Quelle surprise, Nicholas Sarkozy, who’s been lying to the French for years about the state of the country’s banks, thinks Israeli PM Netanyahu is a “liar”!
Gorilla says: “Build a settlement, wreck an economy, it’s all in the game!”
Posts Tagged ‘Israel’
Takes One To Know One
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011On The Buses
Thursday, August 18th, 2011A bad day indeed:
More death and destruction in Afghanistan.
More death and destruction in Israel.
Nobody cares and nobody has a plan to extricate these countries from the folly that is their current misguided leadership.
Gorilla says: “And our President rides around in his bus, proposing nothing and doing nothing!”
When You’re Not Serious About Peace
Thursday, August 11th, 2011And you know your chief ally will do absolutely nothing in retaliation,
You build more illegal settlements and say “fuck you!”
Gorilla says: “Calling a non-bluff is pretty easy!”
Stupidity Across Borders
Monday, June 6th, 2011Yes, it’s quite likely that the Syrian government organized the cross border march that resulted in the Israelis shooting 23 people dead. They wanted to distract attention from the killings going on in Syria.
Yes, it’s quite likely that the Israeli government decided that shooting the Syrian marchers would send a clear message about the need for Israel to have secure borders. They wanted to distract attention from the ongoing opposition to anything like a serious peace process.
Gorilla says: “We can talk all we want about Arab springs and peace, but reality always gets in the way!”
Netanyahu Has Never Been Serious About Peace
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011The current Israeli Prime Minister has never supported the peace process, and nothing he has said this week changes that fact.
The Israelis, like the Palestinians and the Americans, are deeply divided.
Right-wingers like Netanyahu believe they can continue occupation indefinitely while building more settlements to change permanently the facts on the ground.
Moderate Israelis don’t have much power at the moment, and have not been able to articulate a politically successful peace policy for the past decade.
Demographics eventually will force Israel to make a deal, but that may not come for another decade or more.
What’s frustrating is that everyone knows the policy outlined by President Obama, while containing absolutely nothing new, is the basis for a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Land swaps, the end of both settlements and the right to return, and mutual recognition are the way forward.
Gorilla says: “It takes two to tango, and at the moment we don’t have one!”
Are They Serious?
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011The Palestinians, that is, who have reached an Eqyptian-brokered “reconciliation” that will lead to new elections and a new government.
The big immediate question is: who will win? Fatah or Hamas?
And it is that Palestinian choice that will determine the medium-term negotiating possibilities, if any:
If Hamas wins, the US will have to make a choice: deal with a “terrorist” organization or accept that peace is as dead in the water as it appears to be.
If Fatah wins, Hamas will have to make a choice: cut the best deal you can for Palestinian statehood or resume lobbing bombs into Israel.
The current Israeli government is clearly not serious about peace and will not make or be pressured into any choice: they will try to fix the election for Fatah, but ultimately if Hamas wins, Israel will continue happily along the intransigent trail for another decade until demographics force a deal.
Gorilla says: “It’s not exactly hopeful, but it’s not completely hopeless!”
Good Luck With That
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011Ban Ki Moon’s unhappy with Israel, the settlements are bad for the peace process!!!
Of course, the assumption behind such criticism is that the Israelis and Palestinians are serious about peace: they’re not!
The time to stop the politically and morally bankrupt settlement policy was 30 years ago, when it began. At this point, no Israeli government is going to uproot their settlers, so trading other land for peace is the only way forward.
Equally, the Palestinians need a referendum, voted on by all their factions, to decide once and for all that they want a two state solution. Leaders like Abbas haven’t done so, because they just might lose.
And the US is, as usual, sitting on the sidelines.
As stupid a decision as the bombing of Libya was, our President knows there’s zero support in the US Congress for anything like pressure on the Israelis, and not enough Palestinians living in the US to offset AIPAC et. al. in 2012.
What will get the two sides to the table for serious negotiations? Only demographics.
So long as the Palestinians keep reproducing at a greater rate, Israelis may find themselves a minority in their own country.
But that won’t happen in earnest for at least another decade.
Gorilla says: “Like Libyan no fly zones, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Middle East peace at present is a pointless waste of time, treasure, and blood!”
How Logic Works In Israel
Sunday, March 13th, 2011Curious Paper Hanging
Monday, January 24th, 2011The “al-Jazeera” papers contain nothing much newsworthy, but they do illustrate why Israeli-Palestinian peace is a non-starter…
If it’s true that the Palestinians gave up on “right of return” and were ready to make a land for peace swap in Jerusalem, then they’re taking positions for a final settlement that have been obvious for a decade. Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority doesn’t represent all Palestinians and there is no evidence that Hamas intends to join peace negotiations anytime soon.
Israeli recalcitrance in the face of these “concessions” also reflects the division within that country. Many Israelis, including the current government, don’t want to make a deal at all. Those who do have not got the power at the moment. And so the silly dance continues.
Gorilla says: “The deal is there, but nobody on either side seriously wants to make it!”
And These Are Our Allies
Wednesday, January 5th, 2011Parliamentary investigation of human rights groups, no it’s not Pakistan, it’s Israel!
What’s next, loyalty oaths? It certainly isn’t any seriousness about peace!
Gorilla says: “Yet another example of what happens when right-wing crazies take over a country!”
