Last Thursday, the planning committee of the Jerusalem municipality decided to approve construction of a new settlement enclave in a Palestinian area, near Mount Olive. Like its predecessors in the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, also this settlement will be surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
By coincidence – or not – on the very next day George Mitchell, President Obama's envoy, made a far from veiled threat. He mentioned that under American law, the government of the United States has the right to suspend loan guarantees given to Israel, and that one president – George Bush Senior – did exactly that in reaction to conspicuous settlement construction under Israeli PM Yitzchak Shamir.
"We can do without the American loan guarantees" hurried Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz to say. Is that really so? So then perhaps Israel also does not need the three billion dollars which it gets annually. And the constant stream of fighter airplanes and helicopter gunships and tanks and military supplies of all types and kinds - all superfluous. And the American veto at the UN Security Council, where the Goldstone report will be presented for renewed discussion within two months...
What do we care as long as we have an alliance with the Settler Council?
