U.S. on Gaza tender: settlement 'freeze is a freeze'

[bemildred]

The verbal jousting continues.

...

Discussions were under way "to make sure that we have
common understanding that a freeze is a freeze," State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "And it's
not a freeze that results in continued expansion or growth."

Takes me back to the argument about what the meaning of "is" is.

Haaretz

Mr. Sharon also draws a simile between the Palestinians and
Hitler here which I found amusing:


Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday that
Israel's biggest mistake in the past had been its
restraint in responding to violations of previous
agreements with the Palestinians.

Past experience teaches us that once a diplomatic agreement has
been reached, the greatest mistake is to ignore seemingly
minor violations in its implementation," he said at a
graduation ceremony at the National Security College, near
Tel Aviv.

As examples, he cited Europe's willingness to overlook Nazi
Germany's violations of agreements prior to World War II, as
well as Israel's own experiences.

For the past three years, we have paid a heavy price for Israel's
restraint over the daily violations of the Oslo accords," he said.

Haaretz

[dfong63]

1. right on

Past experience teaches us that once a diplomatic agreement has
been reached, the greatest mistake is to ignore seemingly
minor violations in its implementation," he said at a
graduation ceremony at the National Security College, near
Tel Aviv.

unfortunately, the US and the UN have turned a blind eye to ISRAEL's violations for years. this latest "freeze" fiasco is completely typical.

[Resistance]

2. why should Israel freeze the settlements?

Clearly, what Sharon says, goes. He put Bush in his place over construction of the racist Apartheid Wall, and he's clearly stated before that "there is no pressure from anyone" - so why stop stealing Arab land now? Nobody will stop it. Nobody. Not peace activists (just bulldoze them to death, or shoot them in the head), not Palestinians, that's for sure (just mow them down with M16s and call it an 'accident'), not the UN (just completely ignore them and call them biased - and of course occassionally murder their employees if they should show up in the OT hoping to help the situation), and definitely not the United States! What would the US do? Stop sending billions every year to fund the ethnic cleansing? Will never happen.

[bemildred]

3. I was interested in the fact that he brought up Oslo here too.

That seems a reversal of sorts, I was speculating that he wants
to bring the "Bantustan" proposal back into discussion. He seems
to be pursuing that unilaterally at present in any case. Of
course it could just be more distraction, noise, and blame
avoidance.