Somebody tell the folks at NJDC. They’re still trashing Goldstone.

Does the concept of a modified limited hangout not resonate with anyone? It’s one way McCain’s managed to skate on so much. Bend a little, admit to a little, so you don’t get nailed for the whole shebang.

Just curious. I’ve got a very good idea about what it costs us to so blindly support Israel all the time all the way. The costs are huge. What, again, are we getting FOR doing this? I’ll admit my old memory fails quite a bit these days.

proceedings it could spare itself from if it credibly investigates them itself?

Do you really believe that?

A nuclear arsenal in Israel.

Yeah, because the UN said it.

what’s good for Isreal is good for US. Just ask any neocon. OMG that might be considered anti-semetic!

What country will Abbas “retire” to? What new settlements will be announced now that the Hillary has said no? A new beach resort after sanitizing the strip for torture tourists?

SURE! It pays off for Likud and the Likudnik American House (and Senate), in that Israel gets to continue pretending that they want a moderate reliable Palestinian partner to negotiate with. Why not? Pretending they’re serious about peace and equanimity has worked beautifully since 1967. After all, there is still a thesaurus full of workable, half-believable synonyms for “road map” and “peace partner” and “way forward” and “bridge to the 17th century (wait, how did that one slip in there?).
Meanwhile millions of Palestinian languish in impossible conditions of permanent (SO FAR) isolation and servitude without civil rights, including no voting rights in the nation in which they are forced to reside, very much akin to – yes finally there can be no doubt of this because there is zero evidence that this is NOT the truth – very much akin to slavery.

Perhaps if Palestinians would erect a few hundred sizeable plywood pyramids around Gaza and the West Bank, people might catch on through symbolism and metaphor that Israel has become (no not a new Nazi Germany and not a new Apartheid South Africa) a new Egyptian Pharaoh. A nice touch would be to film Israeli helicopters and jets (AMERICAN-made: Bonus) blowing up these pyramids, symbols of Palestinian slavery.

I call dibs on the documentary rights!

Our Israel policy has been penny wise and pound foolish for decades. Israel gets enough aid and support from us so that it has never had to make any serious decisions about peace, you know what it says it wants above all things, and so it doesn’t. Instead it has the current crew of fascists in charge who are even more extreme than the leaders who carried out the Gaza war crimes.

Pretty sure my question above would be too. *sigh*

So what are the odds Mr. Abbas resettles in Geneva within hours of stepping down?

Anyone still doubt that the Obama policy regarding the West Bank actually is further destabilization?

For shame on U.S. puppets for not doing what the U.S. wants. It’s all Abbas’s fault. /s

What a lovely pro-Zionist/US piece of propaganda.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Spencer Ackerman and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Thank you for the analysis, Citizen Ackerman, it’s like gettin’ stuck in the eye with a sharp stick…at least I still have the other one to see what the blind have been seein’ for over 40 years. But seriously, doesn’t the Palestinian leadership have other leaders to step up and confront the US? It seems that as long as Hamas is marginalized in Palestine and with it’s history of support from the Israeli government, I would think that this might provide others in the leadership who want to step into Abbas’s shoes with leverage to confront the US with the prospect of losin’ the whole thing because we shot ourselves in the foot.

Tell me that we have not killed the last alternative to Hamas with this rediculous move.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITON AND DON’T SHOOT THE FRIENDLIES FOR GOD’S SAKE!!

I wish it were that well thought out. Sadly, no — it’s the standard Third Rail as set up by AIPAC decades ago: Dare to suggest Israel might not be utterly perfect, you die. (And don’t talk about their nuclear arsenal, whatever you do.)

International bankers control the Fed and US.

Scarecrow has a fresh cross-post on the front page: “Obama Administration “Disappointed” Italy Enforces Laws Against Kidnapping”

I remain puzzled as to why Conventional Wisdom in the United States seems to view reflexive defense of the Israeli government as good for Israel. While Israeli propaganda and U.S. corporate media complaisance may be reasonably effective in obscuring what the IDF and IAF did in Gaza, it is not nearly so effective elsewhere in the world. Indeed, you can find out much more reading Ha aretz than anything in the U.S. mainstream media. Israel could defuse much of the acrimony by convening an appropriate investigation, as it did with the Kahan Commission in 1982-83 in the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The robotic assertions that the IDF is the most ethical army in the world may still be persuasive to the Beltway Village, but they have no credibility anywhere else.

Spencer, you might well ask why the U.S. government thinks that getting Netanyahu to a «negotiating table» for a photo-op justifies undermining Abbas s (and Fatah s) credibility with the Palestinians. If the U.S. government seriously believed that we were so close to tangible progress on a final status settlement, it might be worth the risk. Although no one seriously believes that, it does not seem to stop U.S. officials from insisting on pushing our «framework» in perverse disregard of the surrounding reality. The Israeli government, by contrast, is doubtless only too pleased to have impaled Abbas on the horns of the dilemma of having negotiations (and the continuing subsidies they bring) at the expense of being seen as a collaborator with the Israeli occupation. It s a win-win for Netanyahu — if there are to be talks, it s only with a puppet that he can later disavow as lacking Palestinian support, or otherwise there are no talks at all as «there is no one on the other side to talk to.»

The only people deceived by any of this are Americans. Shameful.

What the US got, excuse me- what Obama got – was a favorite staple of his lately: time.
As a student of tactics, it’s fairly easy to see that the US has dug itself into a tar pit by it’s blind support and use of Israel for it’s own strategic self interests. What Israel is and has always been to the US inner circle is, unfortunately, nothing more than a canary. And for it’s shaky role Israel happily took all the cash and weaponry we could stuff into them.

Now, Israels’s made strategic moves against the US. It’s cockiness and nuclear weapons challenges and destabilizes everyone. Check.

Does anyone really think Cheney and Co.’s quest for control of the world’s wealth and a hopeful war with Iran ever meant the sharing with or sparing Israel? Hell no.

We must cut Israel loose and look to the protection of the entire region if we have any hope of not being in driven by fear 24/7.

Obama needs time to prepare -to say Checkmate to Israel once and for all.

“proceedings it could spare itself from if it credibly investigates them itself”

Do you actually think that would be possible?

Efforts to bring or accept Judge Goldstone’s offer to come to the hill
http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=5155

Surprised Code Pink or some other group has not started a petition drive to submit signatures to bring Goldstone to the hill

A petition to Abbas
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lettertoabbas/index.html

Kucinich response to covering up war crimes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tscCJznwIsA

We get jewish PAC money – oh wait

The whole reason a Goldstone Commission was necessary in the first place is because Israel has a long history of whitewashes when it comes to the action’s of its troops. I can’t even begin to say how often they have investigated them in the wake of some particularly egregious incident that sparked international protest. Months later there is always the report that says their troops did nothing wrong.

1. There was no way to guess the outcome in terms of Palestinian politics.

2. They probably read the report and decided that on balance it was unfair. Sometimes you just have to call ‘em as you see ‘em.

3. It’s reasonable to estimate the number of Israeli soldiers in Operation Cast Lead at about 4000. If they each had killed 1 person per day for the 22-day conflict, there would be 88,000 dead Gazans. The actual toll was less than 2% of that. Clearly the war wasn’t about killing.

“what hurts Abbas doesn’t necessarily benefit Hamas, and Hamas’ stated refusal to accept elections next year testifies to their own weakness and unpopularity. ”

I can’t really agree that Abbas is a moderate except opportunistically. But your point is well taken even so. Weakness and unpopularity are not characteristics that lead to decisive action, hard bargaining, and a readiness to make as well as win concessions. The biggest problem with the peace process is not so much who is in power in Palestine as that no one is in power. You don’t have to be strong to throw sand in the works.

I’d go farther and argue that this has also been the problem in Israel for years. Unlike some here, I am fundamentally sympathetic to Israel. But its fractious, splintered politics have left it without strong leadership for decades. A strong leader, even a strong Likud leader like Menachem Begin, could make peace–and did. But teetering coalitions of small-minded types can’t. Instead, their leaders substitute bluster for strength and a smart country ends up being run by a blowhard like Netanyahu.

So undercutting, weakening, and further splintering what passes for Palestinian political authority is unlikely to do anything except make the status quo more so–more little leaders puffing uop their chests and asserting themselves by blocking improvements of all kinds.

Unlike some here, I am fundamentally sympathetic to Israel.

The idea that anyone who criticizes Israel can not be “fundamentally sympathetic to Israel” is pretty hackneyed by now.

Given decades of failure of US “leadership” in seeking a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I think the most likely game changer will be the arrest and prosecution in Europe of a senior Israeli politician or military officer.

The fairly courageous Italian prosecution of CIA officials might perhaps be a wakeup call. From the accounts I read the CIA guys were so cocky about their being no consequences to their actions that they all but tweeted and live blogged the kidnapping.

You’re wrong, on all counts.

Abbas is seen a weak crony and Hamas only stepped and got elected because of that. Not much has changed. The report proved how poor Abbas is at leading.

Hamas does take extreme measures. All people of Palestine have left to fight with is their lives – which they freely give.

This war was about killing – directly and indirectly.
They pulled the same US approved trick in Lebanon, where they didn’t just target the southern border where Hizb’allah lived.
They bombed every inch of Lebanon from top to bottom. Every business, hotel, dairy farm and industry was hit out of pure hate and greed – and jealousy in an effort to break down and starve them.

That’s the monster the US has created.

Obama has zero power to conduct an independent foreign policy. Israel’s power and influence has always been in Congress, where the checks are written, thus the passing of a factually deficient resolution on Goldstone with zero debate or discussion.

Abbas moderate? Accepting bantustan status marks you as a moderate?