Reuters reports: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday acknowledged “overwhelming frustration” with the Israeli government and said the systemic expansion of Jewish settlements was moving Israel toward a dangerous “one-state reality” and in the wrong direction.
Addressing the J Street lobby group in Washington, Biden said despite disagreements with Israel over settlements or the Iran nuclear deal, the United States had an obligation to push Israel toward a two-state solution to end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
“We have an overwhelming obligation, notwithstanding our sometimes overwhelming frustration with the Israeli government, to push them as hard as we can toward what they know in their gut is the only ultimate solution, a two-state solution, while at the same time be an absolute guarantor of their security,” Biden said. [Continue reading…]
The Times of Israel reports: The United States on Monday objected to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that the Golan Heights will forever remain under Israeli control, reiterating that it does not recognize the Jewish state’s claims to the strategic plateau.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said that the Obama administration does not consider the Golan Heights to be part of Israel.
“The US position on the issue is unchanged,” Kirby said at a daily media briefing at the State Department in Washington. “This position was maintained by both Democratic and Republican administrations. Those territories are not part of Israel and the status of those territories should be determined through negotiations.” [Continue reading…]
The USA always takes what seem to me to be nearly incomprehensible steps w.r.t. Israel. First, USA complains about NEW settlements, but makes no demand for removal of existing settlements. If new ones are illegal, why aren’t old ones also illegal? If not illegal, why complain? Makes no sense except in the context of a captive (USA) government, captive either to Israel itself or to an unexplained and unacknowledged pro-Israel ideology (say, within the USA’s Defense-Industrial-Complex), Second, USA says (about near 50-year occupations of Palestinian and Syrian territories, so long held and so thoroughly integrated into Israel as to make an intention for permanent retention evident) that these (occupied) territories are not Israeli territory (correct) but their future is to be resolved by “negotiations”. With the vast inequality in power, military and economic, between Israel and Syria and Palestinians, this amounts to saying that the future disposition of the territories is Israel’s alone to decide.