Obama to reluctantly sign trade bill that lumps together Israel and settlements

[Little Tich]

Source: Times of Israel

Legislation, hailed by AIPAC, includes anti-BDS provision with language White House says ‘contravenes longstanding US policy,’ but president will still back it

SHINGTON — The White House announced Thursday that President Barack Obama will sign a trade bill despite it containing a provision that lumps together Israel and “Israeli-controlled territories.”

Such language, meaning that the bill is applicable to Israel and the settlements, “contravenes longstanding U.S. policy towards Israel and the occupied territories, including with regard to Israeli settlement activity,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement, hours after the measure was approved in the Senate by a vote of 75-20.

Nonetheless, while the president objects to that particular facet of the legislation, Earnest suggested his accepting it, and signing the bill, was part of the nature of bipartisan compromise. “As with any bipartisan compromise legislation, there are provisions in this bill that we do not support,” Earnest said.

The legislation, The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, is part of a package that was presented to the US Congress last summer. It is designed to strengthen enforcement rules, address currency manipulation and bolster efforts to block evasions of trade laws.

Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-to-reluctantly-sign-trade-bill-that-lumps-together-israel-and-settlements/

[branford]

1. Bipartisanship is apparently alive and well.

The trade bill was overwhelmingly supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including expressing both parties' support for Israel (and implicit criticism of EU labeling policies)

I'm curious as to the positions of Sanders and Clinton about the bill and Israel provisions, although I would be surprised if they publicly offered any objections, no less during a heated presidential primary.

[geek tragedy]

2. By and large the US is moving to a 'benign neglect'

approach the Israeli/Palestinian dispute wherein we no longer attempt to influence the inevitable outcome of that dispute. Obama is the last president to have a meaningful (though failed) diplomatic agenda there. Future presidents will base all decisions based on the settlements/occupation etc on purely domestic political concerns rather than the geopolitical implications.

Future presidents will acknowledge--tacitly--that the one-state solution is the only viable one, regardless of its consequences for all parties. "Kick the can down the road" is the new policy--invest no diplomatic capital in preventing a one-state solution, pro forma and generally ineffectual efforts at preventing the consequential isolation of Israel, and recognition that Israel--not the United States--will pay the full and ultimate price for the one-state solution.