"For Israeli leaders, a public break with the United States is the third rail of politics. The possibility that Israelis might lose the support of the one nation that can guarantee their security awakens an existential dread that no politician can long survive. It is this factor, as much as any, that has restrained the Israelis from taking military action against Iran despite Tehran's efforts to build a nuclear-weapons capability. But now the possibility of such a break seems higher than it has in two decades. So it's no surprise that, as he prepares for his first meeting as prime minister with President Obama on May 18, Benjamin Netanyahu has been "fine-tuning" his hard-line positions on peace and Iran, as a senior Israeli official described it. "As we speak, there are meetings going on to make sure we have a success" at the summit, the official said."
So begins a piece "Train Wreck Ahead?" in none other than Newsweek. It makes for interesting reading as the dynamics between Israel and its staunchest backer, the USA, take a distinctly different direction and tone. It is still too early to say what the outcome of the Obama Administration's approach on Israel's seeming intractable position on peace with the Palestinians will be, but the signs are reasonable positive.
Read the complete Newsweek piece here.
Meanwhile, one can readily see [from the report below - and others elsewhere] how Israel simply soldiering on in taking Palestinian land is going to make a re-alignment of boundaries between the Israelis and Palestinians a huge undertaking - if not, now, well-nigh impossible given the way the Israelis have simple seized Palestinian land for themselves. The NY Times reports in "Parks Fortify Israel’s Claim to Jerusalem":
"Israel is quietly carrying out a $100 million, multiyear development plan in some of the most significant religious and national heritage sites just outside the walled Old City here as part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital.
The plan, parts of which have been outsourced to a private group that is simultaneously buying up Palestinian property for Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, has drawn almost no public or international scrutiny. However, certain elements related to it — the threatened destruction of unauthorized Palestinian housing in the redevelopment areas, for example — have brought widespread condemnation.
But as Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit Christian sites here this week and as the Obama administration promotes a Palestinian state with parts of Jerusalem as its capital, Israeli activity in the area, known as the holy basin — land both inside and just outside the Old City — will be cause for growing concern and friction."
So begins a piece "Train Wreck Ahead?" in none other than Newsweek. It makes for interesting reading as the dynamics between Israel and its staunchest backer, the USA, take a distinctly different direction and tone. It is still too early to say what the outcome of the Obama Administration's approach on Israel's seeming intractable position on peace with the Palestinians will be, but the signs are reasonable positive.
Read the complete Newsweek piece here.
Meanwhile, one can readily see [from the report below - and others elsewhere] how Israel simply soldiering on in taking Palestinian land is going to make a re-alignment of boundaries between the Israelis and Palestinians a huge undertaking - if not, now, well-nigh impossible given the way the Israelis have simple seized Palestinian land for themselves. The NY Times reports in "Parks Fortify Israel’s Claim to Jerusalem":
"Israel is quietly carrying out a $100 million, multiyear development plan in some of the most significant religious and national heritage sites just outside the walled Old City here as part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital.
The plan, parts of which have been outsourced to a private group that is simultaneously buying up Palestinian property for Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, has drawn almost no public or international scrutiny. However, certain elements related to it — the threatened destruction of unauthorized Palestinian housing in the redevelopment areas, for example — have brought widespread condemnation.
But as Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit Christian sites here this week and as the Obama administration promotes a Palestinian state with parts of Jerusalem as its capital, Israeli activity in the area, known as the holy basin — land both inside and just outside the Old City — will be cause for growing concern and friction."
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