US House passes motion repudiating UN resolution on Israel. Approved with vote of 342-80

[grossproffit]

House Resolution 11 declared the UN motion a “one-sided” effort that is an obstacle to peace, placing disproportionate blame on Israel for the continuation of the conflict and discouraging Palestinians from engaging in direct, bilateral negotiations.

Passed by a vote of 342-80, the measure puts the lower chamber of Congress firmly against President Barack Obama’s decision to withhold the US veto power from shielding Israel against the censure.

<snipped>

It also calls on all states “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967” — language that Israel fears will lead to a surge in boycott and sanctions efforts, and that an Israeli official warned would provide “a tailwind for terror.”

The House resolution condemned that provision, saying it “effectively lends legitimacy to efforts by the Palestinian Authority to impose its own solution through international organizations and through unjustified boycotts or divestment campaigns against Israel.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-house-passes-repudiation-of-un-security-council-resolution-on-israel/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Final vote roll call:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2017/roll011.xml

[DetlefK]

1. As opposed to Israel's efforts to create facts on the ground by force.

Building settlements?
Denying building-permits to Palestinians?
Confiscating palestinian land with the excuse that they don't have the appropriate ownership-titles, when such documents DIDN'T EXIST IN GENERAL in Palestine before the state Israel was founded?

Does this count as "efforts to impose its own solution?"

[Chasstev365]

2. If Trump is Putin's Bitch, then much of Congress is Netanyahu 's Bitch

[oberliner]

3. Except Israel is a US ally

And Russia isn't.

[Chasstev365]

4. Does that make it OK?

[oberliner]

5. Well, presumably we are more in sync with our allies than with Russia

One could argue that our Congress is sort of a mirror image of the Israeli parliament these days in terms of the rightward tilt. To say nothing of the similarities between Trump and Netanyahu.

[lsewpershad]

6. You clowns

forgot how the State of Israel created in the first place.

[aranthus]

7. Then jplease remind everyone. n/t

[branford]

8. I do recall how the Palestinians rejected the partition plan,

and with the support of many other Arab nations, attempted a war of genocide against Jews in the region.

I also recall that with the exception of the cold peace with Egypt and Jordan, most Arab and Muslim majority states like Iran don't actually recognize the State of Israel or call for its destruction.

I recall how Israel didn't even control or occupy the territories from 1947 to 1967, how Jewish landmarks and interests were routinely desecrated during this period (and before), and Israel only gained control of the territories in another war where Arabs once again intended to create a Palestine "from the River to the Sea."

I recall how most Jews were expelled from Arab countries and the expectation is that in any final peace settlement that the territories will be effectively judenrein, but Israel is expected to both accommodate citizens of all faiths and ethnicities despite actual security concerns, and demanded by many to absorb millions of Palestinian "refugees" which would amount to national and political (and quite possibly actual) suicide.

I recall the United Nations vote equating Zionism with racism, effectively and uniquely denying Jew self-determination.

I recall that virtually all of Israel's neighbors are tyrannies with atrocious human rights records, yet Israel is a functioning, classically liberal democracy. Nevertheless, Israel dominates a vastly disproportionate amount of United Nation's time and resources, while luminaries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela sit in judgment on the UN Human Rights Council.

I even recall a vote by UNESCO just a couple of months ago denying a link between Jews and the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.

Only a true clown would offer a selective memory of the United Nations and most of its constituent members,

[leftynyc]

15. Top comment

So many want to ignore the Palestinians could have had their state in 1947. Its been demands for do-overs ever since.

[Little Tich]

9. Death to the two-state solution! All hail the settlements!

The question now is only how long American politicians will pretend that a two-state solution is possible. Kerry and Obama are right, and an army of Congress critters can't change reality.

[branford]

10. You know, except for the fact that Israel has already proven

it will abandon settlements for peace, just like the did in the Sinai with Egypt and how Sharon, an arch conservative, pulled all Israli settlers out of Gaza.

Additionally, any peace could transfer sovereignty over certain settlement blocks to Palestinian control in any final deal.

The issue is many, like yourself, expect Israel to accept unlimited numbers of Palestinians which constitutes national, ethnic and religious suicide, but are perfectly fine with Arab and Muslim territories being completely judenrein as a matter of law.

[geek tragedy]

12. I'm sure any and all Jewish settlers willing to pay taxes

to the Palestinian authority and be subject to its laws and legal system would be welcome to stay, so long as they surrender their weapons and leave the IDF behind.

Citing the evacuation of 8,000 Gaza settlers is rather risible given the 400,000 -750,000 or so settlers Palestine.

[branford]

13. Did you just forget about the Israel-Egypt peace deal

that saw the evacuation of all settlers, military bases, oil installations, etc. from the Sinai?

[geek tragedy]

14. What, 900 or so settlers in the Sinai at the time? nt

[branford]

16. A lot more. Google is most useful. nt

[geek tragedy]

17. Yamit, at 600 evacuees, was the largest of the 13, no?

Several magnitudes of order less than what would be required in Palestine.

Not to mention that no one expected Sinai to be annexed, and geographically was quite isolated from Israel.

[branford]

18. Israel evacuated not only settlements beyond Yamit,

but also strategic military bases and, at the time, their only oil reserves.

Israel leaving the Sinai was a VERY big deal, and at the time, quite controversial among Israelis.

[geek tragedy]

19. it's a lot easier to close a military base 600 km from home than it is

to forcibly evacuate tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of widely scattered, heavily armed civilians who commute to Israel for work.

Israel had no choice but to leave the Sinai. Too large, too far from home, too difficult to defend, no legal claim to it. Even though Israel 'won' the Yom Kippur war, it revealed that they had overextended themselves.

They don't get a ribbon for doing what they had no choice to do.

[branford]

20. "No choice?"

When you fight a war of genocide, and lose, the victor doesn't normally return the territory they acquired defending themselves.

Israel gave up the Sinai for peace with Egypt, nothing more, nothing less.

In any event. no matter your preferences, as recognized by most people, in any final peace deal, Israel will not remove all the settlements in the West Bank, and will likely keep the larger blocks, particularly the long-established ones outside of Jerusalem. Similarly, no Israeli government, right or left, will cede East Jerusalem and the Western Wall. At best, there'll be some "joint sovereignty" over some areas excluding the Temple Mount.

[geek tragedy]

21. It's the settlement expansion in areas that would

prevent a contiguous Palestinian state that are the killer.

The Israelis' actions in this regard demonstrate a desire to physically preclude the possibility of a Palestinian state. There's no point negotiating over a piece of farmland while one party continues to sow it with salt.

[oberliner]

22. Check out the Geneva Initiative

It's worth examining:

http://www.geneva-accord.org/

[geek tragedy]

23. No one with any political power inside Israel shares

the GI's outlook.