No wonder Jordan's King Abdullah II decided this week would be a good time to pay a visit to his new state neighbor. He became the first leader to visit Palestine after its elevation to state status.
A closer look at the map (above) reveals what Israel has in mind for the future of the state of Palestine. The so-called "separation wall," which is, in fact, a land-stealing wall built by Israel under the pretense cover of "security," winds in the shape of a snake coiled to strike, with its head at the south of Jerusalem.
The tail of the snake coils around the northern part of Jerusalem, eating up rich Palestinian farm land and concluding at its own tail.
Leaders of seven nations determined that following Israel's second punitive military assault on Gaza in four years, the UN vote, and the Arab Spring hovering in the background, Israel had to be given a mild diplomatic reprimand.
Leaders of the seven nations, Australia, Brazil, France, UK, Sweden, Denmark and Spain, called in their resident Israeli ambassadors to demand an explanation for the timing of Israel's announcement.
Germany, which usually does Israel's bidding because of a shared history of the Holocaust, did not vote with Israel at the UN. Instead, Germany abstained. A long-planned visit from Netanyahu to Berlin, went forward, ending in a mutual agreement "to agree to disagree," not exactly a ringing endorsement for either nation.
U.S. and international media, on the other hand, posted a series of reprimands for Israel's "doomsday settlement." Phillip Weiss summarized these reprimands, casting it as a realization by the media observers that the "two state" solution is truly dead, which is, in actual fact, a long-overdue announcement.
It remains for the Guardian's intrepid columnist, Glenn Greenwald, to post this indictment that the leader of the free world is still not willing to stand up to Netanyahu, even after this latest in a series of public face-slapping of the American government from Netanyahu.
"And then finally, we have this, from Monday:
"The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Israel to open its nuclear programme for inspection.
"The resolution, approved by a vote of 174 to six with six abstentions, calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) 'without further delay' and open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Those voting against were Israel, the US, Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. . . .
"The vote came as a sequel to the cancellation of a high-level conference aimed at banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. All the Arab nations and Iran had planned to attend the summit in mid-December in Helsinki, Finland, but the US announced on 23 November that it would not take place, citing political turmoil in the region and Iran's defiant stance on non-proliferation. Iran and some Arab nations countered that the real reason for the cancellation was Israel's refusal to attend.
"So essentially, it's the entire planet on one side, versus the US, its new right-wing poodle to the north [that would be Canada], Israel, and three tiny, bribed islands on the other side."
Israel's nuclear arsenal has long been a pretend secret, so secret and so open, that no president has ever acknowledged the presence of Israel's role as a nuclear military power. The secret is out now, thanks to another overwhelming vote in the UN General Assembly, a body which is apparently no longer willing to be repository of Israel's private cache of immoral and illegal conduct.
Meanwhile, the "doomsday settlement" awaits its first construction tractors. As we wait, this short video from Dr. Strangelove is thought-provoking. The clip below opens with a conversation between the Soviet ambassador and the U.S. President. It takes place in "the War Room." The ambassador and the president are soon joined by Dr. Strangelove:
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