Mr. President: The Israeli settlements are legal

[oberliner]

28. Agreed

Israel is a unique country in many respects.

For instance, it is, I believe the only liberal democracy in the world whose very existence is deemed not only illegitimate by dozens of countries but also as an affront by hundreds of millions of people around the word.

In fact, most of the people in Israel's general neighborhood view the whole of Israel as occupied territory and many are committed to see its liberation some day (i.e. the eradication of Israel as a country).

That being said, Israel is also unique among liberal democracies, as you point out, for the promulgation of settlements in the West Bank and everything that goes along with the occupation.

I think we should all do everything we can to help bring about a situation where there is no longer such an occupation, where the Palestinian people have their own independent state, and where the peoples and countries of the middle east and around the world are able to accept Israel as a country.

At the Olympics, South Korean gymnasts posed with their North Korean counterparts, despite the horrors of the North Korean regime, yet athletes would not share a bus with Israelis or, in one case, shake hands. This antipathy to Israel by the peoples and countries in the region pre-dates the settlements.

It existed when the West Bank was occupied by Jordan and Gaza was occupied by Egypt.