Obama Digs In: No Compromise On Settlements or Roadmap
John Manning
At the daily briefing today, State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, was
asked if there was room for compromise on the issue of a settlement freeze.
Here is Kelly's response:
"We look forward to sitting down and talking about what can we do to
move this process forward. In order to create this environment that will
be conducive to resumptions of the negotiations, both sides need to
comply with road map commitments....Freeze on all activity relating to
settlements including natural growth is laid out very clearly. Working
out the way to our resolution, I'm not going to say we're not going to
compromise; we'll see what happens."
Note that last part. "Working out the way to resolution, I'm not going
to say we're not going to compromise; we'll see what happens."
He seems to be saying that the US will compromise on settlements or
"natural growth," but, in fact, he is saying the opposite. He says that
first the freeze goes into effect, the Roadmap is complied with, and
then "working our way to a resolution....we'll see what happens."
Perfect. The United States is telling Israel that we are open to discuss
anything and even to compromise but not in advance of final status
negotiations along the lines we favor, i.e. "our resolution."
In that context, we'll consider Israel's argument about natural growth
or anything else it wants to discuss. But not in advance of those
negotiations, not in advance of fulfillment of the terms of the Roadmap,
and certainly not now.
For those worried that the President might blink, it looks like that
worry is misplaced. I don't say you shouldn't worry. President Obama is
getting serious pushback from the usual suspects. But today's statement
indicates that he isn't backing down, quite the contrary.
NOTE ON PUSHBACK FROM NEOCONLAND: TNR owner Martin Peretz, who was a
strong supporter of Obama in the primaries -- mainly because he feared
Hillary was not, in fact, Golda Meir -- has now turned on Obama with all
the fury he can muster. And it's enough that he actually reverts to
German and calls Obama's aides nochleifers. I looked it up and I still
don't know what it is but I do know that when neocons switch to German
they aren't making paying compliments.
Peretz is an outlier, way to the right of AIPAC etc but his joining the
Obama opposition is a sign of coming times.
Obama is losing the far right of the Jewish community. That could mean
that in 2012, he'll only get to 75% of the Jewish vote and not 78%. The
Peretzites will stand with Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee or Newt Gingrich.
Jerry Okamura
peace deal with the Palestinians. The Palestinains want the building of
settlements stopped. As long as you continue to keep those settlements, you
have a bargaining chip, to get some concessions from the Palestinians. But
without the settlements, you have lost one bargaining chip. What would you
do?
"John Manning" <jrob...@terra.com.br> wrote in message
news:v-6dnTzNfdEcf9HX...@giganews.com...
fla...@verizon.net
On 5-Jul-2009, "Jerry Okamura" <okamu...@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
> You are the Prime Minister of Israel. You want to hammer out some sort of
> peace deal with the Palestinians. The Palestinains want the building of
> settlements stopped. As long as you continue to keep those settlements,
> you
> have a bargaining chip, to get some concessions from the Palestinians.
> But
> without the settlements, you have lost one bargaining chip. What would
> you
> do?
He would give them everything they want, guaranteeing not just
the destruction of not just Israel, but every Jew within reach of them.
Susan
drahcir
> At the daily briefing today, State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, was
> asked if there was room for compromise on the issue of a settlement freeze.
>
> Here is Kelly's response:
>
> "We look forward to sitting down and talking about what can we do to
> move this process forward. In order to create this environment that will
> be conducive to resumptions of the negotiations, both sides need to
> comply with road map commitments....Freeze on all activity relating to
> settlements including natural growth is laid out very clearly. Working
> out the way to our resolution, I'm not going to say we're not going to
> compromise; we'll see what happens."
>
> Note that last part. "Working out the way to resolution, I'm not going
> to say we're not going to compromise; we'll see what happens."
>
> He seems to be saying that the US will compromise on settlements or
> "natural growth," but, in fact, he is saying the opposite. He says that
> first the freeze goes into effect, the Roadmap is complied with, and
> then "working our way to a resolution....we'll see what happens."
What sort of cockamamie website did you dredge this up from? First,
there are a suspicious looking three dots in the quote, followed by a
non-sentence. Second, the above "interpretation" is plain idiotic - it
says what it says - compromise is possible. Stop wasting bandwidth.
And, for the love of Mike, why do you insist on crossposting to
irrelevant groups? Do you want to prove beyond all doubt that you are
an idiot? If so, please believe me, it's not necessary.
>
> Perfect. The United States is telling Israel that we are open to discuss
> anything and even to compromise but not in advance of final status
> negotiations along the lines we favor, i.e. "our resolution."
>
> In that context, we'll consider Israel's argument about natural growth
> or anything else it wants to discuss. But not in advance of those
> negotiations, not in advance of fulfillment of the terms of the Roadmap,
> and certainly not now.
>
> For those worried that the President might blink, it looks like that
> worry is misplaced. I don't say you shouldn't worry. President Obama is
> getting serious pushback from the usual suspects. But today's statement
> indicates that he isn't backing down, quite the contrary.
>
> NOTE ON PUSHBACK FROM NEOCONLAND: TNR owner Martin Peretz, who was a
> strong supporter of Obama in the primaries -- mainly because he feared
> Hillary was not, in fact, Golda Meir -- has now turned on Obama with all
> the fury he can muster. And it's enough that he actually reverts to
> German and calls Obama's aides nochleifers. I looked it up and I still
> don't know what it is but I do know that when neocons switch to German
> they aren't making paying compliments.
>
> Peretz is an outlier, way to the right of AIPAC etc but his joining the
> Obama opposition is a sign of coming times.
>
> Obama is losing the far right of the Jewish community. That could mean
> that in 2012, he'll only get to 75% of the Jewish vote and not 78%. The
> Peretzites will stand with Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee or Newt Gingrich.
>
> http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/29/obama_digs_in_no_comp...