Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Why Do They Keep Expanding the Settlements

TW: Israel lives in a very tough neighborhood. Israel is a great nation. Israel uses heavy force to protect its nation, a difficult but usually necessary effort.

But there is one thing they do that makes no sense to me, expanding their colonization of the West Bank. To me it undercuts their moral authority and until and unless they cease the expansion and take steps to reduce their footprint, then any peace talks are merely cynical delay tactics to appease the U.S. and Europeans. American Presidents have been utterly ineffective in stopping the colonization, I wish it were not so.

From WaPo:
"Israel has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent West Bank settlement, paving the way for the possible construction of 2,500 settlement homes, officials said Monday, in a new challenge to Mideast peacemaking.

Successive Israeli governments have broken promises to the United States to halt settlement expansion, defined by Washington as an obstacle to peace. Ongoing expansion is likely to create friction not only with the Palestinians, but with President Barack Obama, whose Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has long pushed for a settlement freeze.

...Nearly 290,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements today, or 95,000 more than in May 2001 when Mitchell first called for a settlement freeze...."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021600624.html?wprss=rss_world%2Fwires

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