One More for the Roadmap… What settlement freeze??
By Mary Rizzo • Nov 25th, 2009 at 21:24 • Category: Features, Hasbara Deconstruction Site, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Zionism
WRITTEN BY MARY RIZZO
I get the Israel Foreign Ministry press releases everyday. As I have often pointed out, they are somewhere between science fiction and fairy tales. To find a bit of truth in there takes effort. But today's really does seem to go beyond the beyond in its attempt to make one think there is a change in some kind of policy that will be "historic", of all things. Netanyahu is going to get the Roadmap back on track by freezing settlements? Oh boy. Let's have a look at that and see how this new fable is told before all the children of the world get sleepy and nod off to such a fanciful story. My commentary in RED
MFA Newsletter
Statement by PM Netanyahu on the Cabinet Decision to suspend new construction in Judea and Samaria
So, it's just a pause for the winter!!! THEY DO THAT IN ITALY TOO!!! Would he miss such a brilliant opportunity to make himself look like the peaceful man?!
Today, my cabinet authorized a policy of restraint regarding settlements which will include a suspension of new permits and new construction in Judea and Samaria for a period of ten months.
My cabinet authorized this far reaching step because of our deep desire for peace.
We saw your deep desire only a year ago, the desire of Israel's government and people. To make peace, it is not sufficient to stop building things that haven't started being built or to promise to do so.. but to make peace you could start with the promise to not make war and steps to make certain that this will not happen again!
We hope that this decision will help launch meaningful peace negotiations to reach a historic peace agreement that will finally end the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel.
Finally ending the conflict would mean a complete change in policy. And of course, you realise that he admits it is Palestinians (no unified representation) and a State (sponsored by the "international community") that are the two parties. If Israel does want peace, there is nothing stopping it… unless the "international community" sees advantages in PERMANENT INSTABILITY, which, friends… this is why Israel was created. To always have an unstable situation in the area that has the natural resources that industry yearns for but can't just go in and take without some permanent bases and reasons to "always deploy" always be "on alert" with military presence or "aid". Maybe it has nothing to do at all with Jews, but just to have a situation where things will never "settle down" and peace could never prevail.
We are committed to working closely with the United States to advance peace and security in the region. We have been told by many friends that once Israel takes the first step towards peace, the Palestinians and the Arab world would respond positively with steps of their own to create a virtuous cycle of goodwill.
Who are these friends that tell you things? It is you who believe this empty rhetoric of first steps and positive responses to it, and especially the "virtuous cycle of goodwill" is something Israel has no clue as to the meaning of. You have rejected every first step offered to you.
Well, the government of Israel is taking a very big and difficult step toward peace today. I hope that the Palestinians and the Arab world will seize this opportunity to work with us to forge a new beginning and a new future for our children and for their children.
So, they will not be working "for" you at least momentarily when the workyards are blocked.
Since the day our government was sworn in eight months ago, we have been calling for direct negotiations with the Palestinians.
Oh really? Would like to see the details of this claim. Who, indeed are "the Palestinians" at any rate? Are they now a government? A few minutes ago they were a people.
During that time, we have taken many concrete actions to improve daily life for the Palestinians and to create a climate in which political negotiations would have the best chance to succeed. We have dismantled hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, extended the hours of operation on the Allenby Bridge and removed bureaucratic obstacles to Palestinian economic development. These actions have helped spur a surge, a boom, in the Palestinian economy.
So that they can buy Israeli products. Even you realised that blocking them off of the market and forcing them to creatively resolve their needs without spending a Shekel is not helpful to you.
At the same time, the security environment has improved thanks both to the efforts of the IDF and to the efforts of better trained PA security forces.
OH HO! The security environment has improved for whom? And since when has the IDF cared about the security of anyone but Jews or Israelis? Look at Hebron. And the PA security forces, with Keith Dayton, have learned how to frighten the Palestinian population into "obedience". If before you had a population you could control with a bit of expense, now it costs you less, because Palestinians are paying for it.
Now we wish to add to this improved economic and security climate meaningful political negotiations. I have already said that we will not build new settlements and that we would not expropriate additional land for existing settlements. I said we would also restrain settlement activity, and that's exactly what we decided to do today. I promised to enable normal life to continue for the three hundred thousand Israeli citizens, our brothers and sisters, who live in Judea and Samaria.
Normal life continues for them, and the Palestinians in the West Bank (and not to mention Gaza) do not know what a normal life is, one without restrictions on their freedoms.
That is why this suspension will not affect construction currently underway.
THERE YOU GO! So, everything already started is going to continue. What kind of freeze is that? And you continue…Says who?
And this is especially where it hurt Palestinians. And furthermore, they have no say in it.
As always, we are committed to protect freedom of worship for all faiths and to ensure equal and fair treatment for all the city's residents, Jews and Arabs alike.
(that was the comic section of this communiqué).
So, the expansion will simply continue. So. Could someone please tell me where there is something original here?
It will not include the schools, kindergartens, synagogues and public buildings necessary for the continuation of normal life over the time period of the suspension.
Schools ensure growth. This is a fact of life… if a settlement may in a "final status agreement" need to be dismantled, there is a great excuse NOT to do it on your part… the schools, the religious and public buildings, not to mention…
And there we have it all…. Jews only roads, Jews only pipelines, Jews only plants and utilities. And why?… TO PROTECT YOUR NATIONAL SECURITY. The failsafe reason to do anything at all, as if this is the supreme value. Remember, you are in occupied territory, one day you will be asked to leave or forced to leave. Your right to security as an occupant is not guaranteed by any international convention and not even by moral laws. You have no right to be there and you are using a trumped-up right as a motivation to do whatever you want with the backing of "the international community". If the Arab leaders or Palestinian leaders do not protest to this, and instead if they congratulate you on your wonderful and generous step… then they should resign and go move to a Kibbutz.
I want to say clearly to the Palestinians: Now is the time to begin negotiations. Now is the time to move the peace process forward. There is no more time to waste. Israel has taken a far reaching step for peace. It's time for the Palestinians to do the same.
Go to hell.
Regarding Jerusalem, our sovereign capital,
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
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Thank you, Mary, for a voice of sanity in the midst of all the media hype over this latest ploy. It is essential that we accept and understand the difference between illusion and reality. A comparison of historical facts versus historical statements from Israeli officials will establish without a doubt that you are spot on target here.
Thanks Brenda! You are right, the statements are nothing but lies which take no research to even see through. Can you imagine being married to someone like that??
On the other hand, the irony of it all… We promise, at great expense to ourselves, to not steal from you for the coming ten months. This will be the first act of goodwill which you must finally be able to see and then bring forth negotiations with us. However, all that we have stolen up until this point, not only are we not going to return it, but we are going to do with it whatever we damn well please, making it so impossible to ever give it back to you if we should be forced to doing something like this. After all, we are only doing things that help the lives of civilian people, we build places of worship, schools and all the infrastructure. As soon as those ten months are up, we will steal more from you and you can't do anything about it. Please thank us.
oh boy…
[...] Originally posted AT [...]
[...] before the summer sets in. Click the following report for a full picture of the situation…One More for the Roadmap… What settlement freeze??, Written by Mary [...]
Netanyahu's new policy regarding settlements is a ploy that fools few, although the US and international community will gladly accept it to restart the stalled peace talks unless Palestinians object to it. Palestinians and Arabs should not talk peace until all settlement building and ethnic cleansing are stopped, including those in Jerusalem. The Palestinians cannot depend on Israel and the US to stop the illegal settlements and should take their case for statehood to the UN Security Council. They should demand that the UN to fullfill its promise of giving the Palestinians a State and let Israel be the problem of the UN, rather than the Palestinians. A Security Council vote on Palestinian statehood would force Pres. Obama to show whether or not he is serious about Palestinians having their own state. It is important that Palestinians and Arabs know where Pres. Obama and others stand on this issue.
Mary. The RoadMap that Saeb and Abbas keep talking about was designed by non-other than Elliot Abrams, a committed Zionist who should be put on trial for crimes committed in violations of American laws. The RoadMap was nothing more than a legal way to allow Israel to continue with its occupation business as usual. The problem is not with the RoadMap, but with the idiots in Ramallah who has been conducting negotiations with Israel for the last 16 years. This leadership has been denying the truth unable to speak frankly to the people and offer some very concrete plans. The leadership stated on so many occasions that the Settlements will end the peace process, yet it continued to negotiate. It stated the Wall will end the peace process, yet it continued to negotiate, business as usual. This Palestinian leadership is simply unfit, lacks the intelligence, too corrupt, with high personal and financial stakes and interests with the continued Israeli Occupation that it simply unable to make the right decision for the right reasons. The Ramallah leadership should not only resign but should be brought to trial. So far the PA/PLO/Fatah are partners with the Israeli Occupation. They simply do not have the intelligence to even understand and comprehend what Bibi said. For God sake they signed Oslo without the benefits of asking a lawyer to read it. Oh, I forgot, Abbas is a graduate of the Law Faculty at Damascus University.
Hmmm
The question wAmericans should be asking is: since the genocide and terrorism that is occuring as we speak in Palastine at the hands of Israel is so plain to see, why are our politicians siding with Israel?
We as a nation claim to be on the side of truth, justice, freedom and democracy. Israel has trampled all
over those ideals. It is time for America to cut off Israel from all military, financial and political support until such time as the plight of the Palastinians is resolved.
A nice try to expose the Zionist fox, Mary.
I don't know why I got a bitter taste in my mouth after tasting this 'soup' cooked in Bibi-Obama kitchen. Is it another manouver to uplift Abbas's dipping popularity after he followed USrael's dictation on the Goldstone Report? We all know it's him who could give the remaining Palestinian land to the vultures on a silver platter.
The real lesson of the settlement freeze fiasco concerns who understands Washington better, Netanyahu or Abu Mazen,” wrote Yossi Alpher on November 11, 2009.
The Israelis and Americans have made it clear they prefer the Palestinians to remain divided, and Hamas and Gazzah isolated, in the belief that Abbas will be able to deliver a “peaceful settlement” on their terms on the basis of political support in the West Bank. While Palestinians have been demanding a settlement between Hamas and Fatah, the US and Israel clearly hope that election ins in the West Bank in January 2010, without any polls in Gazzah, would consolidate the division and Fatah’s rule over the West Bank and so make an agreement with Israel more feasible.
After watching how much Fatah’s leadership is beholden to outside forces, specifically Israel, the US, and the ZOGs in the EU – that the interests of the Palestinians are no longer their prime concern.
Abu Mazen, please come back!
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/abu-mazen-please-come-back/
[...] Bank, but not in the Arab East Jerusalem) for a period of ten months." Mary Rizzo's comments on this peace-loving statement are worth [...]
Palestinians start thinking if will live with Palestine state with out Jeruslam or wish for the greater Israel with all the Palestinians in body bags. It one way or the other it for the Palestinians to choose which path they wish to take if any.
i think you are wrong and Israel is really concerned about the peace at the moment.