Why, really, has Netanyahu put settlement expansion on hold?
“Israel insists on firm guarantees as a condition to withdrawing its forces of invasion. If we agree that armed attack can properly achieve the purposes of the assailant, then I fear we will have turned back the clock of international order. We will have countenanced the use of force as a means of settling international differences and gaining national advantage… If the UN once admits that international disputes can be settled using force, then we will have destroyed the very foundation of the organization and our best hope for establishing a real world order.”
The Zionist lobby must know that if Obama defies it on Iran, his next logical step would be to use the leverage he has to require Israel to be serious about peace with the Palestinians on terms the vast majority of them could accept. (As I have noted in the past, the truth despite some of their rhetoric to the contrary is that Iran and Hezbollah will accept whatever is acceptable to the Palestinians, as will the whole of the Arab and wider Muslim world).).
Netanyahu needs the Zionist lobby and its allies including Saudi Arabia to succeed in their efforts to wreck the prospects of an American and European accommodation with Iran; and if putting further Zionist colonization of the occupied West Bank on hold assists that cause, so be it.
A few commentators expressed a degree of surprise that Netanyahu’s decision did not provoke a revolt against him by some of his neo-fascist coalition partners, especially those who favour annexing all of the West Bank. That didn’t happen because Netanyahu squared them in advance of his announcement by telling them that putting the plans for more settlements on hold was only a tactic. “It’s just another of our deceptions”. He didn’t say that as far as I know, but that was the implication of his message to the leaders of his coalition partners.
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Ros:
November 15th, 2013 at 8:31 am
He hasn’t, he says what we want to hear as he gets on with what he’s doing. Just as the Iranian talks were theatre to keep the hard of thinking happy, pillaging goes on unchecked in ravished Palestine
pabelmont:
November 15th, 2013 at 5:56 pm
The world has been watching Zionist expansion of settlements for 46 years. The quaint suggestion that Israel’s (temporarily) reversing a plan to continue with this evidently well-planned, long-term expansion has as its purpose the persuasion of the international community that Israel really seeks peace is risible. Th world knows that Israel seeks domination, not peace.
The I/C knows what Israel is about and won’t be fooled. France will not be fooled, either, although it may be purchased (as the USA has long been purchased).
With Obama suffering on Healthcare now, I expect little progress on Iran or Palestine. Certainly not on Palestine. Why would any country (especially the USA) take any (costly) action for so slight a purpose as to advance human rights for a negligible people, as the USA evidently regards the Palestinians.