More of the Same for Palestine

The Israeli government has approved plans to build over 1,000 new settler homes in East Jerusalem. It will expand two existing Israeli settlements on part of the territories seized in 1967.

An official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the possible political and diplomatic impact.

[...]

He also said that plans would be "advanced for infrastructure projects in the West Bank that will include roads for the Palestinians."

  RT

Roads to where, though?

The new plan isn’t welcomed by some Israeli politicians. Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party told Reuters the settlement building "should not be promoted now because there is a crisis with the US and the world."

"There is never a good time to do such things, now more than ever as Jerusalem is burning," Lior Amichai of the settlement watchdog Peace Now told AFP. He added that it was unclear at what stage the Israeli plans were, or how close they were to construction.

The international community hasn’t shown any support for Israeli settlement building.

Perhaps not, but it hasn’t done anything to stop it.  And I don't think Mr. Lapid need worry.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has asked the Palestinian Authority (PA) to delay a draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council for a timetable for ending the Israeli occupation to early next year, a Palestinian official has said.

"Kerry wants us to delay the draft resolution until early next year to give room for him to present ideas [for resuming peace talks]," Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) member Hanna Omaira told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

  World Bulletin

Sure. That’s it. That’s why he wants to stall.

"He [Kerry] wants us to delay the Palestinian move at the U.N. Security Council until after next month's Congress election," he said.

Isn’t that a funny coincidence?

Palestinians plan to present a draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council that, according to recent statements by PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the U.N. General Assembly, would seek to achieve a "two-state solution," providing the Palestinians with a sovereign state inside pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

[...]

It would also put Washington, which hopes to maintain its Arab allies in its coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, in a difficult position if it vetoes the draft resolution, the paper reported.

Yes. It will look bad when the US inevitably vetoes a bid to end the Israeli occupation and set up a Palestinian sovereign state. And that, friends, is the reason Kerry wants to stall it until after the elections.

According to the paper, the U.S. administration believes the Palestinian request threatens to put the peace process in crisis.

Forgive me for asking: WHAT peace process?