Laura Rozen publishes translated (I assume because there is no link) excerpts of a Shimon Shiffer piece in Thursday's Yediot Aharonot.
While standing in front of the cameras, the U.S. vice president made an effort to smile at Binyamin Netanyahu even after having learned that the Interior Ministry had approved plans to build 1,600 housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo. But in closed conversations, Joe Biden took an entirely different tone. ...
People who heard what Biden said were stunned. "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden castigated his interlocutors. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace."
This is known as framing the discussion, of course it's not about demolition of Palestinian homes in East-Jerusalem. It is about the demolition of talks giving peace a chance.
● Netanyahu Appears At Major Rally with Far-Right Pastor Hagee on Eve of Biden's Israel Arrival ● The Swing to the Right in U.S. Policy Toward Israel and Palestine ● Mr. Biden did say he thought it was "inappropriate" for Mr. Netanyahu to have been invited to Capitol Hill
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
The Taliban is going to fight harder against American troops in AfPak because Israel is building apartments in Ramat Shlomo? Give me a break. Granted the timing of the announcement was about as personally embarrassing for Biden as it could have been, but to go from there to claiming that Israel building apartments in Jerusalem endangers American troops in AfPak and Iraq is beyond the pale.
And why do they not see that an American politician might have that view? it does speak of a worldview that I just don't understand. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
I had another go at finding it on the Yediot site, with no success. But I did find a short article in which the chairman of the Knesset expressed his concern at the applause that Biden got when he attacked the construction in East Jerusalem in his speech...
Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, said he is very concerned about their applause was the American vice president, Joe Biden, after condemning the construction in East Jerusalem during a speech at Tel Aviv University.
"I'm concerned erosion of red lines we set for ourselves, understanding erosion of Israel's strategic needs, we can not compromise them," said Rivlin.
● Biden's speech at Tel Aviv University
I've no idea if Biden actually said it, but it's, of course, true.
It speaks to a special kind of illness within a government that our leaders routinely put the wishes of a bunch of psychos ruling a country of no value to us, economically or militarily, ahead of the safety of our own soldiers.
Really, crazy on a level I can't even put into words. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
