Posted on 12/27/2006 3:41:00 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Israel's plan to construct a new settlement on the West Bank drew rare criticism Wednesday from the Bush administration.
If Israel goes ahead, it would violate Israel's obligations under the roadmap for peacemaking, a State Department spokesman said.
``The U.S. calls on Israel to meet its roadmap obligations and avoid taking steps that could be viewed as predetermining the outcome of future negotations,'' the spokesman, Gonzalo R. Gallegos, said.
Israel agreed to the roadmap in 2003. It was devised by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia in an effort to guide Israel and the Palestinians into an agreement that establishes a Palestinian state.
The Jewish settlement would be the first new one established on the West Bank in 10 years. The plan has drawn Palestinian and European expressions of concern. Other settlements have been expanded.
The Bush administration rarely criticizes Israel's actions and has gained Israel's support for establishment of a Palestinian state.
Opponents of Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate president of the Palestinian Authority, have criticized his cooperation with Israel in trying to get peace talks started. They have accused him of yielding to a U.S.-Israeli approach.
Gallegos said, ``We are seeking an explanation from the Israeli government regarding this development.''
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to go to the Middle East next month to try to spur peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians.
It was not clear whether she had approved th Minister Ehud Olmert has endorsed Palestinian statehood and said he was agreeable to a large-scale Israel pullback on the West Bank to make way for a state.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Blimey, the EU and US agreeing for once! You can tall the dems are in power. . . . :(
Jews moving into designated No Jew Zones, that's a crime against inhumanity.
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
The "State Department" has been a disgrace since I can remember. I don't know what else to type.
FMCDH(BITS)
Why this should be a surprise is a surprise.
Bush is comical...The road to peace has long been blown up with Qassam rockets...
Just exactly who do they mean when they cite "the Bush administration."?
If it's anyone from the State department, that's the same entrenched traitors and thieves that have been there since the Clinton years.
We in the pro-Israel camp don't call him "Olmerde" without reason!!!
has any plan since the Jews were marched into the ovens ever not drawn the critism of the anti-semetic lib/dems in the US/Europe and the World?
Oh, no! Keep Condaleeza Rice out of the Middle East! She does not know how to deal savages. She just is not up to it. This is why the mess goes on and on.
Isnt this an area just outside Jerusalem on the Israeli side of the fence?
Post first, drink later.
(But I agree with the sentiments expressed.)
Israel has fulfilled way beyond its obligations under the road map, as the road map calls for the Mohammedans to disarm and to stop all terror attacks. THEN Gaza was to be given to the invading Arabs as payoff. The Arabs have taken possession of Gaza, but are daily firing artillery rockets into Jewish towns from there. Even ignoring the Cease Fire the Mohammedans signed for right now, the attacking of Jewish towns from Gaza is a complete abrogation of the treaty of the Road Map, and under international law is an act of War.
Israel is not obligated to honor any shreds of the treaty that the Mohammedans not only violated, but never followed in the first place. Israel is however required by law to declare war on the attacking Arabs and destroy them, and throw the remainder out of the country. Only liberals try to make treaties with rabid dogs, then sue the doctors when they die of rabies.
The US is upset because this 'settlement' goes against the provisions of the ROAD MAP?
Tell me, is this author sober?
The "East Bank" was part of the "Jewish National Homeland" according to the 1922 San Remo Treaty before the British, under no known law or treaty, lopped it off and gave it away to the Hashemite caravan robber tribe as a "consolation prize" after giving away the Arabian peninsula to their rivals, the Saud caravan robber tribe, for no reason other than they wanted their own kingdom to rule over.
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