The tone of this editorial in today's NYT is more than a little disconcerting. Aside from the rote "Israel strangling Palestinian economy" and casting doubt on Israeli sincerity to restrain settlers comes this statement:
As a step toward peace, Israel must freeze all settlements and reduce the roadblocks in the West Bank that are strangling the Palestinian economy. To do so, the Israeli government needs the public support of American Jews and moderate Israelis against militants who seek political change through violence.
This seems a roundabout way to place responsibility for Palestinian problems on American Jews who support Israel. To me this is an unwarranted implicit accusation that raises qualms on several levels (the dual loyalty canard, the conflating of American Jews with Israelis, the belief that American Jews are all-powerful, the scapegoating of American Jews for problems in the Middle East).
Furthermore, tens of millions of Christians support Israel and the American-Israel alliance. Israeli actions are not the responsibility of America's few million Jews (some of whom are Israel's harshest critics).
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[meanwhile...]
Israel to continue Gaza fuel cutoff
Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided not to resume fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip on Monday because of continued rocket fire, defense officials said, and Gaza officials threatened to shut down the territory's only power plant. [snip]
The defense officials said fuel shipments could resume Tuesday if no more rockets are fired...
[the spin on this issue is insulting. imagine Mexico firing rockets into the US and our only reply was to close the border until they stopped, at which time we'd reopen it without additional consequence. Israel's patients with their local terrorists is astounding - it is a tiny democracy surrounded by terrorist regimes wanting to annihilate it, yet in the world press (and UN) it is forever the bad guy. disgusting. ]
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