Israel should be wary of West Bank recommendations

[Violet_Crumble]

A committee formed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made recommendations last week that could have dire consequences for Israel. They could also end the Mideast peace process once and for all.

The Levy committee justified annexation of most of the West Bank and permanent Israeli rule over millions of Palestinians who live there. This would force Israel to choose between granting these Palestinians full Israeli citizenship or keeping them disenfranchised and confined to territorial cantons.

If Israel’s government implements the Levy report, wrote Israeli international law professor David Kretzmer in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, it “will have to acknowledge that apartheid is living and kicking” in Greater Israel, or else “it will have to extend political rights to all Palestinian residents of the West Bank.”

The Levy committee, chaired by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, was set up by Netanyahu to try to find a way to “legalize” Jewish settlements established on the West Bank without formal government approval. Israeli courts have demanded that some of these outposts be dismantled, including many erected on private Palestinian land. Successive Israeli governments have pledged that they would do so. But nearly all the illegal outposts remain.

Netanyahu was eager to find a justification to avoid demolishing the outposts. So he stacked the Levy panel with staunch right-wingers. As a result, the Levy report rejects the very idea that Israel is “occupying” the West Bank. It proposes that Jews be permitted to settle almost anywhere in the West Bank, with minimal restrictions. It insists that all Jewish settlements are legal, even those ruled illegal by four decades of Israeli Supreme Court rulings. “The Levy commission condones lawbreaking,” says Princeton professor Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/15/2894698/israel-should-be-wary-of-west.html#storylink=cpy

[The Magistrate]

1. That, Ma'am, Is Putting It Mildly....

[Violet_Crumble]

4. I suspect even the harshest of warnings would be ignored by folk embracing this report...

After all, it gives Netanyahu exactly what he wanted..

[The Magistrate]

5. No Doubt, Ma'am

You may, if in search of low amusement, note that nearby I am being taken for a member of 'Team Palestine'....

[bemildred]

7. I always take that as a sign I'm doing something right, Sir.

When they get confused about what "side" I'm on.

[The Magistrate]

8. There Is That, Sir, But Anyone Thinking This Levy Nonsense Is Good For Israel Is Not Really Thinking

If the thing were pressed to its logical conclusion, Israel annexes the whole of the Jordan Valley. Israel cannot then remain both a Jewish state and a democracy; the existing lines of the demography will not permit that, and the bulk of the non-Jewish population so absorbed would be bitterly and irreconcilably hostile. This could only be handled by wholesale expulsion or a re-creation of the classic Apartheid mechanism of old South Africa. Neither will be tolerated in the present world. The Levy report is a prescription for suicide of the Israeli state and the Zionist enterprise commenced more than a century ago.

[bemildred]

9. "Faith based" politics, I call it, Sir.

Very popular.

[The Magistrate]

10. And Closer To The Mark Than Many Might Want To Admit, Sir, In the Usual sense Of the Term

On both sides of the divide. The longer this cripples on, the clearer it becomes religious belief drives the most militant elements of either side. Whatever supposedly objective or rational or even secular arguments they may proffer, these are really just cloaking for 'because my deity says so!', and people working from that foundation simply cannot in good conscience mitigate or compromise what they believe to be divine dictate.

[shira]

11. What's faith-based is denying Jews can legitimately settle historic Judea/Samaria...

Both Arabs and Jews have legitimate claims to the land. Thus, the land is disputed. Else, what is there to negotiate as per UNSCR242 regarding 'secure and recognized boundaries'?

[shaayecanaan]

16. A badge of honour. Wear it proudly. nt

[Violet_Crumble]

17. Got a bit of a chuckle out of that when I saw it...

I agree that it's a sign yr doing something right when that happens. Though I could have sworn that exact same 'argument' being put up in that thread by the person who pigeonholed you was being trotted out by someone else many years ago in the I/P forum at DU1. I should go dig that vintage thread out for old times sake and post a link to it so our newcomers can see that we've already done that one to death many times over...

[King_David]

19. Violet , that is a terrific idea if we are all interested in gossip

and inter-member tussles and games.

Not that great of an idea if we are interested in discussing and debating the IP conflict.

[Violet_Crumble]

20. Huh? You think posting a link to an old but very informative thread on this same topic is gossip?

Bizarre. You have a very different idea of what 'gossip' and 'discuss and debate is' than most other DUers, it appears. I guess yr going to have to cover yr eyes, because here's the link to the discussion I was talking about. For those who are interested in I/P discussions from back when the forum was in its hey-day, enjoy...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=2918&forum=DCForumID30&archive=yes#13

(fingers crossed that the link works. If it doesn't I won't be back till tonight to try to fix it)

[King_David]

21. Bizarre huh ?yep does not look like intelligent IP debate to me

'You have a very different idea of what 'gossip' and 'discuss and debate is' than most other DUers'

You are right, I aint no sheep.


Enjoy

[Violet_Crumble]

22. Sorry, did I post a link to some inane Lounge thread by mistake?

Nope. Just checked and saw it was the thread where a few very intelligent DUers from long ago had a very lively and informative discussion about the very topic a few DUers (not you, I noticed) are debating right now. So it is an example of some very intelligent and constructive debate from back when the I/P forum was at its peak....

You've yet again misunderstood. I said that you have a very different idea of what gossip and debate is than most other DUers do. I didn't say you weren't a sheep. What I was trying to say is that intelligent conversation flies right over the heads of some folk who just can't comprehend what's going on, and they dismiss it as 'gossip' etc. It's something that conservatives tend to do with their approach to leftwingers and our views.

Have a great day!

:h:

[holdencaufield]

2. "Israel should be wary of West Bank recommendations"

Or what?

[Violet_Crumble]

3. Try reading the article. It explains it n/t

[Bradlad]

6. I think the "or what" . .

I think the "or what" is that Abbas will refuse to negotiate with Netanyahu and Hamas will fire rockets into Israel. Oh, and the Arabs will really, really hate the Jews.

[holdencaufield]

13. Yea, that was kind of my point.

Apparently I some people weren't able to pick up on my inference as well as yourself.

[azurnoir]

14. oh I think some things got missed things like

'we' (ProIsrael Occupation/colonization) will have to spend more time reading and rewriting talking points and whining about how the M$M is so bigoted against Jews (really Israel and really it's not but what the heck it might score some points) writing self righteous comments about historic claims ect and if all else fails being just plain smarmy because hey who will stop us? Remembering to keep it simple sound bytes mostly and concentrate on how awful those backwards culturally Palestinians are wrt 'minority' rights within their own community but how advanced Israel is in the same areas wtr to its population (one time we won't use Jews when speaking of Israel) never mind it has no bearing on how Palestinians belonging to those same minorities are treated by IDF

if I forgot anything do let me know ok?

[aranthus]

12. No doubt.

Assuming there is any chance for peace, I can't think of a better way to throw it away.

[shira]

18. There are a couple ways of looking at the report...

One way is that the right-wingers want settlements validated, expanded, entrenched, land annexed forever, greater Israel, etc.

The other way to see this is to demonstrate Israel's legitimate claims to disputed land. Claims that invalidate extreme demands for Israel to vacate 100% of all (stolen and illegitimate) land beyond the 1967 lines, thus bringing peace closer.

[azurnoir]

15. The operative paragraphs are here

Yet, since 1967, Israel has based its control of the West Bank on the Hague Convention, which gives the military of an occupying power the right to control a territory conquered during wartime — and to seize land for security use until the territory’s status is resolved. Israel can’t have it both ways: If it is not an occupier, then its military must withdraw and hand back all the West Bank land it has seized since 1967, including land that was passed on to settlements.

This brings us to the second danger: If settlement activity expands even more, in areas that have been prohibited until now, this will make it physically impossible to disentangle the West Bank from Israel proper. Already, according to an Israeli Interior Ministry census published at the start of the year, there are an estimated 722,000 Jews living in the West Bank and in Arab areas of Jerusalem occupied by Israel after the 1967 war. If pre-1967 Israel becomes permanently entwined with the West Bank, it will have to choose whether to give the Palestinians full citizenship and lose the Jewish majority within Greater Israel, or deny them rights and keep them confined to cantons. Down that road lies apartheid.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/15/2894698/israel-should-be-wary-of-west.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy








Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/15/2894698/israel-should-be-wary-of-west.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy