US Chides Netanyahu’s Party After Israeli Election Win

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration admonished Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party on Wednesday, accusing it of using anti-Arab rhetoric ahead of Israel’s election. A spokesman said President Barack Obama still believes in Palestinian statehood — even if Netanyahu no longer does.

In its first public response to Netanyahu’s triumph in the election, the spokesman said the White House was “deeply concerned” about divisive language emanating from Netanyahu’s Likud Party. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the party had sought to marginalize Israel’s minority Arab community, an apparent reference to social media posts the Likud distributed that warned Israelis about the danger of high turnout by Arab voters.

“These are views the administration intends to convey directly to the Israelis,” Earnest said.

And while Earnest said Obama would be calling Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory, he acknowledged the U.S. would have to re-evaluate the best way to bring about a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a cornerstone of U.S. Mideast policy for years. In a veer to the right just before the election, Netanyahu reversed his former position and said he now opposes the creation of a separate Palestinian state.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2015/03/18/us_chides_netanyahus_party_after_israeli_election_win/

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White House Knocks "Divisive Rhetoric" Against Arabs In Israeli Election

Reuters

AIR FORCE ONE: The White House said on Wednesday that it was deeply concerned by the use of "divisive rhetoric" in the Israeli election that sought to undermine Arab-Israeli citizens.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on election day in Israel that left-wingers were trying to get Arab-Israeli voters out "in droves" to sway the election against him.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters traveling on Air Force One that the United States would communicate its concern about the issue directly to the Israelis.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Mar-18/291274-white-house-knocks-divisive-rhetoric-against-arabs-in-israeli-election.ashx

[upaloopa]

1. How about we put sanctions on Israel?

Like we did to South Africa

[ananda]

2. And cut off those billions in funding.

..

[blkmusclmachine]

9. Deeds, not words. Obama likes to talk a lot, but he rarely follows through.

[jtuck004]

3. It could happen here. n/t

[leveymg]

4. So, is the US going to drop its opposition at the UN and fully recognize Palestinian statehood?

Will the State Department and Treasury embargo the flow of funds to Israeli entities that finance settlement expansion?
Will the USAF enforce a protected no-fly zone over Gaza?

If the answer remains, no, on any of these things then nothing much is going to change. They'll just get worse.

[Mosby]

5. Bibi engages in anti-arab rhetoric, Obama kills Arabs with drone strikes

who should be lecturing who?

funny world we live in.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. Bibi has killed thousands of Arab civilians.

I don't recall Obama committing massive war crimes in Gaza or southern Lebanon. Do you?

[geek tragedy]

8. How many kids did Bibi massacre in Gaza? How many Arabs has Obama deemed

to be unworthy of basic human rights? How many Arabs has Obama declared would remain permanent prisoners of the United States because they were born on purportedly holy ground according to 3,000 year old books?

[Mosby]

12. Israel fights defensive wars

The US not so much.

[geek tragedy]

15. Yeah, like when Lebanon invaded Israel three

times. Or how the Palestinians are occupying land whose population are Israeli Jews.

[leftynyc]

16. The hypocrisy on this board

on this issue is pretty fucking stunning, isn't it?

[Mosby]

20. I don't think I'll ever understand it. nt

[Jefferson23]

18. That is not true of Israel on any level. n/t

[Purveyor]

13. It is going to be a long wait for the apartheid gov't of israel until President

Obama leaves office.

Should be interesting, indeed.

[RandiFan1290]

25. Bibi murders innocents and children in a walled off ghetto

Yeah, really "funny"

[Corey_Baker08]

6. I Wonder If Netenyahu Will Call Republicans To Thank Them For Their Support?

Netenyahu used his address to the Republicans in the House & Senate in campaign ads to express to the people of Israel that he & he alone has the support of the United States and falsely used his US speech as propaganda that he had the endorsement of the United States in his bid for reelection, which he in fact did not!

I applaud President Obama for standing up to Bibi by publicly announcing that the divisive rhetoric used to undermine Arab-Israelis in the election was wrong & that President Obama believes that a Palestinian State is necessary to ensure the safety, security and the freedom of the Palestinian people.

Netenyahu needs to go & the US needs to realize that we can and we will continue to support Israel without Netenyahu as its leader & we will continue to support the rights of Palestine as well as the Palestinian People...

[Dawson Leery]

10. The sheer number of Palestinians to which Bibi has slaughtered combined

with the theft of their homes/land calls for a formal investigation by the ICC.

Bibi's rhetoric was most unbecoming of a leader of a first world nation.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. That's the man I voted for twice talking to Bibi and his fascist coalition

The anti-Arab rhetoric in the closing days of the campaign is alarming. What is the logical outcome the abandonment of a two-state solution and political rhetoric that suggests that Israel would be a better state if Arabs living in Israel were denied full citizenship? Short of a Holocaust, which I do not think even most the people who support Bibi would tolerate and therefore, thankfully, will not happen, then the logical outcome is an Apartheid state.

Of course, none but the most revolting Likud politician would come out openly and advocate such a horror. However, the undercurrent of Likud's campaign is inescapable. If there will be no two-state solution, then the occupation of Arab territory must be made permanent. Arab resistance to such an arrangement must be made impossible, starting with civil rights. Netanyahu's rhetoric cannot be seen as anything short of challenging the right of Israeli Arabs to vote.

Bibi is like any other right wing monster. He divides people into a camp of haves and have-nots, tells his supporters that they are better simply because they are descended from Abraham through Isaac instead of through Ishmael and that they, therefore, should enjoy civic rights and privileges that others must not. It will spread the racist tyranny of Israel's occupation of the West Bank to Israel itself: segregated housing, segregated roads, a segregated justice system. It would be a humanitarian catastrophe on the order of the kind that the very birth of Israel in 1948 was to put an end.

The Holocaust was not wrong because it happened to Jews and Apartheid was not wrong because it happened to black South Africans. They were wrong because they happened to anybody. This logical outcome of another Netanyahu ministry following through on this kind of campaign rhetoric would also be wrong.

[obxhead]

14. The spice will flow.

Empty admonishments are so much fun though!

[shaayecanaan]

17. Actual statement was as follows:-

7:05 P.M. White House 'deeply concerned' by 'divisive rhetoric' that sought to marginalize Arab Israelis

White Press secretary Josh Ernest said: "The Obama administration is deeply concerned by the use of divisive rhetoric in Israel that sought to marginalize Arab Israeli citizens." The press secretary was alluding to Netanyahu's comments on Tuesday, when he urged his supporters to go and vote, warning that his rule is in danger because "the Arab are voting in droves."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/1.647603

[c588415]

19. Besides meddling in our affairs, what has Israel done for us?

Nutnyahoo is an asshole, and is definitely not a man of peace.

[840high]

23. Of course USA is a nation of peace.

[ismnotwasm]

22. Oh wow.

[davidpdx]

24. We get another 4 years of Israel threatening to nuke Iran

and screaming that the world is coming to an end. Meanwhile Bibi is sending his Republican friends in Congress some steaks to thank them for participating in the theater.