The White House is "dismayed" over an Israeli decision to build 900 homes in a disputed section of Jerusalem. The parties rehearsed this six months ago. After his election Israeli PM Netanyahu promised to grow settlements. This follows a decade long pattern of U.S. pleading.
Yet days ago, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel spoke of the "unbreakable bond" between the U.S. and Israel. Rahm's other comments included:
"Make no mistake, the path toward peace is not one that Israel should be asked to walk alone. That is why the U.S. will remain actively engaged, and Israel's one true friend.
One would have to be a true friend to suffer a decade of public dismay.
Israel has been "a beacon of democracy in a region too often defined by strife."
Israel attacked Lebanon, its democratic neighbor to the north, in 2006. This happened despite President Bush's claim that democracies don't attack democracies. Senator Obama supported Israel's leveling of Southern Lebanon, ended by scattering a parting gift, millions of cluster bomblets.
In December 2008 Israel began the pummeling of Gaza, with Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton and General James. L Jones in the loop on a change of plans. President elect Obama sat on his hands.
"As the president has said many times, as the president said in Cairo, the bond between the Israel and the U.S. is unbreakable. It's a bond rooted in shared interests and shared values."
Who knew intentional violence against civilians and staged lying was a value? A decade of dismay should be no surprise.
