Love of the Land: What the Peace-Partner Palestinians Really Want

What the Peace-Partner Palestinians Really Want

Rick Richman
Contentions/Commentary
04 December 09

In Haaretz yesterday, Ari Shavit detailed the results of Netanyahu’s serial efforts to commence negotiations with the Palestinians:

He accepts the principle of two states, and receives no response. He suspends construction in the settlements, and is rejected. He courts Mahmoud Abbas, and is disparaged. The son of Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s personal secretary wants a historic reconciliation with the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are slamming the door. He is offering the Palestinian national movement negotiations over the establishment of a Palestinian nation-state, and has found that there’s no one to talk to and nothing to talk about. Zilch. A brick wall.

Sometimes you get the impression that the Palestinian Arabs do not really want a Palestinian state. They could have had one in 1919 (the Weizmann-Feisel Agreement), 1937 (the Peel Commission), 1947 (UN Resolution 181), 2000 (the Camp David proposal), 2001 (the Clinton Parameters), or 2008 (the Annapolis Process offer). Six formal offers — each accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs.

The peace-partner Palestinians do not really have a negotiating position — only a set of demands to reverse history. They demand that Israel withdraw to the 1967 lines to reverse the Six-Day War (a war the Arabs caused). They demand a “right of return” to reverse the 1948 war (a war the Arabs started). They demand all of East Jerusalem — not simply the Arab neighborhoods and Muslim religious sites — to control the historic portion of the city; they concede no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount or the Western Wall.

Evelyn argued persuasively today that the goal of Hamas in its negotiations for the release of nearly a thousand Palestinian prisoners — in exchange for one Israeli soldier — is not really the release of the prisoners. A similar insight explains the absence of a Palestinian state despite 90 years of two-state offers, increasing Israeli concessions throughout the Oslo and Annapolis “peace processes,” and Netanyahu’s unsuccessful efforts to commence negotiations once again. A second state is not really what the Palestinians want — not if the cost is recognition of a Jewish one in defensible borders. What they really want is something else.

Love of the Land: What the Peace-Partner Palestinians Really Want

Love of the Land: For Israel, the moment of truth is now

For Israel, the moment of truth is now

Ted Belman
Israpundit
05 December 09

This analysis ignores the possibility that the choice exercised by Netanyahu with the agreement of Yaalon and Begin is the best short term policy. They are privy to much that we are totally unaware of.

According to David Horovitz, editor of JPOST, The Battle of Wills has begun. He is referring of course to the will of the settlers to resist the freeze and the will of the international community to impose it.

Although Netanyahu was at pains to assure the settlers that after the ten months are over, construction will resume as before. Begin went so far as to emphasize that the amount of construction would return to what it was before Olmert instituted a defacto freeze last summer. But no one is buying it.

To modify the old Cat Stevens song, the first halt is the hardest. Ten months from now, Iran will likely be a more urgent threat; internal Palestinian rivalries will be still more acute, possibly following Hamas electoral successes; the international community will probably be yet more critical of Israel and still more supportive of unilateral Palestinian moves to statehood; and American pressure for positive Israeli measures will be even more intense. For all Netanyahu’s protestations to the contrary, it is hard to conceive that, 10 months from now, the man who gave us 2009’s West Bank Moratorium would resist 2010’s Moratorium II.

Netanyahu argues that this painful decision was in the “wider national interest”. That’s the rational. But he doesn’t tell us in what way. Perhaps he is referring to international resolve to prevent Iran from getting the bomb. Although Obama is now talking about stronger sanctions in January, that’s a far cry from bombing Iran while there is still time. Or perhaps he is thinking of avoiding the Tools of Persuasion that could be applied.

He also argues that this freeze was necessary to get Abbas to return to negotiations. This doesn’t make sense. He could have said as soon as Abbas returns to negotiations we will institute a 10 month freeze. That would make mores sense but in either case why would Abbas return to negotiations? With the current freeze he could stay away for nine months letting Israel suffer and then return to negotiations with the conditions that so long as negotiations are ongoing, the freeze must continue. In the latter situation he would not return to negotiation that are certain to end in ten months.

(Continue article)

Love of the Land: For Israel, the moment of truth is now

Jewish Defence League Parsha and Weekly Update

Jewish Defence League Parsha and Weekly Update

This Shabbat we will read from the Torah about the disturbing story of Dina, the daughter of Lea and Jacob. The entire chapter 34 of Bereishit, all 31 verses, narrates the events surrounding Dina’s rape and her brother’s response. And, as we read in the Torah, Shcehm takes her captive, lies with her and afflicts her. We are told that she suffers. In addition, Shcehm enslaves her in his house for at least 3 days until Dina’s brothers rescue her.We will read how after Dina is raped, her father Jacob is silent; then all of Dina’s brothers devise a plan where they convince the people of Shchem to circumcise themselves, and on the 3rd day Shimon and Levi rise up and kill the men of Shchem. “Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field; and Jacob held his peace until they came.When Jacob heard that his daughter had been defiled, he kept silent. He did nothing. This story has been the subject of intense debate. The issue is collective punishment. Is it right and just for a population to be silent when rape and other horrors take place in the open. The USA and Britain ended WW2 because they bombed German cities. That was collective punishment. When the Arabs of Gaza vote in a Hamas Government, then they have openly endorsed a policy that calls for the murder of Jews the destruction of the Jewish State. A very basic lesson of this parsha is that the Government of Israel has betrayed Gilad Schalit and Jonathon Pollard. It is wrong to be silent. Please review the following information; Barbara Kay: Swiss right on minarets “Switzerland is not banning mosques, in which religious activity and observance takes place. They have banned what in Islamic countries is very well understood as a symbol of cultural dominance.”...This from the JDL:
Subject: CJC Press Release regarding the Swiss Referendum
Hello Mr. Kerbel,
Please be advised that the Jewish Defence League of Canada does not support your recent press release against the Swiss Referendum. The press release negates the realities of hate and violence being preached from many so called Islamic Houses of Worship under Swiss rule.
With Love of Israel,
Meir Weinstein National Director Jewish Defence League of Canada
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDecember 3, 2009
Canadian Jewish Congress Expresses Deep Concernover Swiss Minaret Ban
TORONTO—-Canadian Jewish Congress President Mark J. Freiman issued the following statement in response to the results of a referendum supporting a ban on the construction of minarets in Switzerland:
“Canadian Jewish Congress believes deeply in equality and freedom of religion. These are essential human rights, guaranteed in Canada by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms but also protected in international law by instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. State-imposed bans on essential elements of houses of worship are inconsistent with freedom of religion. When the bans apply only to one group, they are also inconsistent with the fundamental right to equality. For this reason, Canadian Jewish Congress is deeply concerned by the results of a Swiss referendum that would ban the construction of minarets in that country. As Canadians and as Jews, we hold tolerance dear to our hearts and understand the consequences of discrimination. We hope that these fundamental values will guide the Swiss authorities.” The following anti Israel event will take place at Ryerson University. The purpose is to raise funds for groups in Gaza. It is a crime in Canada o raise funds for Hamas. This event must be monitored:
The Conservative Party of Canada sent out a flyer which blasted the Liberal Party of Canada rerding its position on Israel. Irwin Cotler went to bat fhe Liberal Party and condemned the Coservative Party. The following article from the National Post is very important to read. The Concervative Party has always taken a better stand on Israel and Jewish Issues.An inconvenient truth about Durban 1 Get involved with the Jewish Defence League of Canada. Come out every Monday evening 7:00 pm for Karav Maga (Israeli Martial Arts) at the Toronto Zionist Center 788 Marlee Avenue. Also, every Tuesday evening at 7:00 pm will be an open discussion group with snacks and refreshments. Come and discuss the issues. Also, we are in need of volunteers for our office and require funds to continue to ad the fight for Jewish rights. Visit our web site at www.jdl-canada.com
The JDL will continue to lead and speak out.
With Love of Israel,
Meir Weinstein National Director Jewish Defence League of Canada

Originally posted by B'NAI ELIM (Sons of the Mighty)

Israel Matzav: What the 'Palestinians' really want

What the 'Palestinians' really want

Rick Richman nails it:

The peace-partner Palestinians do not really have a negotiating position — only a set of demands to reverse history. They demand that Israel withdraw to the 1967 lines to reverse the Six-Day War (a war the Arabs caused). They demand a “right of return” to reverse the 1948 war (a war the Arabs started). They demand all of East Jerusalem — not simply the Arab neighborhoods and Muslim religious sites — to control the historic portion of the city; they concede no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount or the Western Wall.

Evelyn argued persuasively today that the goal of Hamas in its negotiations for the release of nearly a thousand Palestinian prisoners — in exchange for one Israeli soldier — is not really the release of the prisoners. A similar insight explains the absence of a Palestinian state despite 90 years of two-state offers, increasing Israeli concessions throughout the Oslo and Annapolis “peace processes,” and Netanyahu’s unsuccessful efforts to commence negotiations once again. A second state is not really what the Palestinians want — not if the cost is recognition of a Jewish one in defensible borders. What they really want is something else.

Indeed.

Israel Matzav: What the 'Palestinians' really want

Israel Matzav: News from the Gaza 'concentration camp'

News from the Gaza 'concentration camp'

Underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip are the only way for millions of dollars worth of essential supplies to get past Israel's siege of the coastal territory.

But it has now emerged that at least 40,000 Gazans have lost their life savings in scheme that promised up to 50 per cent profits in return for an investment in tunnel trading.

Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza, returned a fraction of the $100m that disappeared through the scheme, and has said that is investigating the fraud.

However, with hundreds of middlemen as yet unpunished and many of them rumoured to have had links to Hamas, the duped Gazans say that more should be done.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad reports from Gaza.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Shy Guy)

If they were so poor, how did they have money to invest in the first place? Inquiring minds want to know.

Israel Matzav: News from the Gaza 'concentration camp'

DoubleTapper: Bielski Partisan Survivor Database

DoubleTapper: Bielski Partisan Survivor Database

Israel Matzav: ElBaradei to run for President of Egypt?

ElBaradei to run for President of Egypt?

Outgoing IAEA Chairman Mohamed ElBaradei is reportedly considering running for President of Egypt in 2011.

In a statement published in al-Quds al-Arabi, ElBaradei joined the ranks of the Egyptian opposition against bequeathing power to President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal.

This is the first time ElBaradei has official spoken of the possibility of running for president. He also wrote in his statement that the parliament and presidential elections in Egypt must be conducted based on the examples of the advanced democracies in the West.

Good luck with that. Maybe ElBaradei can seek asylum in Iran. Heh.

Israel Matzav: ElBaradei to run for President of Egypt?

Israel Matzav: American TV series to be based in Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital

American TV series to be based in Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital

An American television series based in Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital is to start running in 2011 on something called the Sundance Channel (forgive me, but I've been out of the US for too long to have heard of that channel). This would not be big news except that it is being made by Steven Spielberg and Phil Rosenthal.

"The idea is to take a small group of American doctors and bring them to this hot spot in the world. Shaare Zedek is one of the busiest hospitals in Jerusalem, and it's a kind of fascinating situation where you have Arab doctors working next to Jewish doctors, patients of all kinds as well, and you have to check your religion at the door.

"The ideology is that we're only here to help people. It's a microcosm for how it can be, how it should be."

Rosenthal added that the hook for American viewers is the exchange program, where American doctors would come to work alongside Israeli doctors and learn the ins and outs of both the pressure-filled emergency treatment that the Israelis have excelled in due to terror attacks, and the multifaceted social intricacies taking place amongst the Jewish, Christian and Arab populace at the hospital.

According to the series' local producer, Zafrir Kochanovsky of TTV Productions, it's that fish-out-of-water syndrome that will attract the viewers.

"This measure of culture shock, on both the professional and sociological level, will explore an additional side of Jerusalem, combining perspectives of veteran Israelis and Jerusalemites with the innocence of these outsiders," said Kochanovksy, a TV veteran whose hit series Merhak Negia (Touching Distance) was bought last year for adaptation by the American TV network HBO.

"We have no idea what we're going to find, but I imagine that stories will beget stories," said Rosenthal. "A patient will come with an interesting life and we'll follow them for a while. You never know, and it's fun, if I can say fun, to see how Americans are going to do here - not just in the business of the hospital, but socially - who are they going to live with and what's their daily life going to be like?"

Rosenthal is the producer of the sitcom Everyone loves Raymond (which is shown regularly on the airline I fly most often to the US, but I long ago gave up watching the entertainment on the airlines) and is a long time supporter of Shaare Zedek.

Hmmm.

Israel Matzav: American TV series to be based in Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital

Israel Matzav: Egypt puts editor on trial for 'criminal peacemaking'

Egypt puts editor on trial for 'criminal peacemaking'

Egypt is about to put Hala Mustafa, editor of an Egyptian democracy journal, on trial for meeting with Israel's ambassador to her country. Barry Rubin reports.

At the ambassador’s request, she spoke with him briefly in her office about a project to hold an academic conference including Egyptians, Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians. Mustafa replied that she’d check with her supervisors at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies on whether they wanted her to help organize or participate in the conference.

That’s it.

On December 14 her employer is scheduled to decide whether she will be punished. The Al-Ahram Center is part of Al-Ahram newspaper which is controlled by the Egyptian government. In other words, this harassment is due to a decision made at high levels in Egypt’s government which receives many rewards—including lots of U.S. aid—because it is perceived as a moderate government at peace with Israel.

So is this same government going to punlish a scholar and researcher for merely talking to an Israeli diplomat?

Read the whole thing.

Would things have been different if Anwar Sadat (pictured above with Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter) had lived? Maybe. But what this story shows - again - is the difference between making peace with a country's leadership and its people. If there's no peace with the people, the treaty becomes worthless as soon as the leader is gone.

Israel Matzav: Egypt puts editor on trial for 'criminal peacemaking'

Israel Matzav: Why the 'freeze'?

Why the 'freeze'?

Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.

Here's an interesting poll: 72% of Israeli Jews believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu adopted the 'freeze' due to pressure by President Obama.

Seventy-two percent of Israel's Jewish population over the age of 18 believes that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided on the building freeze for Jews living in Judea and Samaria because he could not stand up to United States pressure on the matter, according to a survey taken this week by the Maagar Mochot (Brain Base) organization. Of the 512 people polled by phone, 17 percent said other factors were considered.

The same number [17%. CiJ] felt the freeze would not have an effect on concessions by Israel for the resumption of diplomatic talks, while 56 percent felt it would increase pressure on Israel. Twenty-two percent felt it would lower pressure.

Forty percent believe the 10-month freeze will end up being maintained for an indefinite period.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Why the 'freeze'?

Love of the Land: Cold turkey on Turkish Delight

Cold turkey on Turkish Delight

Sarah Honig
Another Tack/JPost
04 December 09

'Turkey has a very special place in my heart and special relationship with Israel... Turkey can bridge the gaps between us and our neighbors and help promote normalization and coexistence in the region" - Trade and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer in Turkey last week.

No wonder Rahat Lokum, that delectable Istanbuli confection marketed since the 19th century as Turkish Delight, conquered Europe without any resistance. If anything, there was willing cheerful surrender to the jelly-like starchy cubes, flavored with rose water and nuts and liberally dusted with icing sugar. There's an unquestionable exotic whiff to these pale-pink mouthfuls, accentuated by repeated suggestions that they are an addictive pleasure (to which, for instance, the untrustworthy Edmund succumbs in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).

The soft candy is almost emblematic of the land in which it originated. Of all the world's Muslim powers, Turkey appears the most accessible. A negligible corner of it even protrudes into what's arbitrarily defined as Europe. The founder of its post-World War I republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, seemed to transform the abolished Ottoman sultanate with political, cultural, social, economic and legal reforms. Despite the occasional resort to military coups to protect its threatened secular quasi-democracy, Turkey became a NATO stalwart and for decades held radical Islam at bay.

It's enticing to relish this political confection, smacking with traces of alien seduction, even if excessive indulgence guarantees indigestion.

Bigger players on the international arena have very realpolitik motives to suck up to Turkey. For Israel the attraction is overpowering. An outcast in its neighborhood, Israel yearns for Muslim friends. It fell headlong for the vision of the region's non-Arabs banding together in a comradeship of self-preservation. This made particular sense in the heyday of nationalist pan-Arabism. It was bound to erode as jihadist fervor supplanted nationalist zeal, and Arabs could theoretically welcome Iran and Turkey into their club rather than shun their coreligionists as rank outsiders.

(Continue article)

Love of the Land: Cold turkey on Turkish Delight

Love of the Land: What Hamas Really Wants from a Prisoner Swap

What Hamas Really Wants from a Prisoner Swap

Evelyn Gordon
Contentions/Commentary
04 December 09

One myth the negotiations over kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit should definitively debunk is that Hamas’s leadership actually cares about the fate of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In exchange for Shalit, Israel has offered to free 980 Palestinian prisoners, including 450 chosen in consultation with Hamas. And by all accounts, it has already agreed to almost all the 450 specific prisoners whose release Hamas is demanding: the London-based daily Al-Hayat claimed today that Israel has agreed to 400 of them; the Palestinian dailyAl-Ayyam claimed yesterday that Israel has agreed to all but 15.

Hence if Hamas really wanted to free a large number of Palestinian prisoners — including hundreds involved in some of the worst terrorist violence of the past two decades — all it had to do was say yes. And since the handful Israel still refuses to release includes several senior Hamas figures, such a deal would even reap a public relations bonus: it would show that Hamas is willing to sacrifice for the good of the whole, to let some of its top people stay in jail in order to win freedom for almost 1,000 of its Palestinian brethren.

But in fact, Hamas has said no, publicly and repeatedly. Why? Because, as Al-Ayyamquoted a Hamas source saying, even the mere 15 prisoners whom that paper claims Israel is standing firm on are “a red line, without which there will be no deal.” Al-Hayatoffered a similar explanation.

There are only two possible ways to interpret this. One, of course, is that Hamas’s leadership cares only about the handful of top-level terrorists in its inner circle, and unless they are released, the other 900-plus Palestinians can rot in jail forever for all it cares.

(Continue article)

Love of the Land: What Hamas Really Wants from a Prisoner Swap

The Torah Revolution: McDonalds' defiance

The Torah Revolution: McDonalds' defiance

The Torah Revolution: Remember!

The Torah Revolution: Remember!

The Torah Revolution: How's about..

The Torah Revolution: How's about..

Chester Chronicles - John Brown, the Weather Underground, and Al-Qaeda

Chester Chronicles - John Brown, the Weather Underground, and Al-Qaeda

RubinReports: Life in an American Fourth Grade: Evil American Internment of Japanese: Three; American Heroism in Second World War: Zero

Life in an American Fourth Grade: Evil American Internment of Japanese: Three; American Heroism in Second World War: Zero

[Please subscribe]

By Barry Rubin

Is this a parody of Political Correctness or what? After reading books on African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, another book on an African-American; and a book on the internment of the Japanese in World War Two, it’s time to study the…Native Americans.

And now alongside that--wait for it!--the class is reading a second book on the U.S. internment of Japanese civilians in World War Two. Not about brave Americans fighting the Nazis and Japanese imperialism. Not about the United States as a beacon of liberty combating Communist dictatorship. Only, Americans as bad people. Oh, and then--believe it or not--today they went on to their third book on the internment issue! This was followed, no kidding, by a discussion on slavery and how bad African-Americans were treated in the United States.

But why this particular subject of Japanese interment, which--let’s face it--is simply not that important as to make it the focal point of the class? Here's how I figure it: the internment of Japanese in California is about the only thing about the U.S. World War Two effort that would make the United States look bad. And these kids are getting it triple.

Is this really such an important event to merit two readings compared to none for the American revolution, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the heroism of the Civil War, the settlement of the West by courageous pioneers, the opportunities offered by America to the hard-working and innovative, the integration of past waves of immigrants, the greatness of American literary achievement, and everything else in U.S. history?

A boy in class, not my son, asked the teacher whether it was true that the Japanese government and military tortured and mistreated American soldiers. Yes, she said but that was different—apparently less bad than the U.S. treatment of Japanese in California who were neither tortured nor murdered—because it was done to soldiers not civilians.

I guess she doesn’t know or care about the medical experiments on American prisoners, the 1942 Baatan Death March (one of my teachers in school survived it and told me in private conversation his horrifying experiences), the death railroad in Thailand, and the Japanese officers hung for war crimes as a result of such atrocities.

So not only are these children being taught that America and Americans were bad but also that nobody else did bad things.



[Incidentally, my son suggests--and this seems sensible--that some of the 10-year-olds will be confused between the detention camps the Japanese were kept in and the kind of contentration and death camps that existed under the Nazis and Soviet Communists.]

What’s going on here? I have no axe to grind. In fact, I'm in shock. I’m just reporting on what’s happening and never expected to find anything so extreme in American schools today.

The students are being given two messages:

1. America is not a coherent society with an overarching culture but merely a collection of mistreated minority groups as victims and the mainstream as the persecutors.

2. America has done lots of bad things in history. If there are any good ones, they’re not going to talk about them.

In short, the school has been turned into a factory for manufacturing anti-American and non-American Americans. This is no exaggeration because the information being conveyed is so one-sided and extreme. When questioned, the teacher responds that she is merely following the curriculum. She genuinely doesn't seem to be ideologically committed, just profoundly naive.

Whether this class is typical or not, I cannot say. The only positive thing may be some hints that some (many? most?) of the kids aren’t buying it.

RubinReports: Life in an American Fourth Grade: Evil American Internment of Japanese: Three; American Heroism in Second World War: Zero

RubinReports: On Israel's Construction Freeze: U.S. Fails to Deliver: Instead of Praising, Europe Demands More

On Israel's Construction Freeze: U.S. Fails to Deliver: Instead of Praising, Europe Demands More

[Please subscribe for more original news and analysis]

By Barry Rubin

Israel acceded to a U.S. request to freeze construction on existing Jewish settlements; the Palestinian Authority (PA) refuses even to negotiate or to give anything in exchange for this concession. Who did Europe reward and was the United States able to mobilize praise for the former or criticism for the latter?

Need you ask?

It is now confirmed that my analysis of the State Department statement on the construction freeze was correct. It was intended as a statement supporting key Israeli demands—recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and changes in the 1967 borders—while also meeting major Palestinian demands, an independent state based on those borders.

Equally unnoticed, however, is the fact that the United States did not even get its European allies to endorse its new position. Once again, despite all the Obama Administration's apologies, flattery, and concessions, it could not even obtain the smallest things in exchange from those given such rewards.

The main U.S. effort was to get the Quartet of mediators (U.S., Europe Union, Russia, and UN) to endorse the new U.S. stance. The proposed statement would have urged resumed negotiations without preconditions to seek an agreement which:

"would fulfill the Palestinian goal of establishing an independent, viable state, based on the 1967 borders, agreed upon exchanges [of territory], and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect the developments [which occurred on the ground] and which fulfill the Israeli security requirements."

Reportedly, the Russians rejected the Jewish state and reflecting developments on the ground positions. This explains why the Quartet couldn’t issue a statement. But why didn’t the United States obtain the same statement from the European Union alone?

Instead, after making still another unilateral concession, Israel now has to fight off a hostile EU resolution calling for east Jerusalem to be capital of a Palestinian state without any mention of Israeli goals, including mention of west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, an easy way of making the resolution more even-handed.

So once again Israel is given the message, here reinforced by inept U.S. diplomacy, that the reward for making a concession are demands to make more concessions. This is not, however, to underestimate the importance of the new U.S. position as expressed in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement. The question, of course, is how long and whether the Obama Administration will stick to its new set of promises.

RubinReports: On Israel's Construction Freeze: U.S. Fails to Deliver: Instead of Praising, Europe Demands More