Excerpt: "Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war."
Palestinians hold a mock rocket and a model of a Hamas-made drone during a rally in the West Bank. (photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad)
ALSO SEE: Israeli Fire on Gaza Town Raises War Crimes Claim
Israel Plans Largest West-Bank Settlement Expansion in '30 Years'
31 August 14
srael announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war.
Some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared "state land, on the instructions of the political echelon" by the military-run Civil Administration.
Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants in the area in June. The notice published by the military gave no reason for the decision.
Peace Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank - territory Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.
Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as "Gevaot", has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.
Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45 days to appeal. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.
Israel has come under intense international criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. "This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza," Abu Rdainah said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke off peace talks with Abbas in April after the Palestinian leader reached a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the Gaza Strip.
In a series of remarks after an open-ended ceasefire halted a seven-week-old Gaza war with Hamas on Tuesday, Netanyahu repeated his position that Abbas would have to sever his alliance with Hamas for a peace process with Israel to resume.
Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a neighborhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several km (miles) down the road.
Some 500,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory that the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
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The Art of Sophistry lives in Washington DC.
With a hammer.
I think that this is what the article is trying to explain in part (and don't forget the former "Dixiecrats").
It doesn't help that what passes for news rather than public education for poor folks, is sucked up from the flick'rin' screen owner-media's shallow focus, personality cultism, sound-byte short, detail-lite major issue avoidance, fear and hate-mongering, especially of "the other" -and a long simmering residual resentment over the Civil War from what I've seen of the South, that they've never gotten over.
I mean, they still have heavily-attende d Civil War "re-enactments" for Gawd's sake!
I don't mean to seem simplistic and of course it's never just that easy but then I'm not even a citizen, certainly not a pundit; just an observer writing from personal experience which is all I can offer.
So far as the South is concerned, all that changed in the past 50 years is the name of the White People's Party the idiots knuckle their brows to, to be loyal to "ol' Massa."
--- If the Right-wingers are willing to spend billions getting candidates into office, do you really think they stop there? Or is it possible you need to be a registered Republican just to get a job. One of my favorite conspiracy theories is that the NeoCons keep online lists of people who are not of their ilk and when there is a job opening or any other kind of opportunity, those who have the job or whatever consult this list and if they find your name you get zero.
Continued
When I went into the loan officer's office, he was effusive. Then he excused himself for a few minutes. When he came back his demeanor had totally changed; he was cold, short and rude. He all but threw me out of his office. You can't tell me they don't have a data base somewhere that allows them to pick and choose who they will do business with or advance. Don't forget, these people are as dishonest as the day is long and for us to trust them is totally foolish. We need to get RID of them and put the rest under strong and severe regulation if we are going to survive.
PS Read the Chris Hedges recent article on just this subject:
http://www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges/
The power companies know whether or not you conserve energy, the telephone company knows who you talk to, and the oil companies know how much you drive. At some point, someone knows about your social life, like how often you go out to dinner.
For whatever reason, the analysis drives the decisions to approve your requests for financing, and the salesman is not the decision maker. We're just "at the mercy" , and until someone like Glenn Greenwald gets into this cross-conflagra tion, we will remain at the mercy.
This doomed the country to haves and have-nots, regardless of how hard a person worked.
"We think you're too stupid to figure out the issues on your own. We know what's best for you because you are clearly unable to determine your own interests yourself. We think you're too stupid to understand issues.
The phrase may work well with the already-convert ed, but it almost certainly turns off other people.
--Peabody and Sherman
the Republican party was created to represent the interests of big business and big money in the 1850s. It has always represented only big corporations and banks.
95% of mass media in the US is owned by about 6 huge corporations. They only report favorable things about the republican party movement because that is the kind of political culture that corporate media wants.
It is really weird that Paul Ryan is such a moron and yet he is taken seriously on budget issues. He worships Ayn Rand. He's been a moocher off of public money for his whole life and made millions of dollars at it. But this is not reported. Instead he is made to seem like an economic genius. In reality, he's the only one who is stupid enough to make the insane and audacious proposals that he is making.
Ha! TR was put in by the JP Morgan banking interests and pledged allegiance all the way. To the extent that he understood economics at all, he is best described as a mercantilist.
Mark Twain, who knew a thing or two about people, met him twice and called him "clearly insane".
He never met a war he didn't want to pursue, was an imperialist at heart and if that's not enough for you...he was Richard Nixon's favorite president.
To be honest, I've had it. I awoke a Democrat, but will end the day as a registered Independent. I simply can't tell the two major parties apart any more.
American greatness"??? I mean, honestly, were you guys born yesterday?? Didn't you real Peggy Dennis' [widow of the CPUSA's General Secretary] Autobiography of an American Communist, after she fled to Reaganist "Conservatism"? The entire NEOCON strategy is straight out of Marx and Lenin!
EEWC