President Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital

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Post by Hashi Lebwohl »

The only way to stop these West Bank annexations is to fight back militarily. Good luck with that.
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Palestinian PM: We will declare state on 1967 lines if Israel annexes W. Bank [In-Depth]
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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh speaks before the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah, West Bank May 11, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN)


Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said, "annexation is an existential threat to our future."


If Israel annexes part of the West Bank on July 1, the Palestinian Authority will declare a Palestinian state based on the armistice lines from before the 1967 Six Day War and call on the international community to recognize it, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh warned on Tuesday.

Speaking to members of the foreign press from the Prime Minister's Office in Ramallah, he also said that he would expect the international front to impose sanctions on Israel if such a move was made.

"We are facing the moment of truth: No where on earth can we live with this annexation," he threatened. "If Israel goes to annexation, it is a different day for us ... Annexation is an existential threat to our future."

There are four pillars of a Palestinian state: Gaza, Jerusalem, Areas A, B and C of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, Shtayyeh said. Therefore, "annexation is the erosion of a future Palestinian state," he said, "and the world has to choose between international law and annexation. I am sure the international community will choose international law."

He described annexation as having a number of dimensions, and efforts to combat the move as broken down into two phases.

The first dimension of annexation was taken on April 20, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz signed an agreement that states the country has a right to annex West Bank land.

"When they were sworn into the Knesset, they announced they were going to annex, and at the first cabinet meeting they announced they were going to annex the Jordan Valley, specifically," he recalled.

Shtayyeh claimed that already some small steps have been taken on the ground by Israelis in the Jordan Valley to prepare for annexation: Israel started sending utility bills to residents in Arab villages in the Jordan Valley. In addition, the signage that used to indicate 'Beyond this point is Palestinian' has been removed.

The Jerusalem Post spoke to Palestinians in the Jordan Valley who said that they have not seen any real change on the ground and denied that signs have been removed or replaced.

[...]


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Post by sgt.null »

Israel has a right to do whatever
They want with their land.
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Maybe so... but not to keep stealing more that isn't theirs.
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Post by sgt.null »

The West Bank is their land.
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Well, that's one of the problems, isn't it?

It's not actually, because even leaving aside all other arguments, (and there are many) they never actually annexed it back in '67, and it is still officially recognised as "occupied territory."

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Post by Hashi Lebwohl »

As I said, when they annex it the Palestinains are free to try and retake the land by force...but I don't think that will turn out quite like they think it will.
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All that will happen is that "terror" attacks etc. will be stepped up. It's the only way to address the disparity in force / resources between rich and poor combatants. Ask the Russians how Afghanistan worked out for them. (Hell, ask the Americans. :D )

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Trump prepared to back Israeli strike on Iran, Bolton says [In-Depth]
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FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump listens as his national security adviser John Bolton speaks during a presidential memorandum signing for the "Women's Global Development and Prosperity" initiative in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2019 (photo credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS/FILE PHOTO)


Putin doubted Israel could take military action against Tehran; Kushner blocked Netanyahu's calls to Trump on Iran.


US President Donald Trump expressed willingness to support Israeli strikes on Iran, according to his former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

In Bolton's book The Room Where it Happened, expected to be released this week, he describes a 2017 meeting in which Trump made the comments.

Bolton, who was not yet a member of the Trump administration, was brought in to meet with the president in 2017, and Israel was one of the topics that came up.

"I warned Trump against wasting political capital in an elusive search to solve the Arab-Israeli dispute and strongly supported moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, thereby recognizing it as Israel's capital," Bolton wrote. "On Iran, I urged that he press ahead to withdraw from the nuclear agreement and explained why the use of force against Iran's nuclear program might be the only lasting solution."

Though Bolton did not mention Israel using force, Trump responded by saying that he would support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doing so.

"You tell Bibi [Netanyahu] that if he uses force, I will back him. I told him that, but you tell him again," Trump told Bolton.

Bolton also said that in an October 2018 meeting in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin doubted that Israel could attack Iran.

"Israel, he said, could not conduct military action against Iran alone because it didn't have the resources or capabilities, especially if the Arabs united behind Iran, which was preposterous," Bolton wrote.

Putin doubted that the US withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal was productive, but Bolton told him that "Iran was not in compliance with the deal, noted the connection between Iran and North Korea on the reactor in Syria the Israelis had destroyed in 2007, and said we were carefully watching for evidence the two proliferators were cooperating even now. In any event, reimposing sanctions on Iran had already taken a heavy toll, both domestically and in terms of their international troublemaking."

[...]


PM of Israel @IsraeliPM | Twitter [Video: < 1 min]
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Where's the Catholic voice on the Holy Land both sides could hear? [In-Depth, Analysis]
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A lifeguard stand is decorated with a large mask to remind people to wear masks as precaution against the new coronavirus at a beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 21, 2020. (Credit: Sebastian Scheiner/AP)


[...]

The [above-noted] historical footnotes comes to mind in light of new, heartfelt appeal for peace in the Holy Land issued by three retired Christian church leaders in Jerusalem -- Patriarch Michele Sabbah of the Catholic Church, Anglican Bishop Riah Abu El Assal and Lutheran Bishop Munib A. Younan.

"The Holy Land is in flames, in a situation of war, and its holiness must be restored," the three leaders wrote.

"The land of God asks all churches, governments and persons of good will to act to put an end to this tragedy," the retired church leaders said.

In principle, the appeal is designed as a non-partisan, pastoral cri de coeur. In an effort to be even-headed, the three prelates insist both that Israel must have security and Palestine must have independence, so that the two states may live side-by-side in "peace, justice, equity and democracy."

The text also amounts to an exhortation that the peace process not be forgotten amid the disruptions of the coronavirus.

"We too share this universal affliction, and we beg God to have mercy and give healing to all," they write. But they add that they're also worried for the "old illness" of the Holy Land in particular, and the "suffering and injustices imposed on its people."

In reality, however, "non-political" probably is not how most Israelis will take the appeal, and therein lies the rub.

As Sabbah, El Assal and Younan note at the outset of the text, they write as "Arab Christian Palestinians," and each word in that formula is important. They're certainly Christians, each a veteran churchman who's spent his life in pastoral service. They're also obviously Arabs -- Sabbah and El Assal were born in Nazareth, Younan in Jerusalem.

Most significantly in terms of the political optics of the situation, all three are Palestinians who thus can't help but see the dynamics of the conflict primarily through Palestinian eyes.

For the Catholic bishops of the Middle East, this natural tendency to sympathize with one side over the other -- their side, in all honesty -- long has been exacerbated by the fact that they represent Christianity in an overwhelmingly Muslim environment, one that's been progressively radicalized ever since the Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded in 1964, and which now contains entire generations of Muslims trained to regard "the West" and all of its symbols, including its major faith, as an agent of colonialism.

In that context, it's equally natural that Christian leaders sometimes feel pressure to be even "more Arab," "more Palestinian," in order to demonstrate that Christians are not a foreign implant representing Western interests, but natives who share fully the fate of their Muslim neighbors.

Capucci was a sort of extreme version of that tendency, but to varying degrees it's been shared by most indigenous bishops in the Middle East for a long time. As a result, it's often difficult for Israeli diplomats and policymakers, to say nothing of the general public, to regard them as neutral arbiters.

[...]

None of this analysis, of course, has anything to do with rights and wrongs, but rather how things are likely to be perceived.

[...]

Undoubtedly, projecting greater balance was part of the logic when Pope Francis named Franciscan Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa as the apostolic administrator of Jerusalem in 2016, taking over from Sabbah. Pizzaballa is Italian, not Arab, and has close ties with Hebrew-speakers and Jewish leaders as well as the Palestinian community. He was previously the Custos, meaning the leader of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which positioned him to cultivate his own relationship with Israeli authorities apart from the Patriarchate.

If ever there were a moment in which the world needs to hear from the Church's best minds on the Holy Land, especially figures who stand a reasonable chance of being heard by both Israel's leadership and its public opinion, this, arguably, is it.

Ironically, the bishops' conference arguably best positioned to be that "neutral voice" may be the US, which tends to be more sympathetic to Israel than virtually any other. Though American bishops have plenty else on their plate at the moment, perhaps a timely intervention could still make a difference.

Because, let's face it, whatever else one may think about the declaration from the retired bishops, when they describe the status quo as a "tragedy," that's about as non-partisan and down the middle as any assessment could be.


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Vatican summons U.S. and Israeli ambassadors over plans to annex Palestinian territories
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A demonstrator holding a Palestinian flag stands amid Israeli border police during a protest against Israeli settlements and U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan. The protest was in the Jordan Valley, part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Feb. 25, 2020. (CNS photo/Raneen Sawafta, Reuters)


The Vatican tonight issued a statement emphasizing that it had summoned the ambassadors of the United States and Israel on June 30 "to express the concern of the Holy See" regarding the planned Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories.

The Vatican did not use the word "annexation" in the statement and opted instead for the expression "unilateral actions," but a senior Vatican source confirmed to America this evening that the communique is in fact referring to annexation.

It released the statement at 9:30 p.m. Rome time on July 1, a sign of its wish to let the whole world know without delay that it fundamentally disagrees with any annexation and sees this as a serious threat to peace in the Middle East.

According to the statement, "Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, met with the Ambassadors of the United States of America and of the State of Israel, in order to express the concern of the Holy See regarding possible unilateral actions that may further jeopardize the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the delicate situation in the Middle East."

The Vatican reiterated its long-standing position, which, it noted in the communique, it had already stated publicly on Nov. 20, 2019, and May 20, 2020, "that the State of Israel and the State of Palestine have the right to exist and to live in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders." The Holy See established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1993 and with the State of Palestine in 2017.

[...]

The Holy See has repeatedly called for a negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestine over the past 50 years, and it realizes that such an accord cannot be reached without the assistance and commitment of the United States. Vatican sources say that the Holy See had hoped that the United States could act as an honest broker between the two sides, but it now considers the position taken by the administration of President Trump in support of Israeli annexation to be going in the wrong direction. That led to the dramatic decision to call in the ambassadors of both Israel and of the United States, Oren David and Callista Gingrich.

The Holy See expressed the hope that "the reopening of direct negotiations, aided by measures that can reestablish reciprocal confidence," could enable the Israeli and Palestinian sides "to have the courage to say yes to encounter and no to conflict: yes to dialogue and no to violence; yes to negotiations and no to hostilities; yes to respect for agreements and no to acts of provocation; yes to sincerity and no to duplicity."

This last phrase is a quote from Pope Francis' talk at the prayer for peace in the Holy Land in the Vatican Gardens on June 8, 2014, where he was joined by the Israeli President Shimon Peres and the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

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Good luck with that...

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Post by Hashi Lebwohl »

The Vatican is just upset that the United States will be able to do in less than a century what it had failed to do for hundreds of years during the Medeival period--free the Holy Land.
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Post by Kizza »

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:The Vatican is just upset that the United States will be able to do in less than a century what it had failed to do for hundreds of years during the Medeival period--free the Holy Land.
Good luck getting that into the boat.
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Hashi Lebwohl wrote:The Vatican is just upset that the United States will be able to do in less than a century what it had failed to do for hundreds of years during the Medeival period--free the Holy Land.
:LOLS:

I'm assuming that was humorously ironic, and not an expression of a wish to see it "freed." :D

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Post by Hashi Lebwohl »

That was humor directed squarely at Frank. He thinks people actually listen to him.
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Christian clergy: Israel's West Bank plans could be 'catastrophic'
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A demonstrator holds a Palestinian flag in front of Israeli forces during a protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, near Nablus July 3, 2020. (Credit: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters via CNS)


JERUSALEM -- The threatened Israeli annexation of territory in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley could be "the final straw" for a viable Christian presence in Palestine, said a group of local Christian clergy.

"For Palestine, Bethlehem and particularly for its Christian population, this new process of annexation will be particularly catastrophic," priests from the Roman Catholic, Melkite Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Lutheran communities of the Bethlehem area said in a statement released July 7.

Since 1967, Israel has annexed about 5,000 acres of land -- some of it privately owned -- in northern Bethlehem and the adjacent villages of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour. The religious leaders said the capacity for the communities to expand according to the needs of their natural growth has been "severely hindered."

On the western border the Cremisan Valley and al-Makhrour Valley are the last areas left for expansion and enjoyment of nature, but these are under threat by the annexation, the priests said. A Salesian monastery and school located in the area targeted in the Cremisan Valley, and land farmed by parishioners for generations is also in danger.

In the east, people fear land belonging to Beit Sahour will be annexed.

"Our biggest concern is that the annexation of those areas will push more people to emigrate," the clergy said. "Bethlehem, surrounded by walls and settlements, already feels like an open prison. Annexation means the prison becomes even smaller, with no hopes for a better future."

"We feel the burden of history upon our shoulders to keep the Christian presence in the land where it all started," they added.

[...]


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Post by Hashi Lebwohl »

You know what? I am getting sick of all this walking on eggshell nonsense. I wouldn't threaten to annex the land, if I were Israel I would just do it. The other Arab/Muslim nations don't actually give a shit about the the non-Jewish citizens of Israel (there is no Palestine so there are no Palestinians) so they would screech but they wouldn't actually do anything about it.
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5 million odd people probably disagree with you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine

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Avatar wrote:5 million odd people probably disagree with you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine
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