Israel Once More Surrounded by Palestinian Propaganda Lies

Bloomberg reported yesterday about the White House's defense of its commitment to Israel as it sought to calm the controversy over an anonymous comment attributed to a top Obama administration official. The comment appeared in an October 28 article in The Atlantic magazine. An unidentified senior US official is quoted by columnist Jeffrey Goldberg as calling Netanyahu a “chickensh- t” who’s afraid to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or sunni Arab states. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a former commando, responded to the distasteful comment while he was at a memorial ceremony in parliament for a cabinet minister assassinated by a Palestinian : “I risked my life for my country, and I am not willing to make concessions that will endanger our country. Our paramount interests, first and foremost security and the unity of Jerusalem, are not important to those same anonymous sources who attack us and me, personally. I am being attacked personally only because I am defending the state of Israel." ~~~~~ The latest Obama-Netanyahu exchange threatened to worsen already tense relations between the two men, feeding a feud between Israel and the US over Israeli construction in contested east Jerusalem. Republicans said the episode portrays Obama as insufficiently committed to supporting Israel, a sensitive political issue for many Jewish and evangelical Christian voters. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the comments in the article “do not reflect the views of the President,”adding that the US is “as committed as it ever has been to the security of Israel.” The two leaders “consult closely and frequently,” according to Earnest, who said that Obama has met with Netanyahu more than any other foreign leader. He said he doesn’t know who made the slur and doesn’t know whether Obama does. “I would be surprised if he did,” he said. Both Susan Rice, Obama's National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State John Kerry apologized today for the comment. ~~~~~ It is not just the very undiplomatic comment about Netanyahu in The Atlantic that is agitating Israel-US relations. The two administrations disagreed again this week over Israeli plans to speed up construction of 1,000 homes in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem, the sector of the Holy City that the Palestinians claim for a future capital. The US State Department called the plan “incompatible with the pursuit of peace.” Israel captured east Jerusalem, as well as the West Bank, from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it that year in a move that isn’t internationally recognized. It has since ringed the Arab neighborhoods of the eastern sector with Jewish areas where about 300,000 Israelis live alongside a similar number of Palestinians, who argue that Netanyahu's goal is to settle east Jerusalem with so many Israelis that it will be impossible for Palestine to take it as their capital. The Israeli government denies this. ~~~~~ As if these disagreements were not enough, Obama and Netanyahu have also had heated exchanges over the nuclear talks with Iran. Netanyahu has warned world powers led by the US against signing a “bad” nuclear deal with Iran that would not ensure it couldn’t build bombs. In The Atlantic piece, Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that the Obama administration thinks Netanyahu is bluffing with his threats to attack Iran’s nuclear program to keep it from developing the capability to produce weapons. Iran, which denies it seeks to build atomic arms, is trying to reach a deal with world powers under which it would curb its nuclear ambitions in exchange for a continued and expanding lifting of international sanctions. The negotiating parties face a late November deadline to reach the next level of agreement. ~~~~~ And while juggling all these items, Prime Minister Netanyahu is also dealing with an assassination attempt on a controversial rabbi by a lone Palestinian. Following the shooting, tensions between Palestinians and Israelis were raised when Israel closed access to the Temple Mount ysterday, a move Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas exaggeratedly called a "declaration of war." Abbas presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told CNN that the decision to close off the site, which includes the revered al-Aqsa Mosque, was a "brazen challenge" and "grave behavior" that would lead to "further tensions and instability." Israeli police said they closed the Temple Mount "to prevent disturbances" after the drive-by shooting of controversial activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick on Wednesday night. Glick was shot three times outside Jerusalem’s Begin Center following a conference about the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. Police have not yet found the unidentified assailant who was wearing a helmet and was said to have fled the scene on a motorcycle. Glick had finished a speech at the Begin Center when, according to eyewitnesses, a man with an Arabic accent approached Glick and asked him for his identity. The man then shot the rabbi, got on the motorcycle and fled, suggesting this was an assassination attempt on Glick. A message on a jihadist Palestinian website about the conference, which included details on the time, location and attendees, was being looked into by police, according to TV reports. The jihadist post also called on Palestinians to prevent the meeting, according to the report. ~~~~~ And, last but by no means least, Sweden's new left-leaning government on Thursday recognized a Palestinian state. Sweden became the third country to recognize Palestine as a state, following Malta and Cyprus, reflecting growing international impatience with the lack of progress in peace negotiations. Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said Sweden, fulfilling a promise it had made when the Social Democratic-led government took office earlier this month, made the move because Palestine had met the international law criteria required for such recognition. "There is a territory, a people and a government," she said. Israel quickly condemned the move, and Israeli Foreign Minister Abigdor Lieberman called it "a miserable decision that strengthens the extremist elements and Palestinian rejectionism." Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, welcomed the move as "a principled and courageous decision." Israel says Palestine can achieve independence only through peace negotiations, and that recognition of Palestine at the UN or by individual countries undermines the negotiating process. Palestinians say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't serious about the peace negotiations. The last round of peace talks collapsed in April and while the EU and the US have not recognized Palestine, they have hinted that Israel's tough negotiating stance hurt the talks. Netanyahu continues to settle Israelis in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, even though they are claimed by Palestinians as part of a future state. The 28-nation European Union has urged that negotiations to achieve a two-state solution resume as soon as possible. And the Obama administratipn has urged Israel to stop building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is always extremely stressful to be right about the principles involved in an argument and yet to be losing ground to those who are wrong. We have all experienced this many times during our lives. We can only imagine the frustration felt by Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu over principles so important that they could cost Israel its very future. Palestine has, by repeating the same false litany for decades, managed to convince many that it is right about Israel -- that Israel doesn't want peace, that it will never agree to adjust its borders, that it does not want Palestine to become a state. All lies and propaganda being swallowed by a gullible world. Israel has said that if Palestine will recognize its right to exist, all else will be negotiable. Palestine's stock answer is always to demand that Israel give up its annexed part of east Jerusalem and the West Bank and retreat to its unprotected pre-war 1967 borders AS A CONDITION for peace negotiations to begin. But, to look deeper at reality, Israel under Ariel Sharon gave the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinian government. What happened? Hamas overthrew the Gaza government, ruined the Israel-developed economy and has ever since used Gaza to fire rockets at Israel, killing military and civilians with the stated goal of destroying Israel. Why would Israel return any more territory to Palestine without ironclad guarantees for Israel's future? Would you?