Been nice knowin' ya' Joe...

**Sstashmoo** · March-10-10, 12:49 AM

""[[Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood, announced in the middle of his visit to help revive peace negotiations.
Barack Obama
Israel's refusal to stop settlement building despite U.S. urging has been a major obstacle to a resumption of the talks, and the announcement put Biden in an uncomfortable position ahead of a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units," Biden said in a statement issued after he arrived 90 minutes late for a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.""

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6271YE20100310

Apparently Joe is unaware of AIPAC, the most powerful lobby in the United States.

Ravine · March-10-10, 01:44 AM

I'm so goddam glad that Big Joe spat that out. It's about fucking time that somebody in high U.S. government-- other than the much-derided Jimmy Carter-- had the balls to publicly scold Israel for, as is their custom, doing whatever the fuck they feel like doing, secure in the certainty that the United States will back them like a girl from Up On Cripple Creek.

**Papasito** · March-10-10, 08:16 AM

Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood

That's just dumb. Why the heck wouldn't they just build on thier own side?
I'm with Joe on this one.

Ravine · March-10-10, 08:40 AM

Because they're ornery bullies who do what they want, knowing that their muscular big brother will back their play, no matter what that play is?

**gnome** · March-10-10, 08:48 AM

crazy joe may have a loose lip, but this time he's on target. Our friends in Israel aren't helping the situation by pouring gasoline on the smoldering mess that is the Palestinian homeland.

**gazhekwe** · March-10-10, 09:20 AM

Joe is right. We need to learn the lessons of the past. Taking people's homeland never produces peace.

**3WC** · March-10-10, 10:38 AM

Regardless of the merits of this particular situation, if the U.S. had the balls and were half as smart as the Israelis we'd have a chance of becoming a respected first rate power in the world again.

**gibran** · March-10-10, 10:38 AM

Peace will be when we hold both sides to the same standards and realize that true peace recognizes the humanity on both sides of the wall....there are brave Palestinains sitting in Israeli jails who were arrested for PEACEFUL protest..[[they were practicing NONVIOLENT protests) with their Israeli brothers and sisters....

we need the whole truth about what is going on >>>read Haaretz...from the Israeli perspective and the Washington Report for the alternative here.... Amos Oz and many other writers in the Israeli peace camps...see the past and want to change the future...but first youhave to end the blockage of Gaza and the building of facts on the ground ...and fo rthe Palestinian part ...speak of peaceful co-existence....

**gibran** · March-10-10, 10:40 AM

Balls of Israeli right [[Likud/AIPAC) is half the problem ...a big half...

**Detroitej72** · March-10-10, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by gibran

Balls of Israeli right [[Likud/AIPAC) is half the problem ...a big half...

Well stated yet again, Gibran.

Joe is spot on target here, although I'm not surprised the radical cons in this country are up in arms in condemning him. America has to stop the blind support for Israel, especially when they act like a bunch of thugs and disregard basic human rights and sovereignty.

**Papasito** · March-10-10, 02:12 PM

although I'm not surprised the radical cons in this country are up in arms in condemning him.

They are?
Well they shouldn't be. Right is right and wrong is wrong and if there is actually going to be a "Palestinian State", then Israel shouldn't be building across the future border. This is so basic and obvious that anyone should be able to figure it out.

**gibran** · March-10-10, 02:57 PM

voices for a just peace must start flowing...you have to understand the roots of conflict to get to the roots of the behavior....nothing justifies violence; be it unsophisticated or modern... we may start to see a peace effort now that people are getting fed up of this behavior...I undertand the fear but the manipulation and land/resource grab is the major obstacle towards a just peace...and to do it while we are visiting is just wrong.

**pontiac4ever** · March-10-10, 05:48 PM

Just more talk from Joe "I'm a Zionist" Biden. He also said ties between US and Israel are "Unshakable". He'll be right there with the rest of the D.C. politicians, save Paul & Kucinich, this month at AIPAC's policy meeting in D.C.

This March 21-23, pro-Israel America is coming to Washington, D.C. The AIPAC Policy Conference is the pro-Israel community's preeminent annual gathering. Register today and join more than 6,000 community and student activists from all 50 states, more than half of the Senate, a third of the House of Representatives and countless Israeli and American policymakers and opinion leaders.
CONFIRMED PLENARY SPEAKERS:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, Quartet Representative and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sen. Charles Schumer [[D-NY) Sen. Lindsey Graham [[R-SC) Amb. Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy # Dan Senor, co-author of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle Robert Kagan, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
http://www.aipac.org/2841.asp
Wake me when we stop sending $3-5 billion a year in welfare to Israel

littlebuddy · March-10-10, 06:20 PM

While the U.S. Govt. talks a good game about being Israel's friend, they have been for the most part not their friends. Maybe a President or two has liked Israel, for the most part the state dept. has bitter hatred for Israel. Go Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates and lets see if all those countries around Israel who claim to be of the "religion of peace" will absorb their Arab "brothers and sisters" into their countries instead of using them as pawns in a sick game and then we will have peace.

**gibran** · March-10-10, 06:46 PM

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1153835.html

Lets' see littlebuddy [[you sound like an apologetic)...we give 9 billion direct aid, military arrangements, took out Saddam and we don't like Israel? You have it so wrong...if your child ran into a street or used bad language would you not practice tough love? well we finally said something that everyone knows..ISrael is sometimes its worst enemy...they continue to fuel extremists [[they must fear moderate Arabs because they keep jacking them around)...they use our weapons Illegally on civilians [[Cluster bombs and Phosphorus)...I believe Israel has a right to live in peace...but that means for their Arab population that they are in control of too..give all people equal rights and see...

you forget that if there was a viable peace and real opportunity , a majority of the Palestinians would be working and raising a family...and not trying to keep them away from the thugs[[hamas)...

you really should stop listening to the 700 hundred club and like shows and do real research...and see the brave people trying to make it work...but that's OK..if you want innocents dying on each side keep this unconditional support up...that's blood that I don't want on my hands..I wan t Jewish children to live free of fear, and I want the Palestinians the same accords as the other children of Israel ...after all we are all children of Israel indirectly...

**Patrick** · March-10-10, 07:31 PM

The Jews have the anti-Semite card thrown around by shitheads like Abe Foxman, You dare say one wrong thing...even the tiniest thing, and you are branded an Anti-Semite. The Debbie Schlussels of the world will have a field day but really, Biden was saying what most people in the govt. really think of Israel. Good ol' Debster said that Jerusalem has been a Jewish city for thousands of years. Sorry, but the whole "I'm chosen" thing is a myth. Hate to break it to you.

**gazhekwe** · March-10-10, 07:42 PM

Whenever a people decides they have a divine right to take from others, they automatically condemn those others to inferiority. Those inferior beings must fight to maintain their own autonomy. No one is inferior. That is what the fighting is all about in the Middle East. And here. And in Iraq between the Shia and the Sunni. And in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan, and India, and we could go on and on.

**Sstashmoo** · March-10-10, 08:47 PM

Quote: "While the U.S. Govt. talks a good game about being Israel's friend, they have been for the most part not their friends. Maybe a President or two has liked Israel, for the most part the state dept. has bitter hatred for Israel."

You can't be serious..

**Papasito** · March-11-10, 08:10 AM

Wake me when we stop sending $3-5 billion a year in welfare to Israel

lol 3-5 billion is nothing with todays out of control spending. i would tend to think that 3-5 billion is really not much at all, considering they blow that much on one earmark

**oldredfordette** · March-11-10, 08:59 AM

So government spending is relative, Papasito? If it's sending men and women into the pointless savagery of Iraq, it's good. If it's money to shore up public education, or high speed rail, or storm-ravaged New Orleans, it's pork, right?

**Papasito** · March-11-10, 01:43 PM

I don't want our tax money going out of the country when we have problems here at home. My point was that $3-$5B is nothing with the way the government spends cash. Personally, I'd like to see the countries around the world produce for themselves and stop using the USA as a crutch.

If it's sending men and women into the pointless savagery of Iraq, it's good.

Iraq never attacked the United States as far as I know, but if that's how you feel, you are entitled to your opinion

If it's money to shore up public education

Our school system is in shambles and they keep cutting and cutting. Now, there's a government program that needs some real commonsense financial leadership, and appropriate funding.

or high speed rail

Are you going to give your car to charity and start using the rail?
doubt it.
High speed rail is impractical and obsolete compared to air travel, where you can go from Detroit to South Florida in a little over 2 hours. It would take hours and hours and hours to do the same thing on high speed rail. High speed rail does not offer individual freedom of transportation either. I don't really understand the fascination with it. We are not living on a compact island like Japan. We are not living in a continent with a cluster of small countries like Europe. We are living on a massive land mass with hundreds and hundreds of rural miles between population centers. It would cost trillions upon trillions to make a high speed rail that networked every population center with each other. Right now we can't even afford the interest on the national debt. If this idea was profitable, the private sector would have built high speed rail years ago.

storm-ravaged New Orleans

I don't have a problem with fixing new Orleans, but let's not forget, it still isn't fixed. it's still a city that lies below sea level, and is doomed for disaster next time it gets hit by a cat 5.

**pontiac4ever** · March-11-10, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by Papasito

My point was that $3-$5B is nothing with the way the government spends cash. Personally, I'd like to see the countries around the world produce for themselves and stop using the USA as a crutch.

It's not just the $3-5 billion [[which is actually under estimated) it's the symbolism. Egypt receives the second largest foreign welfare because they agree to keep Palestinians in check for Israel. You can not say that the US negotiates in good faith when it comes to Israel and Palestine. We play favorites in the region and wonder why we're hated. The friend of my enemy is my enemy. Why is a nation that's supposedly developed receiving the largest amount of our foreign welfare?

**pontiac4ever** · March-11-10, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick

The Jews have the anti-Semite card thrown around by shitheads like Abe Foxman, You dare say one wrong thing...even the tiniest thing, and you are branded an Anti-Semite. The Debbie Schlussels of the world will have a field day but really, Biden was saying what most people in the govt. really think of Israel. Good ol' Debster said that Jerusalem has been a Jewish city for thousands of years. Sorry, but the whole "I'm chosen" thing is a myth. Hate to break it to you.

Was James Traficant anymore corrupt than other politicians in Washington? Or was his real crime not being an Israel firster?

**gibran** · March-11-10, 09:40 PM

Traficant type of vileness toward either side doesnt help....real anti-semites are not friends of Israel nor the Palestinians....and should be brushed off .. .real people who critize policies[[when wrong) of a country is another thing...they actually are acting on the behalf of their future....

littlebuddy · March-12-10, 12:00 AM

How much of the money Israel is given has to be spent here? How much money do we give the Arab countries for oil, I am sure it is way more than what we give to Israel and they don't have to spent one penny here. The U.S. state dept. has a vested interest in keeping the oil flowing, and last I checked Israel does not have any. Big oil is not about to sell themselves out for Israel if they can help it. Let the Palestinians prove they want true peace with Israel. Lets see the Arab nations around Israel want true peace. Lets see the Arab nations take in those in the camps, settle them in towns and villages as a gesture of true peace with Israel. Lets see them trade with Israel, etc. Lets see them leave Israel alone, not try to make it a Arab nation with lots of Jewish people living there and there might be peace. For the most part the nations of the world do not like Israel, most of the religons of the world to not care for Israel, most people do not care for Jews. Why is that? Does Israel control the world's food supply? Do they control the oil? Water? The Arab nations have plenty of land, why do they need to wipe Israel off the face of the earth? To get the few thousand sq. miles of land Israel has? If Islam is so superior of a religion, and a religion of peace, why can't they take the higher ground and take in their brothers from the camps and settle them? Or are the fanatics the true Islam? Do they control the economies of the world? I don't think so. So what is it that makes so much of the world[[outside of evangelical christians and a few others)dislike Israel and the Jewish people? It would be a great day if all Palestinians and Jews could live in peace as neighbors, but do the Palestinians and their brother Arabs and Muslims really want peace with Israel?