to veto Isreali funding after Shamir continued expansion of settlements (at the behest of his ultra-conservative supporters) despite the president demanding that he cease such activities.
The resulting firestorm for both politicians (AIPAC, etc, to President Bush, and the ultra conservatives slamming Shamir for alienating the United States - despite it being at their encouragement) was indeed memorable.
But the US needs to be far more direct in its dealings with Isreal than it has in the past, and must start the ball rolling with a cohesive strategy to get the two-state solution moving again.
For the good of both nations, and the middle east.
This is just a thought. Didn't the Jews always claimed that land, even before 1948? To my understanding, through out history the Jews have always been getting wiped out for the land(Jerusalem). Even before crusades, When Christains, and Muslims fought over control of Jerusalem. This battle dates back before the persian empire. So, my thought is a
one. I think the land really belongs to the Jews. Of course in the eyes of history
15182259 good post "Prior to the ethnic cleansing of Arabs before and during Israel's 1948 "war for independence,"
How many millions have spilled blood over Isreal for the last couple thousands of years, little short sided on the author.... anyway its the beloved UN who recreated Isreal into a Jewish state in 1947, which inflamed the Palestine to fighten. Which the arabs then got their butts handed to them. Its just a good old fashion king of the hill, its never going to end. The only thing I think Jewish state did was help bring back the Arab nations from the stone age to the nuclear age because of their such distaste of the Jewish state... How nice...
HAHAHA just a side thought, Christian, Jews, and Muslims all believe in the same singular God of Abraham.. Its just who is more right in their interpretations.. Israel is kind of like the Darwinism fight to the finish of an ideological war…
There will NEVER be peace in the Middle East, because Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all montheistic religions and will not accept the other religions living amongst themselves.
The US avoids this problem (barely) because of the separation of church and state.
Informative and reasoned op-ed. The goal of "Eretz Israel" is total domination of Palestine through genocidal expansionism. Netanyahu apparently represents the majority of Jews when he declares that all Palestinians should be displaced and forced from the land their progenitors have possessed for hundreds of years. Thankfully, there are those Jews who are in opposition to Israel's land grabbing tactics, and many ultra-orthodox rabbis reject the nation of Israel, as it exists today, as blasphemy.
Truly a major road block to peace in Palestine is, as Mr. Eland states, the multitude of US politicians, who are the best that Jewish money can buy.
Obama must tread carefully, for if he goes too far in attempting to pressure Israel, the Jewish dominated US press will pull the rug out from under him. All politicians have skeletons in their closets, Obama included. If he doesn't tow the Zionist line, his past sins, crimes and lies suddenly will be revealed publicly by the media, and he will be destroyed as a public figure.
I expect Panzer Meister (PM) to chime in and accuse Ivan Eland as being an anti-semite. I still hold the title of #1 anti-semite on this forum (according to PM). Some say that an anti-semite is anyone who speaks out against the Zionists.
