End the Bailout: Get Israel off the American Taxpayer Dole!

Israel OKs West Bank building, Construction officially approved despite strong objections from Washington

American Taxpayers Continue to Foot the Bill for a Modern Trail of Tears

by Johnny Punish

JERUSALEM – Israel officially approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in the West Bank, the Defense Ministry said Monday, deepening an already unprecedented rift with the United States over Israeli settlement expansion.

The construction is the first approved by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under heavy U.S. pressure to freeze all settlement activity on captured lands claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.

Netanyahu, trying to placate the Americans, has said the newly approved homes are a prelude to a freeze, but that’s been a tough sell internationally because Israel also plans to complete an additional 2,500 homes already underway.

Under the order, Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized the construction of 366 new apartments, the Defense Ministry announced. An additional 84 new apartments will be approved in the near future, bringing the total number to 450, the ministry said.

The order includes permission to proceed with the construction of a new settler enclave in the Jordan Valley, an area that is considered vital to a future Palestinian state because of its rich farmlands and location deep inside the West Bank.

As the trail of tears continues forward, Palestinians continue to be left in no man’s land, pushed out just like the American Indian was.  The only question is Will the People of Palestine fight back?  Of course, without an army or support from major powers, they are left with suicide bombings and throwing rocks at tanks paid for by U.S. Taxpayers.

Building support
By rebuffing U.S. pressure, Netanyahu has tried to cement the support of a coalition that is committed to strengthening Israel’s control over the West Bank.

At the same time, he has offered to slow construction afterward in exchange for overtures from the Arab world. This has mollified the Americans and the Palestinians, who have demanded an immediate and total freeze.

“Given the choice between making peace and making settlements, they have chosen to make settlements,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman didn’t immediately return a telephone call. But the United States has sharply rebuked Israel over the latest construction plans, first reported Friday.

George Mitchell, the U.S. Mideast envoy, is due in the region within the coming week to hold yet another round of talks meant to wrest Israeli concessions that would allow the resumption of Israel-Palestinian peace talks.

Netanyahu’s aides have spoken optimistically about reaching an accommodation. But it is not clear that optimism is warranted because Netanyahu’s so-called building moratorium would not apply to the 450 new apartments, to 2,500 already under construction, or to disputed east Jerusalem.

Bucking pressure
Dani Dayan, leader of the West Bank settlers’ council, said the government had approved only limited construction and accused it of caving into American pressure.

“North Korea is going on developing its nuclear capabilities, Iran is going on developing its nuclear capabilities, we have threats all over the world and all the world international community is interested with is whether my daughter builds her house next to mine,” he told foreign reporters. “It is all based on the erroneous perception that the creation of a Palestinian state is the magical solution to the situation here.”

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Israel captured all three areas in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the coastal territory was subsequently taken over by Hamas militants.

About 300,000 Israelis live among about 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and an additional 180,000 live in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

While it could take months or years for construction to begin on most of the homes approved on Monday, infrastructure work was already in progress for 20 houses in the Jordan Valley enclave of Maskiot.

Israel drew international criticism in 2006 when it announced plans to establish Maskiot, and the plan was suspended until Barak approved it in July 2008. Eight families, all evacuated from the Gaza Strip when Israel pulled out in 2005, have been living there in trailers for years.

Later Monday, settlers, Cabinet ministers and lawmakers planned to hold a mock cornerstone-laying ceremony for what they hope will be a new neighborhood of 3,000 apartments in an especially contentious area outside Jerusalem.

Palestinians say Israeli development would cut off east Jerusalem from the West Bank and kill their dreams to set up capital there. The construction plans were frozen years ago under pressure from Washington.

The land where the neighborhood lies is in a wedge between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, Israel’s second-largest settlement.

With the American people already in debt to fund a wayward war in Iraq, funding a who-knows-why war in Afghanistan, and bailing out every corporation that cries “I am not happy”, can Americans really continue to afford to pay for the ambitions of others?

It’s time to end the madness!

We have 50 million of our people without health insurance yet we pay for the ambitions of others in lands far far away. 

This is ridiculous!  I am sick and tired of it.

This writer says to stop all aid to Israel and end it.  If they want to drive off the native peoples, let them do it themselves.  We Americans have better things to do with our money at home…..namely, getting ALL of our people health care.

Dump Israel and let’s get them off the dole!

Johnny Punish

Johnny Punish founded VT in 2004.  After 20 years at the helm, he “retired” from the daily operations in late 2023 passing the ball over to the new owner of VT, Chief Justin Time.   He now writes for VT as “Writer Emeritus”.  He is also a global citizen eco-activist, visionary, musician, artist, entertainer, businessman, investor, life coach, podcast host, and syndicated columnist.  

Punish is an ethnically cleansed Palestinian-American whose maternal family was evicted from their home in Haifa, Palestine in 1948 by Irgun; a Euro-Zionist Settler Terrorist Group.  The family became part of the over 1,000,000 Palestinians who are Al-Nakba refugees (The Catastrophe).  The family fled to Beirut Lebanon for 13 years eventually emigrating to the USA in 1961 via a Brasilian passport obtained by his Palestinian Brasilian-born grandmother (In the early 1900s, the family was sent to Sao Paolo Brasil as guest workers in the mining industry.  Punish’s father is Italian-American from New York City.  Punish’s paternal great-grandparents emigrated to the USA from Naples Italy and Marineo in Sicily in the 1890s.  Punish was born in the Bronx, New York in 1963.

Punish was educated at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (1980-81) and California State University Fullerton (1981-1984) with studies in accounting and business. Before the “internets” had been invented, he owned and ran (5) national newspapers in the United States of America from 1987-1998.  From 2004 to 2023, he owned and managed VT Foreign Policy retiring at the end of 2023.

Punish is also a recording artist.  He has over 100 original songs written. He records and produces music. A member of ASCAP, Punish has several songs placed in feature films. His music is promoted worldwide and played on all digital networks and net radio.

He is also the founder and owner of  Global Thinkers, a freedom media that helps free thinkers create real wealth.

Resources: Facebook –  YouTube – Apple Music – SoundCloud – Spotify –  X (Twitter)

Read Johnny’s Full Bio at JohnnyPunish.com >>>