Slate's William Saletan: Why Israel Is No Better Than Russia

[Vine Gatherer]

Six months ago, after Vladimir Putin annexed part of Ukraine, President Obama authorized sanctions against Russia. “The basic principles that govern relations between nations in Europe and around the world must be upheld in the 21st century,” said Obama. “That includes respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity—the notion that nations do not simply redraw borders or make decisions at the expense of their neighbors simply because they are larger or more powerful.”

The United States has defended that principle in Ukraine and Iraq: You can’t use force to grab territory or change borders. But Israel, a U.S. ally, continues to violate the rule. This weekend, Israel claimed yet more Palestinian territory: nearly 1,000 acres, its biggest land grab in 30 years.

The land isn’t in Gaza, where Hamas has been firing rockets and digging tunnels. It’s in the West Bank, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been preaching nonviolence and trying to negotiate a peace agreement. Israel controls more than 40 percent of the West Bank, using its army to facilitate the occupation of this land by Jewish settlers. This is land never granted to Israel under any agreement. It’s theft.

On Sunday, while the world was distracted by Putin and ISIS, Israel grabbed another chunk. Its army announced that 988 acres near Bethlehem—many of which, according to Palestinian officials, are planted with olive trees and belong to Palestinian families—are now Israeli land.

This isn’t a Putin-style invasion or an ISIS-level bloodbath. But it’s offensive for many reasons. It’s a slap at the United States, which stood with Israel in its latest war in Gaza, and at European countries that cut Israel lots of slack during the lopsided conflict. It’s a thumb in the eye of Secretary of State John Kerry, who keeps trying to restart peace talks. And it discredits Abbas, sending every Palestinian a message that negotiation is for suckers.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/09/israel_s_illegal_land_grab_in_west_bank_the_israeli_rationale_is_no_different.html

William Saletan, a Jewish native of Texas, graduated from Swarthmore College in 1987.

[geek tragedy]

1. I'm always puzzled by people who excuse one while condemning the other.

And, that goes in both directions--those who condemn Putin but defend Israel's actions, and those who condemn Israel's action in the most extreme language possible, but then seek to excuse Putin's land grabs and invasions of his neighbors.