Monday 29th of April 2024
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kerry in middle earf...

 

 

windmills
Kerry in the Mideast: Tilting at Windmills

By Mitchell Plitnick...

 

Mitchell Plitnick is the former Director of the US Office of B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and was previously the Director of Education and Policy for Jewish Voice for Peace. He is a widely published and respected policy analyst. Born in New York City, raised an Orthodox Jew and educated in Yeshiva, Mitchell grew up in an extremist environment that passionately supported the radical Israeli settler movement. Plitnick regularly speaks all over the country on current issues. His writing has appeared in the Jordan Times, Israel Insider, UN Observer, Middle East Report, Global Dialogue, San Francisco Chronicle, Die Blaetter Fuer Deutsche Und Internationale Politik, Outlook, and in a regular column for a time in Tikkun Magazine. He has been interviewed by various outlets including PBS News Hour, the O’Reilly Factor and CNBC Asia. Plitnick graduated with honors from UC Berkeley in Middle Eastern Studies and wrote his thesis on Israeli and Jewish historiography.

His repeated trips to the Middle East have produced no change in the status quo and prevented neither the resignation of the US’ golden boy in Palestine, Salam Fayyad, nor Turkish Prime Minister Trecip Erdogan’s planned visit to Gaza. But he remains determined to bring peace to the Middle East. His urgent warning to Congress that the opportunity for a two-state solution has only one to two years of life left was meant to ignite a sense of urgency on Capitol Hill.

If this was some other Secretary of State, one might think he just needs to learn about the Israel-Palestine conflict (and he’s got a harsh lesson coming), but Kerry knows the dynamics of this issue very well. He spent 28 years in the Senate, including the last four as the Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He managed to rise to that position despite having been more vocal than most in Congress (though that’s a very low bar) in opposing settlements

http://www.lobelog.com/kerry-in-the-mideast-tilting-at-windmills/

 

I know who I’m rooting (US meaning) for...

 

Meanwhile, many Palestinians had a less rosy view of the proceedings, according to an Associated Press report, which noted that many felt the US push to restart the peace talks was "doomed," although they praised his efforts. 

"We don't have unrealistic expectations. We know the immensity of obstacles," senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said to the Associated Press. "If it doesn't work, of course we have our own plans."

The negativity surrounding Kerry's efforts is being covered by some as much as the secretary's actual moves.

Referring to Kerry (positively) as a Don Quixote, "tilting at windmills, fighting the good fight, engaged in a hopeless campaign of which the monotonously tragic end is more than certain," Haaretz columnist Chemi Shalev writes:

If I have to choose between him and all the multitudes of battle-hardened wise and experienced know-it-alls who have brought us to where we are now – I know who I’m rooting for.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-and-palestine/130523/kerry-heads-back-israel-fourth-time-fe

 

chasing trains...

 

US bill targets French rail over Holocaust
US lawmakers have re-introduced legislation that seeks to hold France's state-owned rail company
SNCF accountable for its role in transporting Jews to their deaths during the Holocaust.
US Senator Chuck Schumer led a bipartisan group of sponsors in introducing the measure late onWednesday that would make the railway culpable in American courts, and allow US victims to pursue lawsuits against the company.
The bill seeks to counter the SNCF's argument that it is immune to legal action thanks to the ForeignSovereign Immunities Act.
A companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in April.
Similar legislation was introduced during the previous Congress, in 2011, but the measure stalled. "Survivors and family members of those who perished have long attempted to hold SNCF accountable for its active role during the Holocaust, but so far the company has succeeded in cloaking itself in foreign sovereign immunity, evading jurisdiction in United States courts," Schumer said in a statement. The Holocaust Rail Justice Act would finally enable survivors and family members to hold this French rail company accountable in a court of law for sending thousands to their death during World War II, and allow survivors and family members an opportunity for justice."
SNCF has formally expressed remorse for the Nazi collaboration and insisted it was forced by France'sWorld War II German occupiers to help deport 75,000 French Jews to the gas chambers, and noted that2,000 of its own rail workers were executed.
The company today is seeking tax-payer funded rail contracts in the United States.

somewhere in the Australian.... Lost the link...

Meanwhile Kerry is still optimistic about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem while the Jews are still constructing housing in occupied territories while chasing the Palestinians...

 

wrong wrong wrong...

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry has landed in Baghdad in Iraq at the start of a Middle East tour to build support for action against Islamic State (IS).

Mr Kerry is due to meet new Iraqi PM Haidar al-Abadi less than 48 hours after a unity government was agreed.

An inclusive government was a condition for greater US and Nato support in the fight against IS militants who have taken over large parts of the country.

President Barack Obama is due to outline his plans to combat IS later.

He said on Tuesday that he had authority to widen military action against IS without the approval of Congress, but said he would still ask lawmakers to endorse the arming of Syrian opposition forces.

IS militants have taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq in recent months and have declared a "caliphate".

The US has already conducted dozens of airstrikes on IS targets in the past month, in an effort to protect ethnic and religious minorities threatened by IS.

IS militants described the beheadings of two US journalists as a protest against the strikes.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29139462

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Wrong... wrong alliance... The Syrian opposing forces are SUNNIS... If you want to defeat Isis you need to support Iran and Syria... No-one else... Otherwise the mess is only going to compound into another quagmire.

take a leaf from a Canadian leader.