UN's security council votes against Israel's settlements, US refuses to veto...

[grumbler]

Btw a Facebook friend of mine said he bought Israeli Savings Bonds this morning in an apparent gesture of defiance at Obama's 'slap in the face' of Israel.  He's an interesting guy.  Kind of like a rightwing Seedy.

  Your friend is a moron, hence not much like Seedy at all.  Bibi slaps the US (and pretty much the rest of the world) in the face and then bursts into tears, and your friend buys bonds to reward him.

Nope, not much like Seedy.  Except the whining part...

[CountDeMoney]

HEY NOW

i'll stop whining when I have a reason to stop whining.

[Berkut]

It's never hard to find a reason to whine.

Or a reason to stop, for that matter.

[CountDeMoney]

It's the quiet ones you really need to worry about.

[DGuller]

It's the quiet ones you really need to worry about.

It's not the loud blowhards you have to worry about, those make it obvious to everyone what deplorable human beings they are.  It's the quiet ones that slip by unnoticed and get elected.

[derspiess]

Btw a Facebook friend of mine said he bought Israeli Savings Bonds this morning in an apparent gesture of defiance at Obama's 'slap in the face' of Israel.  He's an interesting guy.  Kind of like a rightwing Seedy.

  Your friend is a moron, hence not much like Seedy at all.  Bibi slaps the US (and pretty much the rest of the world) in the face and then bursts into tears, and your friend buys bonds to reward him.

Nope, not much like Seedy.  Except the whining part...

I was thinking more along the lines of donating (and I consider savings bonds a form of donation) as a means of revenge against political enemies.  Like how Seedy gives the finger to teh man by donating to PP.  But there's more to it than that.  Confirmed bachelor, always uses unnecessarily strong language, sorta-kinda into conspiracy theories, and way into his cats. 

[Valmy]

I was thinking more along the lines of donating (and I consider savings bonds a form of donation) as a means of revenge against political enemies.  Like how Seedy gives the finger to teh man by donating to PP.  But there's more to it than that.  Confirmed bachelor, always uses unnecessarily strong language, sorta-kinda into conspiracy theories, and way into his cats. 

Donating the PP is not revenge. It is helping by enabling you guys to cut all government funding.

[Admiral Yi]

Crimea is different than Palestine because, AFAICT, most of the inhabitants self-identify, at least to some extent, as Russians.

[derspiess]

Crimea is different than Palestine because, AFAICT, most of the inhabitants self-identify, at least to some extent, as Russians.

Yeah, as much as I hate the way the Russians went about it and as much as I support Ukraine, I don't see any going back. 

[Berkut]

Crimea is different than Palestine because, AFAICT, most of the inhabitants self-identify, at least to some extent, as Russians.

Yeah, as much as I hate the way the Russians went about it and as much as I support Ukraine, I don't see any going back. 

The problem we have now is not about going back, it is how do we check Putin going forward.

He has played the West for fools for a couple decades now, gotten away with everything he could imagine, and has now gotten his BFF elected President of the only country capable of standing up to his aggression.

The Crimea? Who the fuck cares about the Crimea anymore?

And you have a rather bizarre way of supporting the Ukraine.

[CountDeMoney]

I was thinking more along the lines of donating (and I consider savings bonds a form of donation) as a means of revenge against political enemies.  Like how Seedy gives the finger to teh man by donating to PP. 

My $20 donation to the World Wildlife Fund for that badass tote with the tiger kittens on it is exactly the the kind of machinations I put in motion to bring Red China to its knees.  The 2017 Calendar is only the beginning!

[dps]

Can Israel deliver warheads to NZ?

They'll deliver US designed weapon systems pretty much anywhere for the right price.

[grumbler]

Crimea is different than Palestine because, AFAICT, most of the inhabitants self-identify, at least to some extent, as Russians.

And Tibet is also different because at least as many Tibetans welcomed re-integration with China as opposed it.  Tibet's experiment with independence was not a success.

[CountDeMoney]

Tibet's experiment with independence was not a success.

And they never got their second Tibet of equal or lesser value, either.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Btw a Facebook friend of mine said he bought Israeli Savings Bonds this morning in an apparent gesture of defiance at Obama's 'slap in the face' of Israel.  He's an interesting guy.  Kind of like a rightwing Seedy.

I don't get it. We have never been in favor of the settlements.

Ah well. He should be happy enough soon.

We haven't been on paper, but there are several settlement areas that basically all parties have previously acknowledged are never going away, and whose annexation will be necessary for any peace deal. The vast majority of settlement growth Obama's Administration has been talking about has exclusively been in those, only something like 20,000 new people have gone into settlements Israel has previously said are in areas it will likely vacate in a peace arrangement. In past failed peace deals Israel has agreed to give other territorial concessions to make up for the "presumed to be annexed settlement area." The US has been on board with all of that in the past, Kerry's shameful and frankly stupid speech ignored all of this and actee like Israel is a one sided bad actor that needs reigned in. I think the Obama Administration's actions here have likely seriously worsened the situation.

Now, Bibi is an idiot and Obama appears to hate him on a personal level (not entirely unreasonable), but Obama preaches "going high" and I honestly sense that this was an angry lame duck President taking his dick out and slapping a foreign leader he despises and that his successor (whom he hates) likes.

As much as it wasn't wise for an Israeli PM to make things personal with a US President, it was probably worse for an American President to respond in kind. It just empowers the worst behaviors of both the Palestinians and the Israelis, not to mention given the incoming administration and the strong public support in America for Israel gives Trump an almost guaranteed "PR win" when he comes in and does a bunch of pro-Israeli stuff.

Word is even a lot of Democrats in Congress are struggling to support Obama on this, which also erodes any power he might have post-Presidency as a "unifying figure" in helping the Dems fix their house.