The Israeli government has been waiting for some time for a formal written letter from the Obama Administration containing US assurances in exchange for the 90-day 'settlement freeze' extension they want from Israel in order to get the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
After a great deal of waffling by the Obama Administration over what's actually being promised, Netanyahu formally requested the US proposition in writing before presenting it to his cabinet for a vote.
While rumors that the letter is coming shortly have been prevalent, there's at least one credible report that says the letter isn't coming at all.
It relies on an anonymous 'senior diplomat with inside knowledge of Netanyahu's recent meetings in Washington',which always makes me a bit cautious but it seems plausible and jibes with a few other things I've heard from a couple of my notorious Little Birdies.
According to the diplomatic source, Clinton made a number of commitments when talking to Netanyahu, but later greased out from under them by claiming that she had not been speaking on behalf of President Obama – who, she said in the end, did not give his approval.
The original offer was that the proposed construction freeze would last for three months, and that the US would not demand any further freezes.
However, according to this diplomatic source U.S. leaders have since said that the building freeze for Jews in Judea and Samaria would be open ended and end only if Israel and the 'Palestinians' came to an agreement on the borders of the proposed 'Palestinian' state, something that is likely impossible. I can confirm that one of my own sources within the 'Palestinian' Authority said that there was no way the 'Palestinians' would resume negotiations with a temporary freeze unless the borders of the 'Palestinian' state were guaranteed by the US in advance, including half of Jerusalem.
As speaking of Jerusalem, this particular Little Birdie also told me that unless the freeze included East Jerusalem, there's likewise no deal.This directly contradicts the original US promise to Israel that Jerusalem would be exempted, and in fact according to this report U.S. officials have stated that the construction freeze would apply to all Jews living east of the 1949 armistice line, including in Jerusalem.
If the freeze is not limited to three months and if Jerusalem is not exempted from it, Netanyahu would probably not even present it to his cabinet since there's little on no chance of them approving it. Shas and even most of Netamyahu's fellow Likudniks would not consider voting for it.
Another sticking point is the extra squadron of F-35 fighter jets Israel was supposed to receive in exchange for the freeze. The way things are sorting out, it appears that the `extra' F35 jets are part of a separate package and that Israel will pay for them in full.
This is a retreat even from the initial US offer, which stated that Israel would only receive the extra F-35's if a peace agreement was reached between Israel and the Palestinians.
According to another source of mine, the whole idea of formal written guarantees to Israel in exchange for the freeze has been pulled for now because the 'Palestinians' refused to go along with it and were going to say no anyway. That makes sense,because it was highly unlikely that any deal Netanyahu could get through the Israeli cabinet would be acceptable to the 'Palestinians'
It wouldn't exactly look good for Obama or for the 'Palestinians' if the Obama Administration went to the trouble of getting the Israelis to agree to a deal and then the 'Palestinians' quashed the deal, now would it?
(via memeorandum)
3 comments:
The Clntons are supposed to be smart political operatives. At least this is what there lackeys in the media have told us. Mrs. Clinton also has aspirations to be President some day. At least this is what her supporters tell us.
If this is the case, even if the Clintons are merely "smart" and do not have further aspirations such as presidency for Mrs. Clinton, then her participation in the farce known as the Israeli/"Palestinian" peace process makes no sense. Even if we could somehow make a meaningful contribtuion to peace between the parties involved, this does NOTHING to solve America's problems. Not only this, but our involvement here carries huge risk to America. An action that has huge potential costs to one without any possiblity of significant benefit to one is a stupid action for one to partake.
Essentially the US has neither the time or the resources right now to be invoived in a conflict between peoples on the other side of the world. The Aemrican people are aware of this fact on some level. This is part of the reason so many of them got voted out of office during the last election.
Finally, we are supposedly going to sell fighter jets to Israel or give them to Israel or something. This is stupid on our part. The United States has very limited industrial capacity. As such, if these are going to be built for Israel, the same precious industrial capacity cannot be used to build them for the USAF. Given the worn down nature of our military, it would make much more sense to use these to upgrade our own forces and not those of some other country.
Now if we were not going to be a major world power we may not need some of these items. Given our worn down military, the fact that our forces and technology lag WAY BEHIND those of Russia and China, the fact that our economy is in shambles, and we have to much debt to be able to afford the kinds upgrades that would be necessary to make our military competitive with the major powers our only real choice appears to be to redeploy EVERY THING we have to our borders and upgrade our nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver it. Nuclear weapons are chepaer than much of what we currently have and they are more effective. Essentially they give us mor bang for our bucks and our bucks are very limited right now. Do this and we at least have a fighting chance to defend our country.
As for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, it is definitely in our interests for Israel to be successful. Since we are not in a position to really influence this, our best bet is to get out of Iarael's way and allow them to handle it. In all likelyhood the Israelis would be successful in destroying Hams, Fatah, Hezbollah, and the Iranian nuclear weapons program. In the unlikely event that they faiel, our forces will be deployed in defensible positions along our borders and we will have a fighting chance to defend our home land.
The Clntons are supposed to be smart political operatives. At least this is what there lackeys in the media have told us. Mrs. Clinton also has aspirations to be President some day. At least this is what her supporters tell us.
If this is the case, even if the Clintons are merely "smart" and do not have further aspirations such as presidency for Mrs. Clinton, then her participation in the farce known as the Israeli/"Palestinian" peace process makes no sense. Even if we could somehow make a meaningful contribtuion to peace between the parties involved, this does NOTHING to solve America's problems. Not only this, but our involvement here carries huge risk to America. An action that has huge potential costs to one without any possiblity of significant benefit to one is a stupid action for one to partake.
Essentially the US has neither the time or the resources right now to be invoived in a conflict between peoples on the other side of the world. The Aemrican people are aware of this fact on some level. This is part of the reason so many of them got voted out of office during the last election.
Finally, we are supposedly going to sell fighter jets to Israel or give them to Israel or something. This is stupid on our part. The United States has very limited industrial capacity. As such, if these are going to be built for Israel, the same precious industrial capacity cannot be used to build them for the USAF. Given the worn down nature of our military, it would make much more sense to use these to upgrade our own forces and not those of some other country.
Now if we were not going to be a major world power we may not need some of these items. Given our worn down military, the fact that our forces and technology lag WAY BEHIND those of Russia and China, the fact that our economy is in shambles, and we have to much debt to be able to afford the kinds upgrades that would be necessary to make our military competitive with the major powers our only real choice appears to be to redeploy EVERY THING we have to our borders and upgrade our nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver it. Nuclear weapons are chepaer than much of what we currently have and they are more effective. Essentially they give us mor bang for our bucks and our bucks are very limited right now. Do this and we at least have a fighting chance to defend our country.
As for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, it is definitely in our interests for Israel to be successful. Since we are not in a position to really influence this, our best bet is to get out of Iarael's way and allow them to handle it. In all likelyhood the Israelis would be successful in destroying Hams, Fatah, Hezbollah, and the Iranian nuclear weapons program. In the unlikely event that they faiel, our forces will be deployed in defensible positions along our borders and we will have a fighting chance to defend our home land.
To BPoster :
I'm in complete accord re the nuclear weapons : we don't have many good cards left, but this an effective one which still gets people's attention. Unfortunately, no-one thinks that we are willing to take recourse to them. After all, after 11 Sept 2001, our then-president sallied forth out to the UN for permission for self-defence ... TWICE. &, then, he engaged in very limited, strategic bombing for a while in Afghanistan, till the bunker-buster-bomb crowd prevailed on him to escalate the firepower's level.
Additionally, we need to have a new president sworn in on 20 Jan 2013 in order to give Israel ( & India, et c, ) breathing space, sufferance, & licence to deal with the terrorists & the Iranian nuclear programme.
Best wishes & regards,
--dragon/dinosaur
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