Prospects for a lasting peace in the middle east are waning, because Israel continues to refuse to respect the sovereignty of Palestinian territory.
Israel has officially approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli defence ministry has announced.
It says the decision to build 455 housing units has been authorised by Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
This is the first new government-approved construction project in the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu came to power in March.
It comes despite a US pressure to halt building at settlements… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <BBC>
The key to solving the problem of Islamic terrorism is to achieve a just band lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian State. As long as the Israeli government pursues a policy of creating settlements in Palestinian territory, there is no chance to achieve that peace. Since the US provides so much aid to Israel, we need to do more than feebly object to this policy. Israel has no incentive to pursue peace unless we make it financially painful not to do so. Do you agree?
Elsewhere, you all know that Barack Obama will be addressing a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening.
Reporting from Washington - President Obama and his congressional allies are entering the next phase of their push to overhaul healthcare with lower expectations of what can be accomplished -- but with far greater certainty that significant legislation will be enacted by the end of the year.
After a long summer of raucous protests, discouraging poll numbers and unplanned tactical shifts, administration officials and Democratic leaders now are focusing on their two greatest challenges: scaling back the overall cost, and developing alternatives to the government-run insurance option that liberals have championed…
Inserted from <LA Times>
I disagree with this author on one thing. Rather than discouraging poll numbers, an average of recent US polls indicates that 77% of voters favor the public option. Healthcare reform was one of the key issues on which Obama ran for President. Another was to include the opposition in a spirit of bipartisanship to reunite the country and end partisan bickering. My regular readers will remember that, at the time, I said that bipartisanship with the GOP is impossible, because the GOP will not accept meaningful compromise. I was right. From the GOP perspective, the only way to restore themselves to power if for Obama and the Democrats to fail. Obama needs to stop pandering to the GOP and return to the promise of “change we can believe in”. I’m not ready to give up on our President, but I am concerned. Are you waiting to hear what he has to say as anxiously as I am?
4 comments:
The public option is the only option if we, as a society, are going to stop people in misery and need from being a profit stream for the corporacracy.
Rather than give the government tax revenue to corporations it is well past time for a National Health Service using 93 cents of every dollar for health care for every American.
The left won the power if they are not sold out they will wield it. By their actions on this single issue we will know who has been purchased.
That's an excellent point, Mark. I need to recover my system for tracking House and Senate votes, so I can report them.
I expect the worse and will be wildly surprised if it's anything different. I expect to hear his usual pandering and 'can't we all just get along' BS.
This speech could possibly be his penultimate chance to salvage his base. Will he be smart enough to take it, or is the Magruder Film still fresh on his mind?
Well said, brother. Without progressives turning out in force to work for his election, he would not be President. It would be a huge error to take us for granted.
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