Obstacles to peace
10/8/08
The EU has once again condemned Israeli settlement building in occupied Palestinian territory. It did so in no uncertain terms on Friday in a statement that clearly and unequivocally called settlement building in all occupied territory, including East Jerusalem, illegal. Good for the EU. The problem is, Israel just does not care. Why should it? Last month, the EU expanded trade ties with Israel. And so, earlier in the week, Israel announced tenders for another 400 settlements in Jerusalem. Late last month, the country announced it would approve a new settlement in the Jordan Valley. Israel does not care what the EU says or does, because the EU remains Israel’s greatest trading partner. It is a weapon Europe has never used. There is some vague provision that the EU will not buy goods or produce from Israeli settlements that by all accounts is easily and constantly avoided simply by putting “Made in Israel” on the label.
See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9913
Israel is worried
Musa Keilani; 10/8/08
Israel is worried. And when Israel is worried, it tends to hit out in order to scramble the given situation and create new facts that would favour its aggressive posture. We have seen this too often in the past decades whenever Israel felt that things were not going its way. Today, from its own superannuated perspectives, Israel has enough reasons to be worried. In recent months, it has seen some transformations in the regional scene against its interests. These include a solution to the government crisis in Lebanon that favoured Hizbollah and an end to the “isolation” of Syria as well as reluctance on the part of Washington for immediate military action against Iran. Typically, the Israelis have accused the US of opening a secret dialogue with Iran with a view to “putting bilateral relations at a normal footing at Israel’s expense.” They also contend that US diplomacy had allowed the Palestinian Hamas movement to build its military power in the Gaza Strip (for whatever that is worth). There is indeed a lot of misinformation and misleading reports suggesting that there is a US-Israel rift over how to handle Iran. However, it is a safe bet that the rift is not over whether to stage military strikes against Iran, but when to do it.
See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9914
Tags: Europe; Israel, Settlers, USA