I have a ton of work to do this weekend (mostly so I can have a free next weekend with a certain special someone in Minnesota). So ... roundup time.
Ha'aretz reveals an Israeli government report detailing the extent to which the settlement enterprise (even the "legal" ones) has been carried out without government permission and on private Palestinian land. Let's be clear: Settlements on open territory? Political problem. Settlements on private Palestinian property? Theft. Time to leave.
Al-Qaeda gains support in Palestine, drawing on rifts within the radical community over Hamas' acceptance of a cease-fire. Hamas claims that al-Qaeda affiliated groups are actually Fatah fronts, but I'm skeptical -- I just think Hamas doesn't want to get flanked on its right. Just remember: It can always get worse.
Former TNR intern Dayo Olopade comments on Samantha Power's appointment as an Obama foreign policy aide. She notes that government has not exactly been the protagonist in Power's books on human rights. Will she break through the quagmire, or be silenced by the bureaucracy? I don't know -- but I wish her luck.
If you want the Davos panel where Shimon Peres royally pissed off the Prime Minister of Turkey, Jeffrey Goldberg has the video (Peres starts at around minute 39).
Another rabbi prominent for his promotion of Catholic/Jewish dialogue flames the Vatican. I really wonder if the Catholic church realizes just how incredibly pissed off the Jewish community is right now.
Yes America, race still matters (I don't care what cartoons you read).
Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about having a "complicated" family.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
apparently the settlers have an expansive concept of adverse possession.
FYI, Olopade is female.
Thanks for the link to my toon! :-)
"...detailing the extent to which the settlement enterprise (even the "legal" ones) has been carried out without government permission..."
This implies that the Israeli government is not responsible for the lawbreaking. The article seems to indicate that the Israeli government is, to a significant degree, responsible:
Since in many of the settlements, it was the government itself, primarily through the Ministry of Construction and Housing, that was responsible for construction, and since many of the building violations involve infrastructure, roads, public buildings and so on, the official data also demonstrate government responsibility for the unrestrained planning and lack of enforcement of regulations in the territories. [...]
"Nothing was done in hiding," says Pinchas Wallerstein, director-general of the Yesha Council of settlements and a leading figure in the settlement project. "I'm not familiar with any [building] plans that were not the initiative of the Israeli government."
I read it as sort of a below-the-radar slush fund type of deal. I think it almost definitely was a sort of wink-and-nod type of case -- I don't think the Israeli government was in the dark about this -- but it wasn't exactly above board either.
Post a Comment