'Too Many Israelis' Ready To Give Up On Peace, Obama Laments

[Purveyor]

Source: REUTERS

By Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick
UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON Wed Sep 24, 2014 2:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama lamented on Wednesday that "too many Israelis" were ready to abandon Middle East peace efforts and urged them to reflect on the matter, saying the status quo with the Palestinians was unsustainable.

As part of a broader speech to the United Nations Assembly, Obama appeared to gently chide close U.S. ally Israel against giving up on peace a week before he hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

While Obama used his address primarily to rally support in the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, he also recommitted to the pursuit of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians despite what he called a “bleak” landscape. U.S.- brokered negotiations collapsed in April.

"The violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace," Obama said. Then, departing from printed remarks made available to reporters beforehand, he added: "And that’s something worthy of reflection within Israel."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/24/us-un-asssembly-obama-israel-idUSKCN0HJ1OD20140924

[customerserviceguy]

1. Pot, meet kettle. n/t

[RobertEarl]

9. Indeed

It seems the American people have given up on peace.

If we hadn't we wouldn't be demanding the war budget be increased.

Clinton had it down pretty low. And then the people voted in a warmonger and gave him all kinds of support.

And here we are.

[BillZBubb]

2. Israel is always for piece--a bigger piece of the West Bank.

As for Peace, it isn't Israel's priority. The priority is to grab as much of the West Bank as they can.

[Purveyor]

3. And the US Taxpayer "bank" as they can...

[SnakeEyes]

7. Then why have they given up land

to try and gain peace?

[BillZBubb]

13. Why do you repeat the Israeli propaganda lies?

Israel didn't give up any West Bank land to gain peace. The West Bank is what they want. The Israelis keep bulldozing Palestinian homes and expanding settlements there.

[SnakeEyes]

17. Sinai, Gaza, Southern Lebanon and much of the West Bank

But hey, keep ignoring that.

[BillZBubb]

20. Hogwash.

They did give Sinai back to Egypt because they didn't want it and Egypt was a potential military threat. Gaza wasn't a land give back so much as an outdoor prison where Israel maintained total control of what went in and out.

Southern Lebanon (except of course Golan) wasn't wanted by Israel, it had more problems than it was worth. The Israelis haven't given back any of the West.

And the Israeli's haven't "given" back one inch of the West Bank. They maintain the sovereignty there, not the Palestinians. Israel gives itself the right to seize whatever property there that they want.

Anyone with even a few working brain cells knows just from the settlements policy exactly what Israel is up to. Israel's apologists either are dishonest or purposefully ignorant.

[King_David]

21. Golan Heights was not part of Lebanon

[candelista]

4. Well, President Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize winner...

...right along with Henry Kissinger, who won it for stopping the bombing that he himself started in Vietnam.

So I guess it's really no problem that the man who chides Israel for 'abandoning the hard work of peace' is himself currently bombing the shit out of people in Syria.



http://thomsonreuters.com/news-services/newswires/

[Ash_F]

5. I don't disagree.

But boy is this an ironic moment.

The reason ISIS exists in Syria and Iraqi is because the minorities there did not have political representation. They did not get it because that is how the Western powers willfully engineered it.

The same problem exists in Israel/Palestine.

[hack89]

12. Iraq was ruled by a minority group. Syria is ruled by a minority group

the Sunnis in Iraq and the Alewites in Syria. The military brains behind ISIS are former Saddam Huessain army officers who were purged when the Shia government took power.

[Ash_F]

14. I know that, but there has been more history happening between 2003 and 2014. /nt

[hack89]

15. A history of minority groups violently fighting

To regain or protect their privileged positions.

[Ash_F]

16. Not totally untrue. But not the full truth either.

The governments in Iraq and Syria have hardly been fair to Sunnis themselves, or even unprivileged Shi'a for that matter. And during both eras of oppression, the superpowers had their fingers in it for the sake of enriching their privileged classes.

[JI7]

6. the problem is Likud

they have too much influence now. if you go back to Bush administration right after 9/11 it's kind of like that.

hopefully the moderates will be able to become influential again .

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[Rhinodawg]

10. After 5000 missiles came raining down,

it's really hard to feel warm and fuzzy.

Obama still doesn't get it...

Obama has his ISIL.
ISRAEL HAS ITS HAMAS.

Maybe Bibi should lecture him .

[Violet_Crumble]

11. What about the 2,100 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs and missiles?

Yep. It's really really hard to feel warm and fuzzy about that.

Obama gets it far more than you do. While he needs to do more than gently chide Israel, even the slightest of rebukes enrage folk like you. He needs to get a bit tougher and threaten to pull funding of Israel until Nutty gets his act together and stops trying to destroy any US brokered peace plans...

[King_David]

18. I don't think that's the president's priority at the moment

He's busy with his own problems with ISIS.

Doing the exact same thing with that terrorist group that Israel just did with Hamas and now unfortunately ISIS fighters have dispersed to live amongst the civilians.

It's the identical problem.

[hack89]

19. ISIS has put Gaza on the back burner

ISIS has the potential to rewrite the map of the ME. The bloodshed they have unleashed makes Gaza look like a walk in the park. Palestine will not be resolved until ISIS is resolved - there is no need to. The president understands that in a reshaped ME, Israel is a lot more important to America than Hamas or Fatah. He won't waste his time on irrelevant side issues.