While the frantic bribe-athon by the Obama administration continues to try reimposing the settlement moratorium, building has already resumed, according to this report:
Bulldozers have been working furiously on the construction of 350 new housing units in various settlements.
As the end of the freeze approached, the settlements have made great efforts to launch a massive building campaign in response. The Yesha Council has expressed satisfaction at the large amount of construction that has taken place so far.
But there is more:
A long queue of Palestinian laborers lined up Tuesday at the entrance to the settlement of Talmon, west of Ramallah. The vehicles with white license plates parked at the side of the road, and Palestinian workers exited the vehicles.
The workers waited for the security officer to check their identity cards before entering the various construction sites spread out over the settlement that have sprung up since the end of the building freeze.
So in the real world, Palestinians get jobs and Israelis get homes. From the vague description in the report, it seems as though building, to borrow a phrase, is “up” and “in” and not “out.” (The footprint of existing settlements is not being expanded from what we can glean from this report.) My, might that be a way of proceeding from here on out? It took over 18 months for the Obami to get the parties back to direct negotiations, albeit momentarily. Perhaps after another few months they can finally go back to the 2004 Bush-Sharon understanding on settlements. That might be “smart” diplomacy.
Meanwhile, some of my colleagues are debating whether Bill Clinton is offering a sly parody of the Obami’s ”linkage” fetish:
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would take away much of the motivation for terrorism around the world.
He described the long-running conflict as the key problem in the region and said resolving it would have a knock on effect that could result in Syria ending its support for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran turning back its controversial nuclear program.
No, I think he’s serious and the president shares the notion that if Abbas signs a piece of paper, all sorts of wonderful things will transpire. The idea that the cessation of terror and the defanging of the Iranian regime are preconditions for peace is alien to their thinking. But the upside-down view of the Middle East does explain why the non-peace talks are in disarray, the Iranian regime is gaining allies, and the Israelis will have to fend for themselves when it comes to the Iranian nuclear threat. Unfortunately, there is no adult supervision of the Obama foreign policy.
> The surest clue to a politician’s intentions is his record, not his campaign rhetoric.
In that case, shouldn’t conservatives be a little bit, er, more suspicious of President McCain’s intentions too?
To a liberal like me, the Gang of 14 compromise on judicial nominations, campaign finance reform, the initial opposition to “enhanced interrogation” techniques, opposition to the Bush tax cuts, last year’s pro immigration initiative etc. make McCain a rather appealing “Maverick”. He *has* indeed not been afraid of pursuing centrist policies in the past. Yet he has downplayed or outright abandoned virtually all of these policies and now campaign as a run-of-the-mill Bush conservative.
My point is that Obama’s “true” views remain a bit of a mystery, but so do McCain’s. Is he the rabid right winger of 2008 or the “maverick” of 2000?
MARCU$
Jennifer, your second paragraph, as it reads, would make a great TV ad for McCain. It is succinct and easy to understand. If you know some higher up in the McCain camp, you should definitely give it to him or her. And, they need to put it on TV…..the people that tap into the internet and UTUBE already know what time it is.
Only the “National Review” was stupid enough to rate him the most liberal. It’s kind of amazing how every four years, the Senator running for president on the Dem side turns out to be “the most liberal in the Senate.” Not like NR would have any reason to jigger facts to try to make a political point, right?
Please, take an independent look at the guy’s record.
I’d start with
http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/02/obama-actually.html
Before we make a choice we may regret for the next four years, the accusations against Barack Obama should be carefully considered, as they are here.