Posted on 07/10/2012 4:51:17 AM PDT by SJackson
State Department pans gov't report calling for outpost authorization ahead of visit to Israel by senior US officials. Photo: rechelim.org
The United States on Monday said it opposed any plan to transform unauthorized outposts into legal settlements.
“We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize outposts,” a US State Department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington.
He spoke on the same day that the Israeli government published a report by a three member legal panel, known as the outpost committee, which called for the legalization of those fledgling West Bank Jewish communities.
Its publication comes on the eve of US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns’ trip to Israel this week along with a delegation that will hold a strategic dialogue with Israel.
Burns is expected to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, as part of an ongoing effort to rekindle the frozen peace talks. His trip will be followed by a visit from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Palestinian Authority, which on Monday rejected the outpost report, has insisted that it won’t hold direct negotiations with Israel until it halts settlement activity and Jewish building in east Jerusalem.
Israel has insisted that it has a right to build both in West Bank settlements and in east Jerusalem.
But until this year it has held to international pledges not to create new settlements. In April it transformed three outposts — Bruhin, Rehalim and Sansana — into settlements. At the time it argued that it was not creating new settlements but rather executing decisions by past governments.
The outpost report did not overly examine Israel’s diplomatic pledges, but rather examined the legal arguments internationally and domestically with respect to settlement activity.
It concluded that since Israel’s activity in the West Bank did not meet the international legal standards of occupation, there was no legal barrier to Israeli settlement activity.
In light of this, the report said, Israel could build new settlements in the West Bank and it urged it to transform the outposts into such settlements, unless there were private property issues involved.
It also suggested that Israel create a new court to handle such property disputes.
Its conclusions flew in the face of a 2005 report by attorney Talia Sasson commissioned by former prime minister Ariel Sharon. Sasson compiled a list of 105 unauthorized outposts built between 1991 and 2005, arguing they had been illegally constructed and should be taken down.
Netanyahu on Monday praised the report penned by former Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy, former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker and former deputy president of the Tel Aviv District Court Tehiya Shapira. It has already been dubbed the “Levy Report.”
“In my opinion, this report is important because it deals with the legalization and the legitimization of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria on the basis of facts, a variety of facts and arguments that should be seriously considered,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu added that the Ministerial Committee on Settlements would debate and decide the matter. The committee received a copy of the report on Sunday. It has the full authority to implement the report.
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US voices approval to legalization of Cartel outposts
...The United States on Monday said it approves any plan to transform unauthorized Cartel outposts in Arizona into illegal alien settlements.
Obama opposes Israel and the Jews? How unexpected.
With Jewish voters favoring the jug-eared moron 64% to 29% over Romney, why not? What’s the downside, the POS’ favorability rating with the Jewish voters dropping to 63%?
Liberal American Jews don’t care about Israel. They are Socialists or the useful idiot children of Socialists.
I grew up in Brooklyn and participated in Jewish youth groups. There is only so much, “The Palestinians are our friends” garbage you can listen to before you tell them to piss off.
I lived in Israel during the “Peace Now” era. One day a Pali bomb factory blew up about a mile from my school. All the kids on my program were saying things like, “If the Israelis brought the Palis into the government and gave them a bigger say, maybe this wouldn’t happen.”
It is now 35 years later. Those kids are now adults who contribute to Obama, donate to plant trees and are still hammering Israel. I have no sympathy for them. One day Obama’s Gestapo will come for them. And when they ask me for help, I will be sitting in my house, comfortable, well armed and ready. My response will be Hmmmm Hmmmm Hmmmm.
Oh, State voiced opposition. I was worried that Chesapeake Bay started closing and opening and saying how opposed the US was to Israelis living in Judah and Samaria, and how we had better go back to the negotiating table and get crapped on some more to keep oil prices low. That would have worked havoc on fishing, shipping and recreational water usage, and destroyed a few bridges. Thank G-d it was only some muckety muck in the State Department pretending he speaks for the US, and not any large orifice-shaped geoformation.
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