Wednesday, December 28, 2016

It is important Israel took the United Nations' vote seriously.

There can still be a Palestine. If Israel ends the militarization of settlements, there can be a Palestine.

Israel is currently using militarized settlements as a means of maintaining an advantage over the Palestinians. That is a strategy to end the plans for Palestine. These settlements are armed with Israeli soldiers to prevent any danger to the settlers. The settlements are deeply embedded in Palestine and stand alone without connection to the rest of Israel. That is not a legitimate Israeli settlement.

Palestine is diminished in the amount of land comprising that nation of people and the strategy by Israel has stranded Palestinians from other people. There is no defense of Palestinian isolation or Israeli settlements established to end any possible sovereignty of a Palestinian country.

I don't buy the ideology that says there can be no Palestinian country because of all the Israeli settlements scattered strategically throughout those lands. The Palestinians never consented to the settlements NOR were they able to defend their land. The Palestinians have far less militarization than Israel.

Israel wants to be secure and that is important, it is important to the USA, but, it can't be at the cost of an entire ethnicity in this world. The profound loss of Hebrews in this world was met with the development of a country to call their own. How, in good conscience, can the world simply turn from the need for a Palestinian homeland?

This resolution is a reflection on the future for both Israel and Palestine. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated the UN is biased against Israel.

..."Decades of political manoeuvrings have created a disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticising Israel," Ban said. "In many cases, rather than helping the Palestinian cause, this reality has hampered the ability of the UN to fulfil its role effectively."...

The single reason there has been such maneuvering is due to the veto power of the USA. Whenever there was an attempt to end the settlements by Israel in Palestinian Occupied Territories, the USA vetoed any potential. Every strategy to obtain a Palestinian homeland was either vetoed by the USA or defeated by Israel. This can't continue. It would be best if all previous resolutions be set aside to allow this new resolution ending the settlements with the hope of a more harmonious future that allows the Palestinian people their own sovereignty takes hold.

The President Elect of the USA and the US Congress can come up with their own resolution, but, that would simply bring global disdain for such unilateral actions. The USA does not need to increase tensions in the region. The USA has to be a beacon of peace through diplomatic victories. This new resolution has the potential to bring a real peace for the future.

The current culture in Gaza is depraved. The culture in Gaza has guaranteed a piece of land, but, not a future for their children. Palestine has to carry out hope for the children that have inherited a fight and not a future. The problem with Gaza is the decades of hate and war with Israel. That has left any resources limited to nurture children of peace and abundant for children of war. Childhood is not valued in Gaza. That has been learned over decades.

The moral future of the region is to value their children enough to embrace childhood and the future of peace while rejecting further war. The settlements create far more hardship than just the lack of land for a Palestine, they end the future for the Palestinian children.

December 28, 2016
By Joshua Mitnick

An Israeli planning committee (click here) backed down on Wednesday from approving hundreds of permits for housing projects in east Jerusalem, hoping to avoid fanning controversy over settlement activity hours before a policy speech on Israeli-Palesitnian peace by Secretary of State John Kerry.

The Jerusalem municipal planning commission had been scheduled to vote on about 600 building permits in neighborhood settlements located in parts of the city that make up the proposed capital of a future independent Palestinian state. But amid a week long spat between the Obama administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning settlements, the permits were taken off the agenda.

Approval of the permits was postponed “at the request of the prime minister in order not to create an unnecessary conflict with the U.S. administration,’’ said Jerusalem council member Hanan Rubin, in an with Israel’s Channel 2 television. 

“We aren’t interested in creating a storm out of nothing,’’ Rubin wrote on his Facebook page. “Building in Jerusalem isn’t something political.”...

If Congress wants to reduce the food stamp recipients raise the minimum wage.

Food Stamps (SNAP) and Medicaid is Wall Street Welfare. Raise the minimum wage and eliminate the need for Corporate Welfare.

DOW at nearly 20,000 with innumerable of million-billionaires with record USA deficit and debt with 20 percent of Americans on SNAP. I think that picture and why it exists is obvious.

March 11, 2016
By Tyler Durden

Record Dow Jones, (click here) record US debt ($16,701,846,937,879.74), and now, once more, record number of Americans on foodstamps. According to the USDA, an all time high of 47,791,966 Americans closed 2012 in possession of the highly desired Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, managed by who else but JPMorgan. And with a civilian non-institutional population of 244.4 million in December, this means that a record 19.56% of eligible Americans are on Foodstamps.
In December an additional 109,924 Americans became reliant on foodstamps for their poverty-level needs, bringing the total to 47.8 million....

The billionaire families such as Trump, Koch and the Waltons aren't a part of the markets. They are private industries. So, it is slightly unfair to accuse all Wall Street counting on Corporate Welfare. The truth is there are disproportionate wealthy families receiving Corporate Welfare in SNAP and Medicaid.

Before a Republican Congress decides to reduce SNAP and/or Medicaid they need to look at their donors and those billionaires lining the new administration's cabinet and find out where improvements can be made in the minimum wage in the USA!

The best paying janitor jobs are in Alaska. (click here)

Broken hearts are real.

December 28, 2016
By Mark Barnes

Debbie Reynolds, (click here) the vivacious actress, dancer and pop star who wowed ’em in the musicals Singin’ in the Rain and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, died Wednesday, one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher, passed away, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. She was 84.

"She's with Carrie," said Reynolds' son, Todd. 

Reynolds died Wednesday night after being hospitalized for a medical emergency. On Tuesday, her daughter, the Star Wars actress, author and screenwriter, died of complications from a heart attack she had suffered four days earlier while on a flight from London to Los Angeles....

It is as I thought.

The vote to preserve a Two State Solution was brought to the UN Security Council appropriately. The USA has not changed it's support for Israel, the fact the USA had voted in "abstained." It was not a vote against Israel it was to support a Two State Solution which is the only real path to peace. 

The "Two State Solution" was being abandoned by the President-Elect through extremists nominated and/or appointed to the country of Israel. The "Two State Solution" is the only path to peace. Realizing the President Elect would carry out an extremist platform with Israel was dangerous and it would not be a surprise to find there are already great threats being conceived against Israel.

Secretary Kerry would never indict the President Elect for extremism regardless of his actions to date.

It is important Israel be at peace with the region as it is a vital to the safety of the Israeli people. The Israeli Prime Minister should be grateful to the USA and Secretary Kerry for their steadfast position acting only to protect the potential peace in a "Two State Solution."

This is not the only issue with the President Elect, he has recklessly alarmed China in regard to Taiwan. These extremist positions will not be tolerated in the world and he needs to get used to the idea the USA stands for peace and not war to an extremist end.