Israel, US Spar Over Jews in the Biblical Heartland
Israel seems less and less concerned by international condemnations as it moves ahead with settling the Promised Land.
A picture shows a general view of the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev, near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank,
The presence of Jews where they are not wanted remains a serious “obstacle to peace,” according to the White House.
Taken on its own, that is an incredibly antisemitic position. And while Washington will insist that the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is important in this case, the reality is that the Palestinian demand for a Judenrein state is antisemitic, and should not be promoted by America or anyone else.
It also exposes the fact that the Palestinians still have not fulfilled one of the cornerstones of the Middle East peace process – acceptance of the fact that the Jewish people are not colonizers, but have a history in this land, and therefore a right to be here.
So why doesn’t the US deal with that obstacle to peace?
We all know the answer. It’s just easier to push Israel around than it is to advance a position that’s unpopular in the Arab world.
Even so, by now people have got to be waking up to how ludicrous it is to say that a small number of Jews building homes in established towns is somehow preventing peace.
Israel at least seems to care less and less what everyone else thinks, and is finally moving ahead again with Jewish settlement of the Promised Land.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in accordance with coalition agreements made Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich a minister within the Defense Ministry responsible for “settlement affairs.” Immediately, the government approved over 4,000 additional new housing units in existing Jewish settlements in the so-called “West Bank.”
The US considers construction of new housing in West Bank settlements an “obstacle to peace.”
And that’s what set off the US State Department, which responded with a statement expressing “deep concern” over this “obstacle to peace.”
“As has been longstanding policy, the US opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace,” said the Americans.
Again, it’s Jews by virtue of their very presence, and not Palestinian intransigence, that makes a peace agreement “difficult.”
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