THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
State Department's alternate reality on Palestine
Maureen Clare Murphy Power Suits 7 October 2016
The US State Department says Israeli settlement construction is cementing a
one-state reality in Palestine.
Oren Ziv ActiveStills
The Obama administration just handed Israel the largest military aid deal in
US history. Now it is feigning outrage that Israel keeps colonizing the
occupied West Bank, as it has done for decades, in defiance of the White
House's wishes.
"We strongly condemn the Israeli government's recent decision to advance a
plan that would create a significant new settlement deep in the West Bank,"
State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said on Wednesday.
Toner added that "this settlement's location deep in the West Bank, far
closer to Jordan than Israel, would link a string of outposts that
effectively divide the West Bank and make the possibility of a viable
Palestinian state more remote."
Though this was worded more robustly than usual, similar condemnations have
been issued by the State Department countless times before.
"Cementing a one-state reality"
But there was a new element in the US condemnation: "Proceeding with this
new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of
perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel's future
as a Jewish and democratic state."
This generated cynical reactions from critics of US policy:
That particular sentence also caught the interest of Associated Press
reporter Matt Lee, who pressed State Department spokesperson John Kirby
about it during Thursday's press briefing.
The exchange that followed can be watched here:
During the exchange, Lee asks for elaboration on the previous steps - as
implied in the statement - which the State Department views as undermining a
two-state solution.
Kirby replies that the State Department was referring to earlier settlement
building, adding that "what we need to see is leadership across the board
moving towards a two-state solution."
Lee then asks whether the Obama administration believes that Israel is "just
flat-out either lying or doesn't care about its stated commitment to a
two-state solution and is, in fact, while saying publicly that that's what
they want, actually actively taking steps to cement a one-state solution?"
Emphasizing the State Department's use of the word "cementing," Lee says
that the verb generally isn't used to describe something "that happens by
accident . It's doing something intentionally."
Kirby can only say that it is hard to see settlement building as consistent
with Israel's stated support for a two-state solution in historic Palestine
(the land now partitioned into Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip).
Jewish and democratic?
Lee eventually pierces the core of the anguishing - for the US government -
reality in Palestine.
Lee asks: "The Obama administration believes that the current government of
Israel wants a perpetual occupation and a one-state reality that is not
Jewish, or not Jewish and at the same time democratic?"
Kirby responds: "All I can go by is what they've said they want, and they
say they want a two-state solution. What we're saying is that this kind of
activity is actually moving them in the other direction. It flies in the
face of those comments."
After a few more go-arounds concerning Israel's actions versus its words,
Said Arikat of the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds asks Kirby: "Would the
United States support equal rights for the Palestinians in a one-state
situation?"
"I'm not going to get into a hypothetical situation," Kirby responds. "What
we continue to support is a two-state solution."
And yet, as Lee pointed out, the State Department said a one-state solution
is being actively cemented - one in which Palestinians in the West Bank,
Gaza Strip and inside Israel live under a single regime of occupation,
colonization and legal discrimination that affords them vastly inferior
rights to Jews.
The White House will soon have to concede that it is not a hypothetical
situation, but an extremely unequal reality that can only be maintained with
brutal violence - and a blank check from the United States.
That reality is not lost on a growing number of Americans who are tired of
funding it.
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State Department's alternate reality on Palestine
Maureen Clare Murphy Power Suits 7 October 2016
The US State Department says Israeli settlement construction is cementing a
one-state reality in Palestine.
Oren Ziv ActiveStills
The Obama administration just handed Israel the largest military aid deal in
US history. Now it is feigning outrage that Israel keeps colonizing the
occupied West Bank, as it has done for decades, in defiance of the White
House's wishes.
"We strongly condemn the Israeli government's recent decision to advance a
plan that would create a significant new settlement deep in the West Bank,"
State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said on Wednesday.
Toner added that "this settlement's location deep in the West Bank, far
closer to Jordan than Israel, would link a string of outposts that
effectively divide the West Bank and make the possibility of a viable
Palestinian state more remote."
Though this was worded more robustly than usual, similar condemnations have
been issued by the State Department countless times before.
"Cementing a one-state reality"
But there was a new element in the US condemnation: "Proceeding with this
new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of
perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel's future
as a Jewish and democratic state."
This generated cynical reactions from critics of US policy:
That particular sentence also caught the interest of Associated Press
reporter Matt Lee, who pressed State Department spokesperson John Kirby
about it during Thursday's press briefing.
The exchange that followed can be watched here:
During the exchange, Lee asks for elaboration on the previous steps - as
implied in the statement - which the State Department views as undermining a
two-state solution.
Kirby replies that the State Department was referring to earlier settlement
building, adding that "what we need to see is leadership across the board
moving towards a two-state solution."
Lee then asks whether the Obama administration believes that Israel is "just
flat-out either lying or doesn't care about its stated commitment to a
two-state solution and is, in fact, while saying publicly that that's what
they want, actually actively taking steps to cement a one-state solution?"
Emphasizing the State Department's use of the word "cementing," Lee says
that the verb generally isn't used to describe something "that happens by
accident . It's doing something intentionally."
Kirby can only say that it is hard to see settlement building as consistent
with Israel's stated support for a two-state solution in historic Palestine
(the land now partitioned into Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip).
Jewish and democratic?
Lee eventually pierces the core of the anguishing - for the US government -
reality in Palestine.
Lee asks: "The Obama administration believes that the current government of
Israel wants a perpetual occupation and a one-state reality that is not
Jewish, or not Jewish and at the same time democratic?"
Kirby responds: "All I can go by is what they've said they want, and they
say they want a two-state solution. What we're saying is that this kind of
activity is actually moving them in the other direction. It flies in the
face of those comments."
After a few more go-arounds concerning Israel's actions versus its words,
Said Arikat of the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds asks Kirby: "Would the
United States support equal rights for the Palestinians in a one-state
situation?"
"I'm not going to get into a hypothetical situation," Kirby responds. "What
we continue to support is a two-state solution."
And yet, as Lee pointed out, the State Department said a one-state solution
is being actively cemented - one in which Palestinians in the West Bank,
Gaza Strip and inside Israel live under a single regime of occupation,
colonization and legal discrimination that affords them vastly inferior
rights to Jews.
The White House will soon have to concede that it is not a hypothetical
situation, but an extremely unequal reality that can only be maintained with
brutal violence - and a blank check from the United States.
That reality is not lost on a growing number of Americans who are tired of
funding it.
