Kerry calls Israeli envoy to protest legalization of West Bank outposts

[Jefferson23]

In unusual move, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry phones Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren to demand explanations, voice protest.

By Barak Ravid | May.21, 2013

snip*The government had previously promised to demolish the outposts, but last week informed the High Court of Justice that it intends to legalize them.

A senior Israeli official told Haaretz that after Kerry learned of the Israeli decision last Thursday, he personally called Oren and requested clarifications, stressing that the move undermines his efforts to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry requested that the government rethink its decision, or at least postpone the outposts’ legalization.

A phone call from the secretary of state to a foreign ambassador to demand explanations and voice a protest is considered a very unusual move, one that indicates Kerry’s anger at the Israeli decision. Such protests are usually conveyed through lower-level channels.

The announcement of the outpost legalizations contradicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to Kerry to “restrain” settlement activity. Netanyahu made this commitment after Kerry asked both sides to refrain from provocations that might derail his efforts to renew negotiations.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/kerry-calls-israeli-envoy-to-protest-legalization-of-west-bank-outposts.premium-1.525039

[YSol]

1. Kerry's Protest Call

Is essentially useless. Israel has been defying US positions on Israel's colonies for decades. Israel continues to be in defiance of international law. Are ther ever any conseuquences for its annexations, and confications? Of course not. The Israel government has no intention now or at any time of negotiating for a two state solution. Israel does not believe in peace. It believes that land theft and colonisation will bring security. The US response this time may have been a bit more out of the limits of protocol but there will be no consequences for Israel's intransigence. The US will always rubber stamp any policy of the Israel government. The only thing that will work is to treat Israel like a pariah state, like South Africa, and level a boycott and sanctions until it abides by international law and we seen an end to its colonisation policy. Until then, Israel will continue to spit in the face of the hand that feeds it. Kerry will have to bite the bullet and get used to it.