The Settlement Myth.

As my learning takes me to most things ISRAEL and JUDAISM I came across quite a few really good websites. And this is one (part)of the lessons I have learned today.

THE SETTLEMENT MYTH.

For generations, Palestinian leadership chose destitution and despair rather than accept any settlement not accompanied by the extinction of Israel.

by Charles Krauthammer
An admirable sentiment. It applies to everyone -- Iran, Russia, Cuba, Syria, even Venezuela. Except Israel. Israel is ordered to freeze all settlement activity. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton imperiously explained the diktat: "a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth exceptions."
In his much-heralded "Muslim world" address in Cairo yesterday, Obama declared that the Palestinian people's "situation" is "intolerable." Indeed it is, the result of 60 years of Palestinian leadership that gave its people corruption, tyranny, religious intolerance and forced militarization; leadership that for three generations rejected every offer of independence and dignity, choosing destitution and despair rather than accept any settlement not accompanied by the extinction of Israel.
This article originally appeared in the Washington Post.
Go to
http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/middleeast/The_Settlements_Myth.asp
for the full story and others related.

AND FOR A BIT OF HISTORY that I found very interesting.

The Jews In Australia.

http://www.naa.gov.au/naaresources/publications/research_gui... - 22k

The arrival of Yiddish-speaking ‘yokels’ was viewed with concern by vocal sections of both the wider community and the Anglo-Australian Jewish establishment. The Jewish community feared that the migrants’ distinctive dress and manners, non-conformist appearance, poverty and obvious ‘foreignness’ might adversely affect its own standing.
The fears were not unfounded. John Levi has maintained that antisemitism was ‘a strident characteristic of the incipient Australian nationalism of the late 19th century’, lasting well into the 20th century.[10] Sections of the labour movement promoted stereotypes of Jews as manipulative bankers, usurers and profiteers while, at the turn of the century, the Bulletin claimed that the Boer War had been precipitated by Jews for their own (financial) ends. Humphrey McQueen has speculated that the ‘White Australia’ lobbying which resulted in the anti-Asian Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, was, in part, a reaction to a rumoured influx of Russian Jews.[11]
As a result of their concerns, Australian Anglo-Jews consciously developed a policy of non-distinctiveness, encouraging the playing down of cultural or religious practices which might render them ‘odd’ or ‘obvious’ in the eyes of their gentile peers. They emphasised their fervent loyalty and attachment to King and Country and, in many instances, actively distanced themselves from their less fortunate ‘foreign’ co-religionists. As Hilary Rubinstein has written of the Anglo-oriented majority:
Not unexpectedly, the waves of immigration were greeted with mixed emotions by both the Jewish establishment and the wider Australian public, and the immigrants found themselves forced to contend with often less than flexible Federal Government policy. Some found themselves under surveillance as ‘enemy aliens’. Ultimately, however, the immigrants – arriving en masse – had a significant impact on, and in time transformed and revitalised, the remote and insular Jewish community. As Suzanne Rutland has pointed out:

Obama's Settlement Obsession: In a recent public opinion survey of likely American voters participants were asked: Do you think that if the Palestinians were given their own state in the West Bank and Gaza they would live peacefully with Israel or continue their campaign... (read more)
http://www.onejerusalem.org/2009/06/mr-president-jerusalem-is-a-fr.php

(The following 2 statements are parts of some of the comments for this story.)
This man and his dangerous ME policy will soon plunge this region into another war if he has his way. Noel Nitzarim is correct when he said that Obama is clueless.
When Obama speaks to the Arab world, his middle name comes into play and when he speaks to the rest of the world including the USA he uses his first.

President Obama does not have a clue what is really going on in the Middle east. His contention about Jerusalem is way off base.