Mitchell is Writing Checks He Can’t Cash

Where I come from, we have a saying. Don’t write checks with your mouth that your butt can’t cash. In other words, don’t promise things that you don’t have the power, authority, clout, or ability to produce.

George Mitchell, Obama’s shuttle diplomat, continues to tell President Abbass that the US views the settlements in the West Bank and the appropriation of Jerusalem as illegal. Of course, the US and the international community, has viewed every settlement as illegal and then turned around and said that we just can’t move this many people out of an area, so we have to recognize it as part of Israel. So Mitchell can scream “illegal” all he wants, the whole time giving the false impression the US will fix it in the end, when in the end, Mitchell is just creating falsehoods in his own mind. Every inch that Israel builds on now, will be part of Israel, either by annexation or because there will never be a Palestinian state. And Mitchell has the audacity to pressure Abbass and suggest he is missing “another chance.”

Another chance at what?

I, as an American, have been taught that any forced relocation of people to satisfy another group of people, is not democracy, is not in line with American principles, reduces security and is plainly morally reprehensible, yet the US continues to send over 4 billion dollars in direct aid to Israel, and another 7 or so billion in military contracts, grants, agreements, etc… When the US does what is counter productive to its own security, then continues to provide billions of dollars to that entity that puts it’s security at risk, that isn’t only a lack of security, that isn’t a lack of governance, it is a lack of sanity.

We, as Americans, are less secure, the more settlements that get built. We Americans are less secure every time a patient dies on the Gaza border, because they can not get past a checkpoint to get treatment. We are less secure every time a home in Jerusalem is destroyed or a Palestinian is relocated to move in a Jewish family. Al Qaeda continues to cite the unfair, one-sided treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the US as its main reason for attacking the US. So tell me how we are more secure by maintaining that one-sided approach?

Obama, just this past week described that he didn’t realize what an intractable problem the peace process was. What he was saying between the lines was that he didn’t realize that he would actually have to have some backbone, have some ethics, have some morality, not be one-sided, and make Israel do what it promised. That definitely is a problem for Obama.

George Mitchell, under the direction of President Obama, is risking the security of those in Washington for those in Tel Aviv. They are risking the lives of those in Los Angeles over those in Haifa. Our government is placing the lives of the people of the Israeli state above the lives of those people in the United States, because they do not have the political will or backbone to do the right thing and demand that Israel stop building settlements, stop annexing land and property, and come to the negotiating table without preconditions, and demands of land. They do not have the backbone to stand up against the Israeli political action thugs, risk ruining their political careers (and dollars), and stop all funding to Israel until they are serious about peace.

What Israel’s strategy is, and you don’t have to be an Iranian nuclear scientist to figure it out, is to continue to make half measures, defy the US initiative, continue to drag their feet, the whole time Israel is ignoring the possibility of a settlement freeze, continuing to build, continuing to expand their footprint in Jerusalem, knowing full well, when confronted by an angry Israel, the US will roll over like a puppy and allow them to keep whatever they have stolen.

Israel does not want peace, they want the land.

The American government and its leaders are too worried about their political futures, the money they will make from Jewish campaign donors and their next election to office to be worried about doing what is morally correct and in the best interest of America at the same time.

The Palestinians, unfortunately, are stuck with a whole bunch of nothing but George Mitchell who has a bunch of empty promises, a hand full of checks, no ass, no courage, no guts and no backing from the President of the US ,to do what everyone in the world knows is the right thing to do, demand Israel stop settlements or stop sending US dollars to Israel.