IS COMMON SENSE AND FAIRNESS STARTING TO SHOW IN EUROPE? EU president raises eyebrows in his hesitance to refer to settlements as 'illegal'

Anti-Semitism has been a constant threat in Europe, but it's being challenged in most a European countries in a positive way. But just because hate mongers still exist the Governments themselves within Europe are not only tackling the problem but are also fighting back against BDS.  

The EU President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, who is in Israel to deliver a speech to the Knesset later Wednesday said :

"Anti-Semitism always existed in Europe, I thought that after World War II we were stronger in fighting such demons in politics. This is a deception. Nothing disappeared, all the prejudice is there."

For him to admit this is a major step forward. To "fight the demons" in such a way is admirable.

During a press briefing in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Schulz was pressed regarding the European position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Settlements are deemed illegal, but to continuously repeat that does nothing toward moving forward an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, Martin Schulz, said on Wednesday.

His hesitance at first to clearly state the well-known EU position regarding the illegality of the settlements raised some eyebrows, especially since he comes from the left-wing socialist grouping in the parliament.

Pressed on the matter, he said that under the Fourth Geneva Convention the settlements are deemed illegal but this is also shared by the US, which deems them "illegitimate."

But, Schulz surprisingly said, the characterization of the settlements as illegal does nothing to help solve problems. 

"We can discuss until Christmas the legality or illegality of the settlements," said the German politician "I think that what we need is not a debate about legality, but practical solutions," he said. "This is a question about political effectiveness and diplomacy."

For once very well said. Perhaps the Euopeans are coming out their shell. Hopefully the age of being anti Israel in Europe is becoming unfashionable and commonsense is prevailing. 

So it's all Israel's fault? The Palestinian rocket attacks, bombings,shootings, murders of Israeli children obviously then don't come intoit?

In a speech to a Washington think tank, Susan Rice says the US remains committed to peacemaking, but makes clear that it sees Jewish settlement construction plans as hampering those efforts.

US President Barack Obama's top national security aide on Thursday blamed Israeli settlement expansion announcements for some of the latest tensions between Israel and the Palestinians as US-brokered peace talks between the two sides have faltered.

In a speech to a Washington think tank, Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, said the United States remained committed to Middle East peacemaking, but made clear that it saw Jewish settlement construction plans as hampering those efforts.

Her remarks to a conference of the Middle East Institute drew applause from an audience that included former and current US officials, foreign diplomats, some from Arab countries, and regional experts."We have seen increased tensions on the ground. Some of this is a result of recent settlement announcements. So let me reiterate: The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," she said.

Rice's criticism echoed US Secretary of State John Kerry, who urged Israel on a visit to the region last week to limit settlement building in occupied territories - an activity he called "illegitimate" - to help push peace talks back on track.

US-Israeli discord over settlements has added to strains between the close allies over how to deal with Iran's nuclear program. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has warned that the United States and other world powers are negotiating a "bad deal" with Tehran, Israel's arch-foe.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday his delegation of peace negotiators had resigned over the lack of progress in statehood talks with Israel. The development would mark a new low point for the talks, which resumed in July.

Abbas suggested the negotiations would continue but that he would need a week to resume talks.

Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, an area controlled by Hamas Islamists opposed to Abbas' peace moves, with east Jerusalem as the capital. They argue that Israeli settlements deny them a viable country.

Since the talks resumed after a three-year break, Israel has announced plans for several thousand new Jewish settler homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The disclosure on Tuesday that Israel's Housing Ministry had commissioned separate plans for nearly 24,000 more homes for Israelis in the two areas raised US concern and drew Palestinian condemnation.

Netanyahu, an advocate of settlement construction, intervened later in the day,ordering a halt to the projects and saying he feared an international outcry that would divert attention from Israel's lobbying against an Iran nuclear deal.

Insisting that US opposition to settlement activity was "not new" and had been US policy for decades, Rice said, "The only way to resolve these kinds of critical issues is at the negotiating table."

She praised Netanyahu and Abbas for some "important steps" to spur the peace process, but acknowledged, "It won't be easy."

Netanyahu has accused the Palestinians of creating "artificial crises" over the settlement issue and has said that most of Israel's building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is in areas it intends to keep in any future peace deal.

Jerusalem post

Kerry completely got it wrong on settlements

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s repeated assertions that “Israel’s settlements are illegitimate,” which he reiterated most recently in a November 6 interview with Israel’s Channel 2 television, are legally and factually mistaken. Publicly reasserting them, in fact, prejudges and even undermines the very negotiations Secretary Kerry has been brokering between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

Pursuant to the “Oslo Accords,” and specifically the 1995 Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement, the “issue of settlements” is one of the “core issues” to be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations between the parties.

President Bill Clinton, on behalf of the United States, is signatory as witness to that agreement, together with the leaders of the EU, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Norway.

In fact, there is no requirement in any of the signed agreements between Israel and the PA that either side cease or freeze settlement activity until the final disposition of those disputed territories is negotiated between the sides. The opposite is in fact the case.

The above-noted 1995 interim agreement enables each party to plan, zone and build in the areas under its respective control.

In the context of these carefully crafted and mutually agreed upon arrangements under the internationally sanctioned Oslo accords, Israel wonders why Secretary Kerry has repeated determinations that Israel’s settlements are “illegitimate” – assertions that are not supported by international law.

The oft-quoted prohibition on the transfer of populations into occupied territory (Art.

49 of the 4th Geneva Convention) was, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross’s own official commentary on that convention, drafted in 1949 to prevent a re-occurrence of the Nazis’ forced mass relocation of populations during the Second World War.

The immediate post-war circumstances under which the convention was drafted underscore its inapplicability to sui generis situations such as Israel’s settlement activity.

Attempts by some in the international community to attribute Article 49 to Israel and suggest a comparison between former Nazi-coerced population transfers and Israeli housing starts in the West Bank emanate from longstanding partisan political sympathies as opposed to carefully considered legal arguments.

Moreover, the formal applicability of the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949 to the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank cannot be claimed since they were not occupied by a prior, legitimate sovereign power.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan occupied the West Bank from 1949 to 1967. However, Jordan’s sovereignty was rejected by the international community, except for Britain and Pakistan.

While it has become popular in international circles to pre-assign ownership rights of the West Bank to the Palestinians, these disputed territories cannot be defined as “Palestinian territories” or as “Palestine.”

No such entity exists, and there has never been any binding agreement or international determination that Judea and Samaria/the West Bank are Palestinian.

In fact, the express purpose of the permanent status negotiation continues to be to determine, by agreement, the status of the territory, to which Israel has a longstanding legitimate claim, backed by international legal and historic rights.

Notably, Israel is the only country in the 193 member UN General Assembly whose rights to sovereignty in the territory west of the Jordan river were twice affirmed last century, first as part of the Mandate for Palestine by the League of Nations and then by its successor organization, the United Nations, via its founding charter.

Today, while Israel’s territorial rights are in force, its vibrant democracy continues to debate what concessions of its rights are possible in the framework of peace negotiations.

More important is the fact that Israel’s housing and settlement policy in geographically contested areas neither prejudice the outcome of current negotiations nor mandate displacement of local Palestinian residents from their private property.

Since 1993 and the Oslo Exchange of Letters with the PLO , and more specifically since the 1995 Oslo Interim Agreement, Israel has committed itself to negotiate the issue of settlements as well as other core issues.

It seems vitally important to avoid predeterminations that prejudge the outcome of peace negotiations. That is why Secretary Kerry must retract his comments on settlements to maintain his credibility and that of the US administration as “fair and honest” broker in the quest for a secure, viable and durable peace agreement between the PA and the State of Israel.

Jerusalem post