Israel to World: "Suck It."

This whole situation is making me rethink my opinion that negotiating with Hamas is a worthwhile strategy. Dudes are just fucking assholes.

they aren't negotiating w. hamas

or at least, not as part of this DC summit

(That said, it's making me respect Abbas more and more everyday.)

I'm aware, but I've held the opinion that they should negotiate with Hamas. Except that Hamas decided that rather than let Abbas negotiate out a state in the West Bank that would improve quality of life and give agency and political representation to Palestinians in that area, they'll do their best to derail talks by killing Israelis and demanding the Old City. They're asshole.

Hamassholes.

it's definitely a credit to Abbas + Netanyahu that they haven't already cancelled talks. it makes me feel like this restarted process won't be a total disaster. and maybe if they can hammer out a deal, Gaza will vote out Hamas in favor of Fatah.

in fairness, demanding the Old City is not a position unique to Hamas, but I take your point. The attacks on the Hebron settlers do seem more in the mould of going "look everybody, we're still here" than anything calculated to actually advance the interests of the Palestinian people.

dudes should just put the guns down and settle this with a game of counterstrike

The administration of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday, a day after Ahmadinejad criticized Abbas for renewing direct peace talks with Israel.

"He who does not represent the Iranian people, who forged elections and who suppresses the Iranian people and stole the authority, is not entitled to talk about Palestine, or the President of Palestine," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority's news agency.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/09/04/west.bank.abbas.ahmadinejad/index.html

that's sort of rad

Sort of? Abbas FTW!

It's super rad.

damn he totally went there

awesome

Some might say that this is big talk coming from someone still occupying the PA presidency ages after his term of office expired. But yeah, it's not really for Iranians to tell Palestinians whether or not they should enter into negotiations.

I can't help LOL'ing every time someone uses the words "peace process" and I've never been proven wrong.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11199709 <- settlements freeze won't be extended, Avigdor Lieberman says

Lieberman doesn't want to extend the settlement freeze? Shocking!

yeah liebermans playing games

i hope

I don't know if he's playing or not, and he's right that he has the power to dissolve the coalition if he decides he wants to. But this isn't some tiny issue that Netanyahu can compromise on and just a few leftists will be upset. It's a hugely divisive issue that has been poisoning Israeli politics and culture for years, and that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians want a resolution too. Not to mention the severe consequences of no action (primarily the eventual dissolution of the Israeli state as a Jewish state because of demographic issues). Basically if Netanyahu does nothing, it's hard to see this coalition surviving into the distant future, and without Yisroel Beitanu, a new Likud party would have to work with Kadima. And if Lieberman won't compromise on this, Livni certainly will, which basically means that he can fuck shit up but he'd be a moron too. (And he has plenty of reason to want to compromise. Yes, his party represents very right-wing parties politically, but he's also very left-wing politically and his voters benefit a lot by having him in power. It might be worth giving up the ideology for the practical consequences -- something that never happens in the US, but is less knee-jerk in Israeli politics in my experience.)

too = to, way toooooo early in the morning for me

Ugh, that last bit in the parenthetical I totally fucked up. The people he represents are right-wing politically (esp on the issue of land) but left-wing economically and get a lot of benefit from government social programs, etc.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/09/22/israel.flotilla.report/

"The United Nations' Human Rights Council concluded Wednesday that Israeli forces committed serious violations of international law when they conducted a mid-sea interception of a humanitarian aid flotilla in an incident that left nine people dead."

"The report published today is as biased and as one-sided as the body that has produced it," the Israeli government said.

I'm gonna issue a report as biased and one-sided as the body that produced it...right in your fuckin' eye, Israeli government!

I'm sorry...that doesn't even mean anything.

so tired of the UN HRC's biased and one-sided persecutions of human rights violators

xp: Shooting something in their eye? That's antisemenitic :-(

idgi

The UN HRC actually is kind of biased against Israel, or at least overly focused on Israel.

so glad china's here to protect human rights around the world

and saudi arabia

oh and friends-of-the-Roma France

or at least overly focused on Israel.

hmmm I wonder why that is

Anti-semitism, of course.

still don't get stanm's post

what's not to understand? the first one is a link to an article. the second one is a joke in response to kgvz's "right in your fuckin' eye" remark about how anything critical of Israel is immediately branded as anti-semitic by the Israeli gov't.

oh right!

ha, ha that's hilarious, well done stanm

also a double entendre FYI

on the one hand, extend the building freeze ffs

on the other... owned much?

oh and friends-of-the-Roma France

I am always very persuaded by the "Israel may be oppressive, but other countries are much more oppressive" argument.

I am always very persuaded by the "Israel is worse than every other country in the world" argument.

ooh ooh can we have a poll you guys?

the cyber-attack thing is pretty genius, gotta say I prefer this method of warfare to Israel's other erm military tactics

I am always very persuaded by the "Israel is worse than every other country in the world" argument.

even North Korea?

erm - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/un-factfinding-mission-sa_n_743873.html

countdown to Israel calling video footage anti-semitic and biased 10, 9, 8...

7... 6... 5...

“Formerly an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews because they were Jews and had a Jewish soul. But nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews.”

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/auschwitz-survivor-israel-acts-like-nazis-1.1000918

oh great, another 'anti-semitism doesn't exist' post from stanm