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In Murders' Wake, Israel OKs New Settlements

Tensions escalate

By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 13, 2011 10:39 AM CDT

(Newser) – A mere day after an Israeli family of five was massacred while they slept, the AP reports that Israel has approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements. The homes will be built in a part of the West Bank that Israel expects to hold onto in any peace deal, says Benjamin Netanyahu's office, but the move nevertheless escalates tensions as such a deal looks ever more elusive. Israel blames Palestinians for the grisly murders, which have shaken a nation accustomed to violence.

"We condemn this act of accelerated settlement construction," says a senior Palestinian official. "We urge the international community to intervene and implement the two-state solution. This is the only way out of this vicious circle of violence and counter-violence."

An Israeli volunteer carries the body of 3-month-old Hadas Fogel out of her family house March 12, 2011 at the Jewish West Bank settlement of Itamar.
An Israeli volunteer carries the body of 3-month-old Hadas Fogel out of her family house March 12, 2011 at the Jewish West Bank settlement of Itamar.   (Getty Images)
A neighbor prays outside the Fogel family home March 12, 2011 at the West Bank settlement of Itamar. Five family members were murdered by knifemen.
A neighbor prays outside the Fogel family home March 12, 2011 at the West Bank settlement of Itamar. Five family members were murdered by knifemen.   (Getty Images)
An Israeli volunteer carries the body of 4-year-old Elad Fogel from his family's home March 12, 2011.
An Israeli volunteer carries the body of 4-year-old Elad Fogel from his family's home March 12, 2011.   (Getty Images)
Israeli soldiers stand guard at the entrance to a home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar, late Saturday, March 12, 2011.
Israeli soldiers stand guard at the entrance to a home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar, late Saturday, March 12, 2011.   (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 102 comments
Solo
May 10, 2011 11:53 AM CDT
All who oppose the Zionist regime please STOP calling it “Israel” Every time you do it you reward the occupation of Palestine. Name “Israel” implies a state on the occupied territory. Call the occupiers what they really are: the Zionist regime. This way, every time you refer to it, you will imply its temporary nature (the nature of all occupying regimes). Encourage your fellow comment posters to use the name Zionist regime as well. We must also be categorically against generalizing, and recognize that many Jews are against the crimes the Zionist regime is committing in their names, and that many Jews are leading the global resistance to it. They should be proud. I wish that they finally find piece wherever they choose to live (including Palestine) through a peaceful democratic process as opposed to the Nazi-style occupation the current Zionist regime is using.
FreeZone
May 10, 2011 11:42 AM CDT
It appears that sharing and reposting others’ comments is becoming a trend. You can definitely copy, repost, or email mine to anyone including lobbying senators, state representatives and any other public officials who shape our country’s foreign policies. The main Zionist claim is that they have a supreme right to some of Palestinian territory because they lived there thousands of years ago. Let’s examine the core and real nature of this claim. Firstly, this claim is mistaken and selfish in its core concept because Zionists fail to recognize that history is a continuum and that there were other people living in majority in Palestine before the Jews and also after the Jews. Zionists simply cut history at a convenient point for them and claim ancestral ties to the land as of that convenient point. Secondly, whatever the claim, it is beyond absurd to try to shape modern world based on thousands of years old maps. Imagine if the rest of the world would be reshaped by who was on the land thousands of years ago. It would cause horrific wars, countless refugees, and unimaginable human suffering, exactly what is happening in Palestine. Thirdly and most disturbing, Zionist goal was to establish a Jewish state wherever possible. Palestine may have been a preference, but Palestine was not the only location that Zionists planned as their state in modern times. Another location was Argentina where Jews have been migrating for hundreds of years for the purpose of establishing a state. Also, locations in Europe were on the list and that’s why the Catholic Church was killing/expelling Jews since Roman times (read the history of the Holly Inquisition). Whatever the location, Zionist plan was to simply occupy the people living on the land even if that would mean imposing a regime worst than Nazi Germany’s from which they escaped. And Zionists would just use a different ideological coloring than the one used in Palestine in the attempt to rationalize the occupation. In conclusion, the main claim on which the Zionist regime is built in Palestine is erroneous, selfish, and a lie. I am categorically against generalizing, and recognize that many Jews are against the crimes the Zionist regime is committing and that many Jews are leading the global resistance to it. They should be proud.
4Justice
May 10, 2011 11:22 AM CDT
If it is ever reached, the current and any other artificial “peace agreement” will be illegitimate before it is ever signed because (1) all people living in Palestine regardless of religion, race, origin, etc. (hereinafter “All People of Palestine”) were never given a choice on how they want their land to be governed, and (2) all contracts signed under duress are null and void. The biggest problem in Palestine is that the Zionist regime never offered a choice to All People of Palestine on how they want to govern their land because the Zionist regime cannot exist as a democratic entity. If there was ever any democratic process in Palestine, Zionists would have been outvoted and the Zionist regime would have never existed. That is why the Zionist regime is the occupier because it does not offer choice (i.e. democracy), but instead imposes its regime (i.e. occupies). Imagine if Russians would simply occupy a town in the U.S. where they are in significant numbers and attempt to create a Russian state there without giving the rest of the Americans living there a choice. Imagine then if they would try to institute a “peace agreement” that would attempt to legitimize their occupation. The “peace agreement” would logically and legally be illegitimate because the Americans were not given a choice. Under all countries’ laws, any contract is null and void if it is signed under duress. The current Palestine “peace agreement” process reminds me of The Godfather movie where the mafia boss (i.e. the Zionist regime) made a guy “an offer he could not refuse” by placing a gun (i.e. Zionist conventional and nuclear arsenal) to his head and making him sign the contract. Like the mafia boss’ offer, any “peace agreement” other than the choice for All People of Palestine is a crime, and the contract is legally null and void. The bottom line is that All People of Palestine never wanted to divide their land into artificial two states the way the occupation and this “peace agreement” attempt to divide it. From the beginning of the Zionist regime to its unavoidable end, All People of Palestine and the region never wanted the Zionist regime and they do not want it even more after all the atrocities the Zionist regime committed. I just cannot believe how the Zionist regime can be so ignorant to think that this or any other “peace agreement” that does not allow people to choose how they want to be governed will last and ensure its people’s survival. The Zionist regime fails to realize that no matter if it succeeds in muscling this “peace agreement” by unspeakable historic coercion tens of millions of moral people around the world will oppose it until it is corrected, and until justice and free choice prevail. Also, ever increasing number of Jewish people are realizing that Zionism is becoming a destructive force for them and are leading the global resistance to it.
 

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