Candidates' unconditional support isn't right for Jewish state


Once again, as the presidential campaign season heats up, the leading candidates are going to enormous lengths to demonstrate their devotion to the state of Israel and their steadfast commitment to its "special relationship" with the United States.

Each of the main contenders emphatically favors giving Israel extraordinary material and diplomatic support -- continuing the more than $3 billion in foreign aid each year to a country whose per capita income is now 29th in the world. They also believe that this aid should be given unconditionally. None of them criticizes Israel's conduct, even when its actions threaten U.S. interests, are at odds with American values or even when they are harmful to Israel itself. In short, the candidates believe that the U.S. should support Israel no matter what it does.

Read more: Candidates' unconditional support isn't right for Jewish state

A lasting settlement?

While George Bush talks up the prospects for peace, in reality he backs Israel's assault on Palestinians' legitimate national aspirations

In Israeli hallways yesterday, Bush was celebrated as the unwavering supporter of Israel's expansionist policies that he truly is, as he pressed ahead with a public relations campaign that began at Annapolis - talking future statehood for the Palestinians in theory, but backing occupation policies in practice - standing by as Olmert spoke of increasing settlements in illegally annexed Arab East Jerusalem. 

Read more: A lasting settlement?

January 11: Shut Down Guantánamo Day

January 11: Shut Down Guantánamo

{mosimage} 

­United for Peace and Justice has endorsed the following call for a Jan. 11, 2008, International Day of Action to Shut Down Guantánamo.

Call to Action
We declare January 11, 2008, six years after the first prisoners arrived at Guantánamo, an International Day of Action to Shut Down Guantánamo. In Washington, DC, we will hold a permitted demonstration at the National Mall followed by an orange jumpsuit procession to the Supreme Court. There will also be solidarity demonstrations in Chicago, Miami, London and Paris, with more being added every day. We invite you to come to Washington and participate, or else join or plan an action in your own community. We also encourage people around the world to wear orange t-shirts, armbands or other orange clothing on January 11th to mark the date.

CNN Reporter offers Bush a Gaza, West Bank misery tour


"I spend a lot of my time covering the West Bank and Gaza: here's what I see, and he won't."

"If he had some spare time -- and a convincing disguise -- I'd be happy to take Bush on a tour of my beat. I'll do the driving."

    Story Highlights:
    * CNN's Ben Wedeman says Bush won't see the plight of Gaza and the West Bank
    * Gaza hospital director says babies are dying due to equipment failures
    * Gazan: "Our leaders are either Israeli collaborators, asses, or mentally unstable"

Read more: CNN Reporter offers Bush a Gaza, West Bank misery tour

Bush fails to gain concessions on settlements from Olmert

· Little progress made since Annapolis peace talks
· Security forces on alert during president's visit

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, last night refused to rule out further settlement building in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, highlighting the deep gulf between Israel and the Palestinians that confronts George Bush on his first visit to Israel and the West Bank as president.

Against a backdrop of bristling security that accompanied the presidential visit, the Israeli prime minister said the US and the Palestinians knew there was an Israeli "moratorium" on new settlements and on the new expropriation of Palestinian land in the occupied territories.

But he added: "We have made it clear that Jerusalem as far as we are concerned is not in the same status and they know that the population centres are not in the same status. There might be things that will happen in the population centres or in Jerusalem which they may not be in love with but we will discuss them."

Olmert's comments exposed the schism that divides Israelis and Palestinians as they attempt to renew serious peace negotiations. The presence of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory stands at the heart of the conflict and Olmert's position puts him at odds with some in the US administration who have spoken out against recent settlement growth, particularly in East Jerusalem.

This was the first visit Bush has made to Jerusalem since he became president seven years ago and brought with it a vast security effort. More than 10,000 Israeli police officers were deployed and major roads in the city centre were shut. Crossings in and out of the West Bank were closed for the 48-hour visit.

The two leaders exchanged gifts, with Bush presenting his soccer-mad counterpart with a football bearing images of the Israeli and American flags, a sports bag and cufflinks. In return, and perhaps fearing Bush may not find the Middle East again, Olmert presented the US president with a GPS navigation system - only this one was for bikes and included trail maps around his ranch in Texas and Israeli biking routes. He also gave Bush, a keen cyclist, an Israeli national cycling team suit, with "George W. 43" embroidered on the back, and a hydration backpack.

The Bush visit is confronting the disappointing aftermath of the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, that he hosted six weeks ago. The talks were to have launched a new round of diplomacy, but there has been little progress. Not long after Annapolis the Israeli housing ministry announced tenders for 300 new homes in Har Homa, a settlement in East Jerusalem near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

The Har Homa announcement, which has been followed by reports of two more new settlements planned in East Jerusalem, met with American criticism. The US "road map" calls on Israel to freeze "all settlement activity".

"Har Homa is a settlement the United States has opposed from the very beginning," the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who travelled with Bush to the Middle East, told the Jerusalem Post newspaper yesterday. She said Washington did not see a difference between settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. "The United States doesn't make a distinction," she said.

Today more than 450,000 Israelis live in settlements beyond Israel's 1967 borders, on Palestinian land captured during the six-day war. Israel insists it has sovereignty over East Jerusalem, although its annexation has not been recognised internationally, and it defends building in the major settlement blocs by saying Israel intends to keep them in any future peace agreement.

Yet Olmert said that during his meeting with Bush he was not asked to make any new commitments on the peace process. Bush did say, though, that the "illegal outposts", which are settlements that do not even have official Israeli sanction, had to be removed, again a road map requirement.
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.