U.S. - Israeli relations
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-07/us-israeli-relations
President Barack Obama meets with advisors before a phone call in the Oval Office with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, May 31, 2010
Official White House photo by Pete Souza via Flickr
An update on U.S.- Israeli relations: prospects for direct Israeli- Palestinian peace talks, and concerns about nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East.
Guests
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street
Aaron David Miller
public policy fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
and author, most recently of "The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace."
Robert Satloff
executive director, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Comments
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The so-called special relationship between the US and Israel is obviously a disincentive for Israel to engage in serious negotiations with the Palestinians; rather, Israel relies on the US to buffer condemnation of Israel’s continuing realignment of the ‘borders’ of acceptable behavior. In the sixty years of failed negotiations since the creation of Israel the only settlements that have happened have been Israel’s pushing beyond the original border. How can the US be an unbiased broker between Israel and Palestine when the US is the guarantor for Israel?
Ultimately there will be a single state solution. Israel’s continuing land and water grabs will dissolve any hope of a Palestinian state and will result in permanent instability and war in the region. The only real prospect for peace is to build outside of the current framework and instead construct a secular, democratic state that covers all of Israel and Palestine.
The Isreali-US relationship is toxic or like a really rocky marriage. Peace in the Middle East hasn't been achieved in 40 years & this is Netanyahus 2nd time in office-what makes anyone think it will be achieved now. As for nuclear weopans, Isreal is just as dangerous, as they are not abiding the the Nuclear Proliferation Agreement. This isn't America's problem - it's time for other Middle Eastern countries to step up & help with the negotiations. Our friendship with Isreal conflicts with our foreign policy as a whole-we're in Muslim countries at war and selling weopans to Isreal-it doesn't make sense.
Hey Diane,
just thinking about the 100+Billion
dollars of foreign aid the US has
supplied to Israel since Camp David.
And there's more:
also include 10's of billions of loan
guarantees, billions in interest-
forgiveness(=Cranston Amendment),
tax-exempt Israel bonds, and direct
military equipment transfers to the
IDF. We are talking about many
more 10's of billions of aid.
Withdraw the massive US aid, and you
will see a very different tone from
Israel. If Israel is such a good
investment why do they need loan
guarantees ???
If you subsidize bad behavior, you get
more bad behavior.
Since Menachim-Begin era, Israel has been
building "facts on the ground" with US
dollars.
The last time I checked, the Palastinian
people were living in this land way before 1949.
-steve
US taxpayer
I often hear people speaking of "poor little Israel's right to defend itself." People should be aware that, in military strength, Israel ranks right up there with the big boys. In fact Israel ranks #11 -- ahead of the other countries in that part of the world, including Pakistan (#15), Egypt (#17), Iran (#18), Saudi Arabia (#24)......
Not to mention Israel's "unmentionable" nuclear weapons.
Yes, Israel has a right to defend itself. But, WHY the overkill? 2006 in Lebanon? 2009 in Gaza? Landmines? Cluster bombs? Is that necessary? Should the U.S. condone Israel's every action just to appease our powerful and influential U.S. Jewish lobby?
Remember, what Obama inherited from the Bush administration. In 2006 Israel invaded Lebanon. The conflict killed 15,000 people, mostly Lebanese. It displaced over 1 million Lebanese. It severly damaged the Lebanese civil infrastructure.
All the while the Bush administration never called for modernation. In fact, it continually justified everthing Israel did. Has anyone thought that Obama just wants to make it clear that he will not support everything Israel wants to do?
To this day parts of Lebanon are uninhabitable due to unexploded Israeli cluster bombs.
If everyone is so concerned about the refugees , why has no one mentioned that there were more Jewish refugees kicked out of Arab countries (almost 1 million ) than Arab refugees who left at the calling of the the attacking Arab armies . These refugees never got any compensations from anyone .
What's a "Jewish State" to the Arab-Israeli & Christian citizens of that state ? A Democracy ? What happens in 50 years or so, if & when the Arab Israeli population multiplies it's ranks to become the majority citizenry of that state ? As Zionism loses it's lustre as an immigration tool, as Jews fail to sustain a reproductive population, and as the Arab population explodes, all eyes will be on the Israeli government's response to that question. As their benefactors, we Americans have the right, no, the duty to ask this question, and without being slighted by AIPAC's proclivity to play the anti-semitic race card.
Israel is one of the most cruel and racist regime in the history of world. They demand a change in a palestinian leadership that was democratically elected. Meanwhile they call themselves a democracy but only jews need apply.
Israel is intoxicated by its power. There have been no threats to Israel's security for a generation. Just because terrorists can luck up and occassionally kill someone does not mean it is a threat to the state.
The conflict continues because the truth is not being said . Israel is being attacked on all sides and no one cares .
The problem is now what has always been, Arab unwillingness to accept and recognize Israel as Jewish state in the region. The PLA's regress in it's willingness to talk directly to Israel, the very foundation of the beginning of the Israel/PLO dialogue in 1993 - of mutual recognition and foregoing of violence in favor of dialogue is prima facia evidence of this. Until the Arabs give up the dream of eliminating Israel - either by war, by demography, by inculcating hatred in the young, by international delegitimazation and any other means the Arabs could hope to use, there will be no peace. All well meaning people who insist that if only Israel will do more for peace (as if it had nothing for a peace treaty exists with Egypt, Jordan, get a dialogue going with the PLO and any Arab country that would have it with Israel) only prolong the conflict because they feed the Arab illusion that one of their tactics (other than violence which has self-evidently failed for the Arabs) will eventually help them achieve their objectives.
One sure way to achieve peace is to tell the human story. The human story certainly begins with the youth born after Israel was founded. The generations that have been philosophically and physically abused on both sides; Palestinian, and Israeli by a system that does not know how to evolve.
I wrote one such piece and it can be found below.
http://theguardsman.com/peace-between-palestine-and-israel-is-possible/
Robert Romano
Sarah, you need to familiarize yourself with the Jewish terrorist organizations of '47-'48 named 'Haganah' and 'Irgun', with leaders like Yitzak Shamir and Menachem Begin. Though opposed politically by BenGurion, their terror tactics, including IED targeting of Palestinian civilians, were very successful in ethnically cleansing a substantial foothold in the British Mandate of Palestine. These facts are indisputable, except to those who still prefer the white-washed versions promulgated for a couple generations in Israeli schools & propaganda. World Jewry had been through hell at the hands of Hitler and his legions of anti-semitic sympathizers worldwide, but the Jewish diaspora, pre-WWII, lived and worked in relative harmony in Arab countries across the Middle East and Africa. They only faced local expulsion in response to Israeli expulsion & refusal of the UN mandated right-of-return of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people in 1946-'48 had a right to self-determination, as granted in the very Charter of the UN. Please familiarize yourself with that clause ! We Americans have paid hundreds of billions supporting Israeli actions & security. That's why we're so concerned in this particular case.
"Israel is one of the most cruel and racist regime in the history of world"
You must be kidding , I suggest you read a bit of" past and now" history . Your comment shows that you don't have a pleasant agenda .
One really must question the fundamental lack of fairness and the contextual bias in a program hosted/moderated by a Jew, with three guests, all of whom are Jews, and who all carry pro-Israel biases.
Please, in the future, whoever is in charge of securing guests for programs, try to get a mix of opinions and backgrounds, to ensure balanced commentary.
The only anti-Israel sentiments expressed during the show came from callers, and they were clear, articulate, and accurate - but mostly downplayed by the guests. Too bad for WAMU's reputation for fairness and lack of bias in broadcasting.
The moderator's pro-Israel biases should automatically disqualify him from hosting any program dealing with this topic.
It is fantastic how everyone believes Israel is the bad guy. If the U.S. had all boarders surounded by sworn enemies, what would we do. What would you do if missles were being sent into your home town, what would you do if any country you went to closed its doors, and you were not welcome in any other country. This is either a bunch of Jew haters or Arabs who hate jews. Amazing how easy it is to point a finger. Must be nice.
ONE OF YOUR READERS SAID:
"One really must question the fundamental lack of fairness and the contextual bias in a program hosted/moderated by a Jew, with three guests, all of whom are Jews, and who all carry pro-Israel biases".
I dare you to change "jew" to " black" and see what kind of responses you will get .....Your racism is repugnant.:
One really must question the fundamental lack of fairness and the contextual bias in a program hosted/moderated by a black with three guests, all of whom are blacks, and who all carry pro-black biases.
Let's stick to the matter at hand, Sarah. It's not about Blacks, and it's not even about Jews. It's about reality and the truth. We can be thankful that Jeremy Ben-Ami, at least, recognizes the Occupation for what it is--"immoral" (his word, not mine).
If you want more reality and truth, here it is: Gaza is an open-air prison. There is no freedom of movement for the Palestinians. There is no work. No infrastructure. No agriculture. No dignity for the people living under Occupation. No hope of freedom. No viable state in the offing. There is only the slow and systematic strangulation of the Palestinian people--for decades and decades.
That Robert Satloff can declare that there has been "enormous improvement" in the lives of the Palestinians would be hysterically comical if it were not so tragically ironical.
Give me a break . Your Pallywood fantasies are well known to be false by people who really want to see the truth . You obviously don't . There is plenty of information with pictures on the web showing that the Gazans are not starving . There are so many problems here in the USA , I could show you neighborhoods here that look worse than any war torn city , the homeless population is growing enormously , but you are going across the world finding a crisis you know nothing about . You are just repeating the same line that has been fed to you . I guess it takes a little courage to tell the truth .
Trés amusant, elle. So who "fed" you that clever little portmanteau word, "Pallywood"?
And who said the Palestinians are starving? Read my comment again, and tell me where that claim is made.
I do agree with you that there are "many problems here in the USA," but I didn't think that's what was under discussion.
As for showing me "neighborhoods here that look worse than any war torn city," though--show me.
Apparently, it takes more than "a little courage to tell the truth."
how much do you get paid to post ?..how many shows do you do at a time? Do you have a whole flotilla full of computers ?
Are you talking to me?