Gaza crisis: a crossroads for ObamaIt could bring renewal – if Obama is bold enough to stand up to Israel.
By Sandy Tolan - from the December 31, 2008 edition of "The Christian Science Monitor"
Los Angeles - The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza has the dark force of a recurring Middle Eastern nightmare: Scattered guerrilla-like attacks from the weak lead to massive retaliation by the strong. Excessive lethal force provokes enraged recriminations. Fresh bloodshed fuels the hard-liners on both sides.
We have seen this cycle many times before: throughout Lebanon (2006), across the occupied territories during the first intifada (1987-93), in east and west Beirut (1982), and even during the founding of modern Israel and the subsequent dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948.
When the smoke finally drifts from Gaza, and the human rights investigations begin – into the death of schoolchildren in midday rocket attacks or the demolition of a women's dormitory – sober voices will ask why Israel has still not learned a fundamental lesson: By trying to crush your enemy, you only make him stronger.
Two years ago, despite killing hundreds of Lebanese fighters and civilians, and driving some 800,000 from their homes, Israel could not defeat the radical Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which emerged stronger than ever. For Israel, again, the lesson was lost – ironically, on a nation whose tragic motto is "never again."
The difference now is that from the ashes of this war, new lands can be seeded – if President-elect Obama is bold enough to do what his predecessors would not. Like the financial meltdown in the US, Israel's grave and massive blunder in Gaza provides Mr. Obama with an opportunity for sweeping changes unimaginable on Election Day.
Obama could begin by making clear that the days of Israel's impunity are over.......
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1231/p09s01-coop.html
There Aren't Two Sides to the Story of a Real Rape
The First Casualty of Israel's War
By TED HONDERICH @ counterpunch.org
It is said truth is the first casualty of war. It is rather the first casualty of inhumanity. You have to lie, maybe to yourself as well, when your are engaged in inhumanity. You wouldn't have to lie about a war that really was right.
By Zionism I mean the founding and actually necessary defence of the state of Israel in roughly its 1948 boundaries. It was justified by the Holocaust in the past and is justified by the existence of a Jewish homeland now. By neo-Zionism I mean the taking from the suffering Palestinians, the only indigenous people of historic Palestine, at least their autonomy in the last fifth of their homeland.
A decent humanity, the Principle of Humanity, ultimately justifies Zionism. It condemns neo-Zionism absolutely. There aren't two sides to the story of a real rape.
The neo-Zionist government of Israel says that in attacking the democracy of Gaza it is doing no more than engaging in self-defence. It is saving lives of its own citizens from rocket attacks.
That is not its aim. If that were its aim, Israel would achieve it immediately by embracing the solution to the Palestinian problem, in no way complex. It would give up neo-Zionism. It would withdraw, without negotiation, from the remaining homeland of another people............
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/honderich12312008.html
Glenn Greenwald @ salon.com - Tuesday Dec. 30, 2008 05:33 EST
University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes -- July 1, 2008:
A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 18 countries finds that in 14 of them people mostly say their government should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just three countries favor taking the Palestinian side (Egypt, Iran, and Turkey) and one is divided (India). No country favors taking Israel's side, including the United States, where 71 percent favor taking neither side.
CQ Politics, yesterday:
Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle rallied to Israel’s cause Monday as it pressed forward with large-scale air attacks against Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip. . . .“I strongly support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza, which have killed and injured Israeli citizens, and to restore security to its residents,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev. . . .His view was echoed by leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.“Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza over the past week,” Howard L. Berman , D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on the House committee, also expressed support for the Israeli offensive. . . .The White House on Monday also took Israel’s side in the fighting, demanding that Hamas halt its rocket fire into Israel and agree to a last ceasefire.
Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle rallied to Israel’s cause Monday as it pressed forward with large-scale air attacks against Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip. . . .
“I strongly support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza, which have killed and injured Israeli citizens, and to restore security to its residents,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev. . . .
His view was echoed by leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza over the past week,” Howard L. Berman , D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on the House committee, also expressed support for the Israeli offensive. . . .
The White House on Monday also took Israel’s side in the fighting, demanding that Hamas halt its rocket fire into Israel and agree to a last ceasefire.
Earlier this week, Nancy Pelosi issued an identical statement, and yesterday Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer did the same.
There sure is a lot of agreeing going on -- one might describe it as "absolute." The degree of mandated orthodoxy on the Israel question among America's political elites is so great that if one took the statements on Gaza from George Bush, Pelosi, Hoyer, Berman, Ros-Lehtinen, and randomly chosen Bill Kristol-acolytes and redacted their names, it would be impossible to know which statements came from whom..........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/30/democracy/index.html
Israel's Constant Crisis
It's a survival mechanismby Justin Raimondo @ antiwar.com
As the Israelis continue to pound Gaza, killing Hamas cadre, traffic cops, and civilians alike, Americans shake their heads and wonder: why can't they all just get along? Why must we be involved? The answer to both questions lies in understanding the peculiar nature of the Israeli state and its "special relationship" to the West, specifically the U.S.
Defenders of the Israeli government and its policies often complain that Israel just wants to be treated as a "normal country," like any other. They cavil that the Jewish state is treated like an outsider, a pariah, and held up to standards that don't apply anywhere else. The big problem for these complainants, however, is that Israel is not a normal country, and never has been.
From the day of its birth, Israel has been a Western project, a unique creation of European ideologues whose vision of a Jewish state was rooted in myth, custom, and remembrance, rather than blood and soil.......
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13978
Former Powell aide: Bush was ‘Sarah Palin-like’ in his knowledge of foreign policy.»
By Satyam Khanna at 10:22 am @ thinkprogress.com
In an interview with Vanity Fair for its upcoming issue on the Bush White House, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, ripped President Bush, saying that after the 2000 election, Bush’s knowledge of foreign affairs was as poor as that of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R):
We had this confluence of characters—and I use that term very carefully—that included people like Powell, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and so forth, which allowed one perception to be “the dream team.” It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin–like president—because, let’s face it, that’s what he was—was going to be protected by this national- security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire.
Bush famously was unable to name the leaders of Pakistan, Chechnya, and India when running for President in 1999. In a recent interview, he reflected on his early days as President, stating, “I think I was unprepared for war.” Similarly, in 2004, Bush said he “was not on point” prior to 9/11. “I didn’t feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling.”
SOURCE - http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/30/bush-sarah-palin/
"When the Christian world raises its voices in joyful choruses this Christmas to sing: 'Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem', I shall remain silent in protest."
This Christmas when the Christian world raises its voices in joyful choruses to the song, "Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem", I will remain silent in protest over the Israeli army's siege of the Town of Bethlehem and its sad reflection upon the Christmas message: "Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men".Today, Bethlehem is far from the idyllic scene we pictured it in books and post cards. According to native born writer Mike Odetalla, "Bethlehem is home to some of the poorest people on Earth" A recent report by the World Bank noted that almost half the Palestinian population are living below the poverty line on barely $2 a day or less. As many as 600,000 Palestinians unable to meet their basic needs in food, clothing and shelter to survive. Unemployment is rampant in many towns and villages due to travel restrictions, closures and curfews. The World Bank has urged the Israeli government to ease travel restiction to help impove the economic situation for the Palestinian people and today Israel has done little........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_29083.shtml
The House of Cards
Caution: Settlers Ahead
By HANNAH MERMELSTEIN @ counterpunch.org
"As a Jew, I was ashamed at the scenes of Jews opening fire atinnocent Arabs in Hebron. There is no other definition than the term'pogrom' to describe what I have seen." This quote from Israeli PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert came just before I returned to Palestine twoweeks ago. In Syria and in Lebanon, I watched as Al Jazeeracorrespondents reported live from Hebron, showing settlers burninghouses and soldiers standing by and watching.One of my first stops upon return to Palestine was to the Salfitregion in the north, quite far from Hebron, to visit friends. Iwasn't thinking about the settlers. I visited a friend whose house issurrounded by the Wall, and asked how things were going. "They," shepointed towards the settlement behind her house, "have attacked ustwice this week." In the middle of the night, the family had woken tothe sounds of stones hitting their house. This has happened before,but not usually twice in one week. No settler has ever been punishedfor throwing stones at their house, though they have broken windowsand water tanks........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/mermelstein12252008.html
By Tim Franks BBC News, Ofra
Israeli settlements on occupied territory are seen as illegal by the rest of the world. But now an Israeli human rights group is saying that even under Israeli law, one of the most significant and well-established settlements is unlawful.
The human rights group B'tselem has published a report in which it states that almost 60% of the settlement of Ofra has been built on land which remains in private Palestinian ownership.
The settlement was established in 1975, just to the north-east of Ramallah.
A history of the settlement recounts how about 20 Jewish settlers, with sleeping bags and jerry cans, came one Sunday to set up camp.........
ENTIRE ARTICLE-http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7795139.stm
Judy Kramer has watched the settlement grow hugely since 1990
by Phyllis Bennis - Published on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 by Foreign Policy in Focus
Richard Falk was detained at the airport and denied entry to Israel on December 13, when he arrived in Tel Aviv. The American professor of international law was traveling to the West Bank and Gaza, to fulfill his mandate as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories to investigate the human rights conditions affecting the civilian population. His most urgent task includes monitoring the rising humanitarian crisis facing the 1.5 million Palestinians, of whom half are children, living in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The decision to keep Falk out fits a pattern of Israeli efforts to hide the human consequences of the siege of Gaza and of the escalating settlement expansion in the West Bank. Denying entry to the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights is part of the same occupation playbook as keeping Palestinian human rights defenders such as Raji Sourani, director of the Palestine Center for Human Rights, locked up in Gaza and denied the right to leave to speak to the outside world. It's at one with the Israeli policy of blocking international journalists who might report on the spiraling humanitarian crisis (especially in Gaza). The same goal is evident in the beating and effort to intimidate the few Palestinian journalists who do manage the rare opportunity to get out and tell the world, such as Mohamed Omer, the young Gazan winner of the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize in Britain.
Falk's detention and exclusion echo earlier Israeli moves to deny access to other UN human rights monitors..............
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5762
Press TV's cameraman and correspondent have been injured in Nilin where Palestinians are protesting the Israeli apartheid wall. Cameraman Mustafa Khabeesa was shot by Israeli soldiers with a rubber bullet, while correspondent Sari Al-Khalili was knocked unconscious by teargas on Friday. The two were taken to the hospital and are reported to be in stable condition. They were reporting live from the scene of a confrontation in the West Bank village of Nilin, where Israeli soldiers were firing tear gas, live ammunition and rubber bullets at stone-hurling Palestinian youths. Nilin -- located near the city of Ramallah -- is the scene of weekly demonstrations by international and Palestinian activists, who protest against the Israeli separation wall. Israeli soldiers frequently resort to teargas and rubber bullets as well as live rounds to disperse demonstrators.
SOURCE - http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=78925§ionid=351020202
Bulldozing Bedouin
from "The Sunday Herald" (Scotland)
THE DESTRUCTION began just before midday when Israeli security forces fanned out to form a line on a hill overlooking the tiny Bedouin settlement. Armed with guns, sprays and batons, the police moved forward with military precision, led by a paramilitary force called the Green Patrol. Out of sight, reinforcements sat in a fleet of vehicles in case of resistance by the Arab villagers, while behind the police line three bulldozers revved their engines ominously. Once they reached the bottom of the hill, officers vaulted a fence, then began clearing the village systematically. As police entered homes and ordered families to vacate, people were still inside frantically trying to salvage clothes and possessions.
Some of the Bedouin, resigned to their fate, were already on the move, carrying pets, potted plants and kitchen utensils, but others lingered and pleaded for more time. As one old woman left her home for the last time she wept and looked to the sky, while her daughter turned and spat in the direction of a policewoman videoing the operation...........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2476912.0.bulldozing_bedouin.php
Hebron and Hoenlein: Silence of the Jewish Lamb
Dec 12th, 2008 by Richard Silverstein @ "Tikun Olam"
The Forward notes in an article today that the largest U.S. Jewish umbrella group, the Conference of Presidents, refused to support the government’s eviction of extremist settlers from Hebron’s House of Contention. The Conference also tellingly refused to condemn the subsequent settler riots against Palestinians and Israeli police:
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella body of 51 Jewish groups, has not issued a statement about the evacuation of settlers and their supporters from a disputed house in the West Bank town December 4 followed by settler violence against Hebron’s Palestinian residents.Moreover, Daily Alert, the Presidents Conference’s Internet newsletters of Middle East-related published articles, did not refer to the incidents at all during the week after they occurred. Daily Alert is sent via e-mail to tens of thousands of free subscribers and is displayed on Web site of the Presidents Conference.…Calls seeking comment from the Presidents Conference’s executive vice president, Malcolm Hoenlein, and its chair, Harold Tanner, were not returned.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella body of 51 Jewish groups, has not issued a statement about the evacuation of settlers and their supporters from a disputed house in the West Bank town December 4 followed by settler violence against Hebron’s Palestinian residents.
Moreover, Daily Alert, the Presidents Conference’s Internet newsletters of Middle East-related published articles, did not refer to the incidents at all during the week after they occurred. Daily Alert is sent via e-mail to tens of thousands of free subscribers and is displayed on Web site of the Presidents Conference.
…Calls seeking comment from the Presidents Conference’s executive vice president, Malcolm Hoenlein, and its chair, Harold Tanner, were not returned.
The Forward does not note that Aipac too has refused to issue any statement, though JTA earlier reported on Aipac’s silence by claiming the group generally doesn’t make public statements about internal Israeli policy (isn’t that a laugh, considering how aggressively interventionist their approach is regarding promoting Israeli interests within a U.S. political context). To my mind, even if this is true, it does not excuse its silence on such an important issue regarding Israeli democracy...........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/12/12/hebron-silence-of-the-jewish-lamb/
Long Island Orthodox Jewish Paper Defends Killing Muslims
Dec 18th, 2008 by Richard Silverstein @ "Tikun Olam"
Once again let me say I find astonishing the near total silence of the organized Jewish community and media to Lawrence Kulak’s diatribe against Islam published in the Long Island Orthodox paper, Five Towns Jewish Times. In his guest column, he claimed that if Islamists kill innocent non-Muslims that Muslim innocents should similarly be targeted for murder. Essentially, an invitation to anti-Muslim mass murder:
“The only way to deal with Islamic terrorists is the same way in which they deal with their victims. Muslims believe in the literal interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of an eye for an eye…They killed our innocents, and unless we kill theirs, they will go on killing ours. The Torah, however, preaches a doctrine which…would finally put an end to all Islamic terror: if somebody is coming to kill you, rise up and kill him first.”
The fact that Kulak was diagnosed in 1991 with a bipolar disorder and hospitalized at a mental health facility never appears to have factored into the publisher’s editorial decision about publishing the piece........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/
The AP has done us a tremendous journalistic service (easily deserving of Pulitzer consideration) with a probing investigation of one particular instance of settler fraud that involved stealing privately owned Palestinian land for the illegal outpost of Migron:
Israeli soldiers guard illegal outpost on stolen land (Getty Images)
The transformation of a piece of West Bank land from a Palestinian field into a Jewish settlement has roots in an unlikely place - Orange County, California - and in a document that a [Palestinian landowner] supposedly signed more than four decades after the date of his death.Unfolding from the West Bank’s terraced olive groves to a strip mall in a Los Angeles suburb, the story of this posthumous deal offers a rare glimpse into the underworld of straw companies and middlemen through which chunks of land move from Palestinian to Israeli hands. Each transaction further complicates an Israeli withdrawal that would be key to any peace agreement..........ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/12/20/anatomy-of-settler-land-theft/
The transformation of a piece of West Bank land from a Palestinian field into a Jewish settlement has roots in an unlikely place - Orange County, California - and in a document that a [Palestinian landowner] supposedly signed more than four decades after the date of his death.
Unfolding from the West Bank’s terraced olive groves to a strip mall in a Los Angeles suburb, the story of this posthumous deal offers a rare glimpse into the underworld of straw companies and middlemen through which chunks of land move from Palestinian to Israeli hands. Each transaction further complicates an Israeli withdrawal that would be key to any peace agreement..........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/12/20/anatomy-of-settler-land-theft/
by Richard Falk - Published on Friday, December 19, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
On December 14, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel to carry out my UN role as special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.
I was leading a mission that had intended to visit the West Bank and Gaza to prepare a report on Israel's compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law. Meetings had been scheduled on an hourly basis during the six days, starting with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the following day.
I knew that there might be problems at the airport. Israel had strongly opposed my appointment a few months earlier and its foreign ministry had issued a statement that it would bar my entry if I came to Israel in my capacity as a UN representative.
At the same time, I would not have made the long journey from California, where I live, had I not been reasonably optimistic about my chances of getting in. Israel was informed that I would lead the mission and given a copy of my itinerary, and issued visas to the two people assisting me: a staff security person and an assistant, both of whom work at the office of the high commissioner of human rights in Geneva.
To avoid an incident at the airport, Israel could have either refused to grant visas or communicated to the UN that I would not be allowed to enter, but neither step was taken. It seemed that Israel wanted to teach me, and more significantly, the UN a lesson: there will be no cooperation with those who make strong criticisms of Israel's occupation policy............
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/19/israel-palestinian-territories-united-nations
by Ira Chernus - Published on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
If I were a Palestinian, watching Jews in Israel and around the world preparing to celebrate Hanukkah, I might be a bit confused. The holiday recalls a time, way back in the second century BCE, when Judea was ruled by a much stronger neighboring nation. The Jews took up arms to free themselves from a military occupation. Yet when Palestinians even talk about taking up arms against the occupying army of their powerful neighbor today, the Israeli government and its supporters call that unjustified, immoral, an outrage. And the government of the United States generally agrees, no matter which party is in power.
It doesn't seem fair, because there is so much similarity between today's Palestinians and the Jews of old. Ancient Judea was administered by the Seleucid empire, just as Palestine is administered by Israel. The Seleucids had local Jewish agents on the scene to help them keep control, just as Israel is helped by some number of Palestinians who see resistance as futile.........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/17-0
Framing, Principle and Elements
Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict
By JEFF HALPER @ counterpunch.org
Writing recently in The Washington Post ("Middle East Priorities," Nov. 21), Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, two former US National Security Advisors, a Republican and a Democrat, declared: "We believe that the Arab-Israeli peace process is one issue that requires priority attention [from the incoming Obama Administration]."
Their assessment is correct, of course. Addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an urgent priority. It is a conflict with global ramifications in a part of the world crucial to Western, and especially American, political and economic interests. The Israeli Occupation fuels anger and alienation among Muslims – as well as among peoples beyond the Muslim world, including in Europe – towards the US and its European allies..............
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/halper12172008.html
More People Are About to Become Homeless
The Order to Destroy has been Given
By MATS SVENSSON @ counterpunch.com
It is Wednesday afternoon on the 5th November. I woke up this morning and was happy. The man who repeatedly exclaimed “Change” and “Yes we can” had done the impossible, had proven that change is possible. Now seven hours have passed and I have gone to Silwan, south of Jerusalem's Old City. A house is to be demolished and the morning and the happiness feel distant, as if it had been a different time.
The questions aggregated this morning when I within myself still heard Obama's voice and simultaneously at a distance saw the violence spreading out before me.
Before I reach the house that is to be demolished, I stop for a while and look up at all the windows, at all the balconies, at all the flat roofs. People everywhere. Old, young, women, men. Everyone gazing in the same direction. I am struck by the silence. It is as if someone had said, “Silence, action.”
Many spectators but very few who are moving. Women stand in the shade, away from the sun. An old man behind the soldiers tries to shout something but his cry gets caught behind the bars of despair. I see the desperation in his eyes. I see how his back is bent. I see how the soldier, the soldier who looks like a teenager, shoves him away. He cannot get through. A young soldier carries water bottles, water for all the soldiers...............
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/svensson12162008.html
IDF: Soldier filmed throwing stones in Hebron
Hanan Greenberg @ ynetnews (Israel)
VIDEO - An IDF soldier was arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at police officers during the evacuation of the disputed house in Hebron about two weeks ago, Ynet has learned.
The soldier admitted to being present on the site, but said he did not disrupt the security forces' operation. The Military Police however presented it says clearly shows the soldier throwing stones at security forces......
.........."When the Israel Police viewed the internal videos it filmed during the evacuation of the building, the camera caught a soldier in uniform throwing stones at officers," said a source close to the affair..........
ARTICLE / VIDEO - http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3638738,00.html
(Video) Military Police present video of uniformed soldier throwing stones at police officers during evacuation of disputed Hebron house. Suspect arrested; denies allegations
Settlement Extremists Threaten Israel’s Moral Substance
By William Pfaff @ truthdig.com - Posted on Dec 11, 2008
Israel today is as much the prisoner of the Palestinians as the Palestinians are prisoners of Israel. Israel’s imprisonment is moral and political, in that it has now seemingly lost the ability to extricate itself from the dilemmas created by successive governments’ cowardice and connivance with the settlement lobby’s campaign to seize all of Palestine for Israel, and the American government’s passive acquiescence in this.
The steady expansion of nominally illegal colonies into the Palestinian territories, which previous governments were unwilling to check (one cannot say truthfully they were unable to check it; they simply chose not to), has gone on to the point where the political parties are now incapable of disengaging from the settlement enterprise.
The goal of the settler movement—there is no secret about it—is the conquest of all Palestine, logically requiring expulsion of the Palestinians from the entire country, or their reduction to a permanent condition of subordination in which they would be deprived of elementary political rights.
Even now they are deprived of legal rights that under international law should be accorded to the subjects of a military occupation. Their supposed independent or autonomous political status under the Palestinian Authority is meaningless so long as no Palestinian state exists. It is useless to resume the argument about why it should have come to this; it simply is so...........
ENTIRE ARTICLE-http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081211_settlement_extremists_threaten_israels_moral_substance/
