planet earth looks blue

The new Israel Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has perhaps assured his country’s isolationism in the new world order that is emerging out of the teutonic shifting from the financial earthquake, among other more violent tremors.  He announced yesterday that Israel is not bound by the Annapolis Peace Agreement, made during the Bush administration in 2007.  If followed, Israel would be required to actively pursue a two-state solution, and stop settlement of the West Bank.  The new Netanyahu led coalition’s official stance is to draw on the words of a 2003 ‘roadmap to peace’ which only required Palestinian statehood to be entertained if the militant groups, Hamas, and Hezbollah could be ‘reigned in’.  Particularly after the recent offensive in Gaza, which left well over one thousand Palestinians dead, and the tiny, impoverished strip of land in ruins, as well as years of economic blockades, which have choked off the most basic human necessities from reaching Gaza, let alone a normal flow of commerce, militant opposition is never going to dissolve.  Israel has assured that.  So by making this a requirement, Lieberman is basically acknowledging that there is not an iota of a possibility that they will make peace during their time in office.

Now it is clear why Netanyahu gave the post of Foreign Minister, formerly held by the only centrist leader, Tzpi Livni, to the extreme-nationalist - he needed a bulldog to announce his agenda.  On the settlement of the West Bank, Netanyahu has stated that settlement should continue, and that he plans to improve the economic condition in that area.  So for how long can Jerusalem get away with throwing bones?   President Obama reiterated, just this past week, his administration’s commitment to a two-state solution.  There is a very simple and non-violent path that will push Israel towards peace - stop funding its military.  Billions of American taxpayer dollars go every year for Israeli defense.  Wouldn’t it be logical to not give it to them now, or ever?  WIth only 1% of the American population being Jewish, how strong can the Israeli lobby be?  Is it all for a counteractive force in the region?  Even if that were true, is it worth sacrificing the Palestinians.  Doesn’t America realize that part of the negative energy towards them is due to its long standing support of Israel’s military.  Its one thing to be a peaceful ally, and another to polish the guns and put them in their hands.  I do hope that Washington will take this as an opportunity to actually create a peaceful solution, instead of calling another conference that Israel will never act upon anyway.  With these brazen decisions, how Israel continues to have any credibility is a mystery to me.  How they continue to be so heavily funded by America doesn’t make any sense, but perhaps there are other factors that I cannot see.