Filibuster Cartoons
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Another case where mocking reality requires very little exaggeration.
Vice President Joe Biden was in the Middle East this week, visiting with Israel’s hardline Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to give him a ritualistic American push towards reconciliation with the Palestinians.
As we all know, a huge sticking issue in this whole mess has been the matter of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories. Hardcore Jewish nationalist-types believe it’s their right to continue to settle and populate arab territories in the name of zionism, while everyone in the peace-making community, including, supposedly, the Government of Israel, says such actions show no respect for Palestinian sovereignty, and thus undermine the eventual emergence of a Palestinian state.
Since he came to power, however, it’s been an open question as to whether or not Prime Minister Netanyahu would make any serious attempt to reign in settlers, since his entire political career has been about contesting the very idea of an independent Palestinian state.
Still, people thought he’d at least have a bit more tact than to announce the construction of 1,600 new Israeli settlements in the Palestinian region of East Jerusalem during the Vice President’s visit.
Of course, Bibi has since tried to shield himself from the diplomatic fallout, in part by claiming that his interior ministry, who were in charge of the settlement initiative, is full of ultra-zionist crazies with no respect for protocol. But he didn’t apologize for the settlement plan itself, nor attempt to justify placing crazies in charge of the interior ministry in the first place.
