Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announced the seizure of 10 square kilometers (3.8 square miles) of Palestinian territory in the West Bank on Friday. The move marks the single largest land seizure by the Israeli government since the 1993 Oslo accords, according to Peace Now, a settlement watchdog group.
“While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right over the Judea and Samaria area and the country in general,” Smotrich said Friday, referring to the territory by its biblical name, “we are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country.”
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. Still, Israel has used land orders like the one issued Friday to gain control over 16 percent of Palestinian-controlled lands in the West Bank. The newly seized area includes parcels in the Jordan Valley and between the settlements of Maale Adumim and Keidar.
I dont understand why Israel, deeply reliant on US military assistance for its defense, also routinely humiliates the US in public.
The only humiliating thing is that the US still gives Israel money.
They do it because they can.
Netanyahu in particular is famous for asserting that policy control flows from him to the US, not the other was around.
He believes that Israel controls the US, and he controls Israel. And for decades, that insane belief has been shown largely accurate.
Israel is in the comfortable position of having a sugar daddy who has a submission-humiliation fetish. And don’t get me started on why the US loves Saudi Arabia so much
Adding to what the other guy said, I’m theorizing but it could be because they want Netanyahu to fail. Israel wants Republicans in office so they can stop pretending to pretend to follow international law.
Ambassador Robert Ford (retired) spent his entire diplomatic career in the Middle East and North Africa since 1985, including being appointed as Ambassador to Syria by Obama, and by Bush Jr as Ambassador to Algeria.
AIPAC. We honestly need to ban foreign money in our elections at an absolute minimum, because the Netanyahu-Republican enablement allows an external power to force the hand of a President/diplomatic service. In this case it is tying us to a madman, whilst the US is trying to hold together Bretton Woods and the Pax Americana.
The ‘calculated support’ of Israel seen as necessary has isolated the US internationally and made us look like hypocrites - while the global south is watching.
I don’t see how Israel can do this and expect not to be attacked by Palestinians. Palestinians are justified in retaliating.
They expect them to retaliate. They have been doing this settler-colonial genocide and then playing the victim bit for 80 years and we’ve been supporting them every step of the way.
Molasses holocaust, long game. Not genocide, if it’s comparatively slow to the genocide that happened to us!
Have you not seen any news of the area lately?
I hope that the international community refuses to acknowledge the seized land or borders having changed.
If it’s not ok for Putin to do, it shouldn’t be ok for Bibi.
