Clinton: Israeli settlement announcement insulting

CNN

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that Israel's announcement of new settlement construction in disputed territory in East Jerusalem was "insulting" to the United States.

The Israeli announcement came during Vice President Joe Biden's visit this week to Israel. It complicated U.S. efforts to set up so-called proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, the latest attempt to nudge the two sides back toward talking directly.

Clinton said the United States' relationship with Israel is not at risk: "Our relationship is durable. It's strong. It's rooted in common values."

"But we have to make clear to our Israeli friends and partners that the two-state solution -- which we support, which the prime minister himself says he supports -- requires confidence-building measures on both sides," Clinton told CNN's Jill Dougherty. "And the announcement of the settlements the very day that the vice president was there was insulting."

The construction, announced Tuesday, will be in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, in disputed territory in East Jerusalem. The Israeli Interior Ministry denies that the territory is in East Jerusalem.

Biden arrived in Israel on Monday, meeting first with Israeli President Shimon Peres at his official residence in Jerusalem and then with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden emphasized the close relationship between the United States and Israel as he met with Israeli leaders Tuesday, a visit that also touched on relations with the Palestinians and Iran.

However, later Tuesday, after getting word of the settlement announcement, Biden said the United States condemned Israel's decision to build 1,600 housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhood, calling it "a step that undermines the trust we need right now."

The Israeli Interior Ministry said the construction plan was approved by a district committee, and the public can express objections to it over the next 60 days.

"I mean, it was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone -- the United States, our vice president who had gone to reassert our strong support for Israeli security -- and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that known," Clinton said Friday.

She added that she has no reason to believe that Netanyahu knew about the announcement during Biden's visit but added, "He is the prime minister. Like the president or secretary of state ... ultimately, you are responsible."

The controversy over Israel's announcement came just a day after the Obama administration's special envoy for Middle East peace announced that Israeli and Palestinian leaders had accepted indirect talks.

George Mitchell said Monday that the two sides, with him acting as intermediary, had begun to discuss the "structure and scope" of the talks.

"I will return to the region next week to continue our discussions," Mitchell said. "As we've said many times, we hope that these will lead to direct negotiations as soon as possible."

Negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis have been stalled for more than a year, despite the Obama administration's attempt to move toward a resolution of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Under current agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel maintains full control over the West Bank and its borders while the Palestinian government oversees administration of major population centers.

Speaking at a Christians United for Israel convention in Jerusalem on Monday, Netanyahu said he welcomes "the initiation of the peace process between us and the Palestinians."

"We have been calling to resume the talks without prior conditions for almost a year now," he said. "I hope that the proximity talks will soon lead to direct talks."

NCLR VS. CNN Lou Dobbs- Time for truth

NCLR's President Janet Murguia was on CNN's: Lou Dobbs questioning his show for having hate representatives, (a.k.a.-minutemen) posing as legitimate spokespersons in the immigration debate.

Watch video here

This is what is needed to unmask hatemongering "journalists" such as Lou Dobbs and demand accountability from these major television networks.

Whatever happened to real journalism?

To give feedback to CNN on Ms. Murguia's debate click on this form, you never know, CNN might listen: FORM

Image obtained here

CNN: A Corrupt Voice for America

Here is an excellent blog post about CNN by Law Professor Kevin Johnson from UC DAVIS

"CNN: Corrupt News Network"?

We covered the fireworks of the Republican Presidential debate earlier in the week. And Lou Dobbs,who cannot be racist because his wife is Mexican-American and who we seemingly cannot avoid seeing on television at any airport in the country, has been a popular piñata for these blogsters. Tim Rutten of the L.A. Times has a very critical -- and especially refreshing because it came from a major news daily -- column linking the debates, CNN, and Lou Dobbs. In "CNN: Corrupt News Network: A self-serving agenda was set for the Republican presidential debates," he writes:

" Selecting a president is, more than ever, a life and death business, and a news organization that consciously injects itself into the process, as CNN did by hosting Wednesday's debate, incurs a special responsibility to conduct itself in a dispassionate and, most of all, disinterested fashion. When one considers CNN's performance, however, the adjectives that leap to mind are corrupt and incompetent.

Corruption is a strong word. But consider these facts: The gimmick behind Wednesday's debate was that the questions would be selected from those that ordinary Americans submitted to the video sharing Internet website YouTube, which is owned by Google. According to CNN, its staff culled through 5,000 submissions to select the handful that were put to the candidates. That process essentially puts the lie to the vox populi aura the association with YouTube was meant to create. When producers exercise that level of selectivity, the questions -- whoever initially formulated and recorded them -- actually are theirs.

That's where things begin to get troubling, because CNN chose to devote the first 35 minutes of this critical debate to a single issue -- immigration. Now, if that leaves you scratching your head, it's probably because you're included in the 96% of Americans who do not think immigration is the most important issue confronting this country. . . .

****
So, why did CNN make immigration the keystone of this debate? What standard dictated the decision to give that much time to an issue so remote from the majority of voters' concerns? The answer is that CNN's most popular news-oriented personality, Lou Dobbs, has made opposition to illegal immigration and free trade the centerpiece of his neonativist/neopopulist platform. In fact, Dobbs led into Wednesday's debate with a good solid dose of immigrant bashing. His network is in a desperate ratings battle with Fox News and, in a critical prime-time slot, with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. So, what's good for Dobbs is good for CNN. In other words, CNN intentionally directed the Republicans' debate to advance its own interests. Make immigration a bigger issue and you've made a bigger audience for Dobbs.

That's corruption, and it's why the Republican candidates had to spend more than half an hour "debating" an issue on which their differences are essentially marginal -- and, more important, why GOP voters had to sit and wait, mostly in vain, for the issues that really concern them to be discussed. . . ." (emphasis added).

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One has to wonder why Lou Dobbs remains on the air. It is not because he is reporting "news." Nor is he particularly insightful (even when he has his facts right). What else can it be besides ratings and money? And, if one believes Rutten's account, $ is affecting CNN's marketing, programming, and questions posed at a Presidential debate!

blog post: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/12/cnn-corrupt-new.html

cartoon: http://www.middleeast.org/cartoons/U.S.-Bill-of-Right-Wing.jpg