The tidbit below was written by Reuters and published by Y-Net:
It is hard to imagine that Obama does have a learning disability given the fact that he was the president of the Harvard Law Review - a little organization, by the way, that my eldest brother was also at one time a member of. Furthermore, he is among the most successful politicians in the long, miserable history of politicians. So, really, how stupid can the man possibly be?Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday his peace negotiators had resigned over the lack of progress in US-brokered statehood talks clouded by Israeli settlement building.
The development would mark a new low point for the talks with Israel that resumed in July and which officials from both sides have said have made little headway...
In a statement to Reuters TV on Wednesday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat did not elaborate on the report of his resignation, but said the sessions with Israel were frozen.
"In reality, the negotiations stopped last week in light of the settlement announcements last week," he said.
And, yet, the Obama administration is making the same fundamental mistake today that it made directly out of the gate during his first term. When it comes to the Arab-Israel non-peace process the very first mistake that Obama made, as I have discussed ad nauseum since 2009, is on the insistence of "total settlement freeze."
There is absolutely no reason in this world why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and miserable little dictator Mahmoud Abbas, cannot sit in a room and draw a line on a map, even if some Jews are building housing for themselves on the other side of that line. To think otherwise is racist on its face and it is long past time that the Netanyahu government said so.
The question now becomes, has Barack Obama learned nothing from the past? Is he capable of learning from experience and changing direction when necessary? It certainly doesn't seem so. Just as the demand for "total settlement freeze" wrecked the first Obama attempt at negotiations, under Secretary Hillary Clinton, so it is now wrecking his second attempt at negotiations, under Secretary John Kerry.
Kerry calls the settlements "illegitimate," but what does that mean, exactly? Other than the fact that both Abbas and Obama want to tell Jewish people where we should be allowed to live and, thus, build housing for ourselves, it doesn't mean much. Notice that he doesn't use the word "illegal." There is a reason for that and the reason is that any such contention has been refuted over and over and over again. Furthermore, any such contention would need to be grounded within UN deliberations and decisions, but the UN is notoriously corrupt and is primarily a vehicle that the Arab and Muslim governments use to lambaste Israel out of a toxic, pervasive, and fourteen hundred year old Arab-Muslim religious hatred for the Jewish people.
In this way the United Nations, which makes international law, has entirely undermined the very notion of "international law." Since international law is determined by the UN and since the UN is under the domination of corrupt Arab and Muslim dictatorships, why should anyone take international law seriously? It is rarely enforced and it is always politicized and, therefore, it is international law, itself, which has become entirely illegitimate.
Housing cannot be illegitimate. Housing is either well-built upon a solid foundation or it is not. One thing is certain, the non-peace process is most obviously not built upon a solid foundation and the reason for that is because what the Arabs want is not peace, but eventual victory over their former Jewish subjects.
From the comments:
1. Peace talks, shmeace talks
Good riddance. Who wants to negotiate with terrorist scum anyway?
Righteous Zionist, Israel (11.13.13)My, my. Somebody certainly got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. "Terrorist scum"? That is rather strong language in reference to Mahmoud Abbas and his team, don't you think?
No?
8. Stalled talks = Israel not handing out more free prizes
Palestinians just got prisoners released and an extra 75 million from Kerry but that was yesterday. If they are going to talk they want more free prizes. The US, EU and Israel are dumb enough to do it.
Sam, Canada (11.13.13)Sam in Canada is correct.
The US, the EU, and Israel are, in fact, dumb enough to do it. My evidence for this assertion is the simple fact that we keep seeing them do it! Israel just forked over a bunch of murderers - including a murderer of a Holocaust survivor - who were hailed as heroes by the Palestinian Authority and the US just handed out 75 million tax-payer dollars so that Saeb Erekat could sit in a room and look at some Jews.
I wonder if he brought his knitting needles.
""The talks are deluding both the Israeli public and the Arabs," Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said. "We must stop this predictable crash course immediately."
ReplyDeleteDanon also called to stop the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely said "the Palestinian Authority's well-oiled incitement system continues to claim victims."
"[PA President] Mahmoud Abbas has a tactic of indirectly harming Israel. Jews aren't killed by PA officials but by the 'Palestinian street,' which is fed each day by anti-Israel propaganda. We cannot continue talking peace while the PA is talking terror," Hotovely added."
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Likud-hardliners-call-to-stop-peace-talks-after-suspected-terror-attack-331589
Private Eden Atias.
ReplyDeleteHe was two weeks into service.
It's of a set. Obama for all his other advantages, foibles, views and what not, is fundamentally the same kind of person you see in CEOs and the like. He's used to getting his way by force of authority. He's the archetypal executive who demands what he demands and assigns others to carry it out w/o question. This is why his Presidency has been fraught with so many problems having to do with the least degree of conciliation, compromise, acquiescence, bargaining and so forth. Obama doesn't 'do' negotiations. This why his foreign policy is a disaster everywhere. Other countries don't actually have to listen and obey. He can command the tides like Canute all day and it won't matter. He's out of his depth when he can't simply command and demand results. This is also why his cabinet is so weak - they are weak by design to follow Obama's orders, say Obama's words and exert little independent thought or action or insight. And this is why Kerry is an abject failure - he's simply there to mouth Obama's diktat he hasn't the latitude of operations or the temperament of a heavyweight Sec State.
ReplyDeleteWe need an Israeli PM that has the strength to stand up to an American president.
DeleteObama's incoherent policies are more an issue than him as a CEO. He has no experience as a CEO, except in theory. He is incompetent except in his zeal to tilt the wheel in favor of social justice.
DeleteAs for Israeli leaders, what would standing up prove? Obama's influence wanes as it becomes clear he was not ready for the job. His schtick is old and his cynicism spreads has spread to his social media friends. They see through it at last. Perhaps his intention is to make more dysfunction in order to create transformation. Never believed that at the start, but he did have bent toward figures who see America and the West in mostly negative terms, as the cause of most human suffering.
School,
Delete"As for Israeli leaders, what would standing up prove? Obama's influence wanes as it becomes clear he was not ready for the job."
Well, thank G-d for that and I certainly hope that you are right.
Nonetheless, I advocate for a muscular Israeli leadership and a leadership that is willing to look everywhere for economic, military, technological, and diplomatic relations from a realpolitik standpoint.
The Jews of the Middle East, in my view, cannot afford to become too dependent on any single partner for the same reason that intelligent financial investors never place their holdings on a single stock.
Israel is already doing this.
DeleteObama's waning influence is seen in his incompetence and ad hoc approach to crisis management.
Kerry's rude awakening before Congress is an indicator.
Netanyahu never should have linked more building to the non-existing "peace process" in the first place. He should have always reiterated that Judea, Samaria, and ALL of Jerusalem have ALWAYS been Jewish land, instead of sticking to that bullsh**t talk about Abbas being a "peace partner" and believing in that oxymoronic "two-state solution"! But freeing terrorists was the worst thing that he did, especially when he did it the second time so as not to break a promise!!!!! As if the palestinians
ReplyDeleteDafna,
DeleteY'know, I almost feel bad for Netanyahu because we cannot understand just what pressures that he must be under, but he freed the murderer of a holocaust survivor.
I am having a very hard time getting beyond that fact.
Nonetheless, welcome to Israel Thrives.
The sun is starting to get low on the west coast of the United States and I am planning on meeting friends in the city for Hugh's 40th.
I have to tell you guys, however miserable standing up for Israel might be, I am tremendously grateful for my real-world friends and my on-line friends, as well.
Peace to you, please, my brothers and sisters.
I am off for the night.