I'm pleasantly surprised that the US administration is taking a "tough" stance on this issue. Netanyahu is a massive cunt and Lieberman should be in a fucking asylum.
Building houses for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem is exactly the kind of **** that makes a peaceful solution even more unlikely. It's the typical tactic of creating Jewish settlements in Palestinian land, so they can later turn around and say "Of course we can't give East Jerusalem back to the Palestinians, it's full of Jewish people!". That's what they've been doing all over the West Bank for decades now.
The words are always interesting in this conflict. "Creating facts on the ground" they call it. But in reality it's pure colonialism. Even "settlement" implies that no one was there before, which is clearly not the case. It's illegal appropriation of land with a view to permanently block peace through displacement of populations.
What's even more ********* is that the West bank has been peaceful and quiet for years now, no violence, no threats, political stability. And still, their land is being colonised, the check points are chocking their economy and daily lives, there is no prospect for peace, and now Israel is building in East Jerusalem. Insane. Not only is this illegal, it's counter-productive. if Israel keeps on ****-slapping the peaceful and moderate political incarnation of the Palestinians, it shouldn't come as a surprise when Palestinians turn to more violent and radical groups.
That's the craziest thing in all this, how all these actions by Israel are completely, 100%, unequivocally, against their own medium-long term national interest. Mind-boggling.
I don't think the US's "condemnation" will do much, but it's nice to see them being a bit reasonable in their outlook, at least.
