Top Israeli Journalist: US Can End Israeli Occupation "Within Months" Plus Glenn Greenwald On Who Holds The Cards
Take a look at what top Israeli journalist Gideon Levy has to say in Ha'aretz today.
To be honest, it is precisely what I've been saying for a long time. But this argument is especially significant when it comes from an Israeli.
It comes down to this, according to Levy.
"The American president has the power to end the Israeli occupation within months. The conquest of the "Third Kingdom of Israel" following the 1956 Sinai Campaign collapsed within weeks. We could return to that situation, despite the stumbling blocks of the settlements, with a clear timetable for evacuation, severe sanctions for noncompliance and generous assistance for those staying the course. The tailwinds Obama is enjoying have already changed the prevailing tone toward Israel, even among its traditional "supporters" - those who so blindly and irresponsibly endorsed its occupation and wars.
"The tools in Obama's kit are varied: A congressional delegation visiting here recently entertained the idea, in private conversations at least, that the U.S. prohibit Israel from using American weapons in the West Bank; someone suggested levying strict limitations on Israelis entering America. But perhaps it would be enough to simply retract the automatic U.S. veto at the UN - and this is without mentioning stopping the flow of aid."
And here is Glenn Greenwald explaining that "as long as you live in our house, you have to observe our rules" and how that teenage mantra applies to Israel.
Using those same powers Obama could dismantle the state of Israel in more or less the same time frame, allowing the citizens of Tel Aviv to emigrate to New York, while forcing the others to become displaced and unwanted wanderers just as their ancestors had been for 2000 years (Obama could help with their moving expenses).
Then you and your family would be fat and safe without having to risk anything or spend anything. You wouldn't even have to incur air fare to see your (formerly) Israeli friends.
What could be better?
June 4, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ooooh, someone's feeling *grumpy* today!
June 4, 2009 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ -- do you mind offering your view on a question (I try usually not to bother you, honestly).
The article (and it's really rollicking, thanks!) talks about evacuating existing settlements. Some (and some on here) glibly say that will never happen, but seemingly peace depends on it (or most of it) indeed occurring.
Now, Israel unloaded Gaza with no more fuss than could be expected (though it still wasn't very pretty). Is this so different? (Not rhetorical, there, I'm asking your view.) That would be required to bring the author's peace in "months," right?
Thanks enormously for all your coverage of today's events and everything else you do here! :)
June 4, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, I don't think it is different at all. I think that simply the announcement by the government that they must leave would remove most.
The rest could be removed by the army.
Actually, all the army has to do is announce that beyond a certain date the settlers are on their own, and they would go.
Remember, how Kennedy integrated the University of Mississippi (and Eisenhower, Little Rock). They just sent in the military.
June 4, 2009 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
As per the comments below, could you be more specific about which settlements you're talking about? How many, population-wise, would need to be removed to meet, say, the Geneva Accord conditions? And is THAT feasible?
June 4, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Steven Walt asks Is the Israel Lobby getting weaker?
June 4, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/06/03/is_the_israel_lobby_getting_weaker
June 4, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for this article. This is also what MJ has been saying for months now. Interesting, interesting!
June 4, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is all very well, but is the IDF seriously going to obey orders to confront the settlers and demolish the settlements? And will the settlers be reabsorbed peacefully into Israeli society within the pre-1967 borders? I have a lot of trouble believing this.
June 4, 2009 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
June 4, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
So are finally admitting that Israel cannot cannot actually leave the West Bank?
And, silly me, I was under the impression that Hamas was the problem.
June 4, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
When did I ever claim that Israel could leave the West Bank? Or should leave it? Or would leave it?
Nor did I ever claim that Hamas was the problem. I've ALWAYS said that the Arab people were the problem, that their refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people to ANY of the land of Palestine or to an independent, Jewish state, made coexisting with them impossible.
I've ALWAYS agreed with Hertzl, with Jabotinsky, with Ben Gurion, with the British, and now with Benny Morris on this matter.
June 4, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you over there, taking the point, putting your own self on the line, or writing this from a safe distance, urging others to fight for your entertainment?
June 4, 2009 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wish I'd thought of that!
;)
June 4, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Leave Ordinary alone. This has got to be one of the worst days in his life.
June 4, 2009 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ,
I've renamed Ordinary "Tumbleweeds" for the way he tumbles all over this site offering his right wing opinion on Israeli issues.
June 4, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
But he is so well-named already. Ordinary, as in utterly pedestrian and predictable.
June 4, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha-hah!
June 4, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually no, Rosenberg.
I tend to agree with George Friedman over at Statfor. They'll be a lot of talk but nothing much will happen. Certainly Israel will not stop building settlements - any more than we or anybody else will stop building houses and expanding - and we are not going to attempt any really severe sanctions, nothing they can't get around.
I also agree with many in the financial press; our options are severely limited by our financial distress.
June 4, 2009 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
and our already huge military committments.
June 4, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dream on. But don't buy a villa in Ariel.
June 4, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
ordinary said:
But we aren't pushing our neighbors off their land in order to expand.
Imagine what would happen if, without permission, I built a house for my son on my neighbor's lawn.
June 4, 2009 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Try not to be really foolish.
June 4, 2009 9:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
ordinary said:
I won't, I won't build that house on my neighbor's lawn unless I get his permission.
Maybe he'll sell me his lawn.
June 5, 2009 8:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Should Obama have asserted leadership by calling an end to Israeli occupation within the 1967 borders?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=5437
.
June 4, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, IDF does not need to make any effort to evacuate settlements. It would suffice to pass the control to Palestinians. (Of course, elaborate histrionics associated with an occasional eviction are very much a charade, IDF has huge expertise how to give inhabitants 5 minute warning before buldozers flatten their dwellings. If if they do not want to do it to Jews, they can lend buldozers to PA).
By the way, can one get mortgage on a house in a settlement? If so, is there anything like "title insurance"?
June 5, 2009 1:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the links to the timely, common-sense pieces by Levy and Greenwald. It will take considerable vigorous kicks to the hindquarters of head-in-sand ostriches before they will extract their buried eyes and begin to acknowledge the since-decades naked emperor that has been showing them his "clothes." Here, though, we at least have shoes instead silk slippers to put on the kicking feet.
June 5, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
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