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Posted: **Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:18 am**

Settlers attack West Bank villages following outpost demolitions
Police and Palestinians say settlers threw petrol bomb into a house, damaged several cars in West Bank.
By The Associated Press and Reuters Tags: Israel news

Israeli settlers damaged houses and cars in a Palestinian village in the West Bank on Tuesday, police and witnesses said, in an apparent show of anger over the Israeli demolition of homes in an unauthorized settler outpost.

Police say settlers are suspected of smashing windows of seven Palestinian cars and throwing a fire bomb at a Palestinian house.

Resident of the village of Hiwwara also said settlers threw petrol bombs into a house, broke the windows of another, and burned several cars in the overnight rampage before moving on to nearby Burin, where Israel Defense Forces soldiers prevented them from attacking a mosque.

"We tried to put off the fire but we could not, because it was huge. The whole front room burned down and part of the sitting room," said Rami Edmeidi, the owner of the home that came under attack.

Police said Tuesday that the incidents appear to be part of a campaign Jewish
extremists call "price tag" - violence against Palestinians following Israeli government action to curb settlements.

On Monday, Israeli forces demolished two homes at the unauthorized West Bank outpost of Havat Gilad, a hilltop settlement built without government permission, sparking fury among settlers in the area.

Eight settlers were arrested Monday during clashes with security forces conducting the demolitions. Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Tuesday that a total of 37 people have been arrested in all in disturbances related to the demolitions at Havat Gilad.

In remarks to legislators from his Likud party on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted he was limiting the scope of construction as a result of international pressure.

But Likud MK Danny Danon said he and other settler supporters in the party intend to rachet up pressure on Netanyahu to boost construction in settlements.

"We are not prepared to accept any discrimination between Jews living in the cities of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and the rest of the Jews in Israel," Danon told Reuters.

Oh boy. Where to start. Illegal settlement is demolished as it should be. Stones and invective thrown at security. Security responds with less-lethal weaponry. Settlers go berserk from the shock that they can't build willy-nilly, and might actually get tear gased for trying to stop security. And promise to attack.. Palestinians. If one considered them just angry people about housing rights, that'd make no sense. But nothing energizes pro-settlement forces like Palestinian violence.. So it sounds alot like deliberate provocation to try and take revenge on the politicos who made the choice.

Posted: **Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:48 am**

But remember, any public condemnation or shaming of the Netanyahu government and its support of settlers is strictly forbidden. Granted, UN Security Council resolutions are largely toothless but our veto of the resolution condemning settlement construction was the epitome of cynicism.

Or any sort of disclosure of the results of the Gaza blockade. Our congress didn't vote to chastize Operation Cast Lead or the ensuing siege, it voted 344-36 to condemn the report outlining what the effects were on the people of Palestine.

I suppose that this is the inevitable result of a coalition government in Israel that represents the full ideological gambit, from "conservative" to "ultra-conservative."

Posted: **Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:04 pm**

Derek Thunder wrote:But remember, any public condemnation or shaming of the Netanyahu government and its support of settlers is strictly forbidden.

Really? That's news to me. The government in Israel is indeed a combination of right and extreme right, but somehow I've missed the part in the news where public condemnation of the Netanyahu government became strictly forbidden. I have relatives over there who are engaged in doing so at this very moment. They somehow missed that part too. Do you have anything to support this, or is it just a soundbyte to make people you disagree with sound evil?

Incidentally, congress voted to condemn the report because it purported to be a report on the causes and outlay of the war, as well as the human rights abuses of both sides, not merely "outline what the effects were on the people of Palestine". They were joined in this criticism by The Economist, the UK Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. It's also worth mentioning that the UN resolution that this report was attached to contrived to condemn Israel without even mentioning Hamas at all, as though Israel woke up one day and decided to invade Gaza for the lulz.

Personally? I think the settlers are crazed fanatics who need to be beaten into cooperation with the rest of society if they refuse to do so peacefully. I think that attacks on Palestinian civilians in response to actions by the Israeli government (for that matter, in response to anything), are atrocities that should be punished with the Riot Act and all due force. I think the UN report, which was condemned by congress, the Economist, the Times, the WSJ, and the Post, was, while flawed, a decent starting point for examining what happened in that war. And I agree with Nitram that this sounds an awful lot like the settlers trying to whip up more support the only way they know how.

Posted: **Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:34 pm**

General Havoc wrote:Really? That's news to me. The government in Israel is indeed a combination of right and extreme right, but somehow I've missed the part in the news where public condemnation of the Netanyahu government became strictly forbidden. I have relatives over there who are engaged in doing so at this very moment. They somehow missed that part too. Do you have anything to support this, or is it just a soundbyte to make people you disagree with sound evil?

Perhaps I should clarify. I do not follow domestic Israeli politics, and I would imagine there is a wide range of opinions being expressed there. What I'm speaking to is what seems to be a bipartisan consensus in Washington D.C. regarding Israel and an inability to criticize its government for its actions. Congress seems unable to break out of a fundamental bias regarding the peace process and the middle east - In fact, one would think that expansionary land grabs would shock the conscience of anyone outside of a hardcore clique of christian dominionists looking to hasten the end times, but the opposite seems to be true.

I think it's also telling that despite being a nutbar otherwise, Rand Paul seems to be the only member of congress willing to take a stand on our huge foreign aid payments to Israel which is curious considering the feverish desire to cut spending in all other areas.

It's fairly certain that the Obama administration does not approve of settlement-building, but it seems like little has been done in terms of inducements to get Israel to freeze expansion and return to the negotiating table. The Palestinians won't return to negotiations without a freeze (and rightly so) but without pressure from us, there's no reason for Israel to comply.

Link.

Republicans and Democrats both said that using the United Nations to pressure Israel was out of bounds. Leading members of both parties -- including Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the minority whip -- urged the president last week to veto â€œany U.N. Security Council resolution that criticizes Israel regarding final status issues.â€

Posted: **Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:07 pm**

Derek Thunder wrote:Perhaps I should clarify. I do not follow domestic Israeli politics, and I would imagine there is a wide range of opinions being expressed there. What I'm speaking to is what seems to be a bipartisan consensus in Washington D.C. regarding Israel and an inability to criticize its government for its actions. Congress seems unable to break out of a fundamental bias regarding the peace process and the middle east - In fact, one would think that expansionary land grabs would shock the conscience of anyone outside of a hardcore clique of christian dominionists looking to hasten the end times, but the opposite seems to be true.

I think it's also telling that despite being a nutbar otherwise, Rand Paul seems to be the only member of congress willing to take a stand on our huge foreign aid payments to Israel which is curious considering the feverish desire to cut spending in all other areas.

It's fairly certain that the Obama administration does not approve of settlement-building, but it seems like little has been done in terms of inducements to get Israel to freeze expansion and return to the negotiating table. The Palestinians won't return to negotiations without a freeze (and rightly so) but without pressure from us, there's no reason for Israel to comply.

Ah, well that's a bit different. Sorry, I assumed you were speaking of within Israel itself. You're correct that Washington is very shy about criticizing Israel at all, even when Israel is flagrantly in the wrong (which, ardent zionist though I am, I must admit they are when it comes to settlement expansion). The Israel lobby is a big part of that, but so is pragmatic politics. The Israelis are simply not going to listen to us lecture them about how to conduct themselves in regards to what many of them still see as an undeclared, existential war. They would probably listen if we linked it to our support and funding, but we've been unwilling to do that, both for good reasons and for others that are less good.

Regarding the quote, given the history of UN resolutions regarding the Israel/Palestine issue, I can't argue too much with the notion that the UN is not the answer here. Still, I think the administration could and should do more to push Israel to reign in its crazy wing.

I'm the last person in the world who would equate Israel's actions with those of a group like Hamas. I believe that Israel is a democratic, sovereign nation, while Fatah are kleptocratic criminals and Hamas a band of terrorist thugs. In keeping with that, I think it's long since time that Israel started acting like the adults in this equation by setting their own house in order and putting an end to the settlement building. And I'd like to point out that when Israel has pushed an ardent supporter like me to say that, then they've gone quite a ways past the pale.

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