FMT:
Gulf states appeal to US on Israeli minister’s Palestinian comments
They called on Washington ‘to assume its responsibilities in responding’ to the remarks.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said this month that the Palestinians did not exist as a people. (AFP pic)
RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council said today it had written to Washington’s top diplomat condemning controversial comments from Israel’s finance minister in which he denied the existence of a Palestinian people.
The GCC, in a letter to US secretary of state Antony Blinken, called on Washington “to assume its responsibilities in responding to all measures and statements that target the Palestinian people”.
The letter from the six-member GCC’s foreign ministers also called on the US “to play its role in reaching a just, comprehensive and lasting solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, speaking earlier this month, said that the Palestinians did not exist as a people, comments that sparked outrage among Arab nations.
The US state department said they had found Smotrich’s comments “to not only be inaccurate but also deeply concerning and dangerous”.
Smotrich is part of veteran Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government that took office in December.
The GCC ministers also denounced earlier remarks by Smotrich, calling for the Palestinian town of Huwara in the West Bank to be “wiped out” after two Israelis were shot dead there by an alleged Hamas militant in February, remarks he later walked back.
The GCC, whose foreign ministers met in Riyadh last week, includes the UAE and Bahrain, which normalised relations with Israel under the US-crafted 2020 Abraham Accords, as well as Saudi Arabia, which has not.
Violence has intensified in the West Bank in recent months, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.
On Tuesday, the state department criticised a move by Israel’s parliament to annul part of a law banning Israelis from living in areas of the West Bank evacuated in 2005, calling it “provocative” and in direct contradiction of promises made to Washington at the time.
Blinken, appearing before a Senate committee, also reiterated previous US pushback on Smotrich’s comments about Palestinians, saying they do not reflect US values.
RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council said today it had written to Washington’s top diplomat condemning controversial comments from Israel’s finance minister in which he denied the existence of a Palestinian people.
The GCC, in a letter to US secretary of state Antony Blinken, called on Washington “to assume its responsibilities in responding to all measures and statements that target the Palestinian people”.
The letter from the six-member GCC’s foreign ministers also called on the US “to play its role in reaching a just, comprehensive and lasting solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, speaking earlier this month, said that the Palestinians did not exist as a people, comments that sparked outrage among Arab nations.
The US state department said they had found Smotrich’s comments “to not only be inaccurate but also deeply concerning and dangerous”.
Smotrich is part of veteran Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government that took office in December.
The GCC ministers also denounced earlier remarks by Smotrich, calling for the Palestinian town of Huwara in the West Bank to be “wiped out” after two Israelis were shot dead there by an alleged Hamas militant in February, remarks he later walked back.
The GCC, whose foreign ministers met in Riyadh last week, includes the UAE and Bahrain, which normalised relations with Israel under the US-crafted 2020 Abraham Accords, as well as Saudi Arabia, which has not.
Violence has intensified in the West Bank in recent months, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.
On Tuesday, the state department criticised a move by Israel’s parliament to annul part of a law banning Israelis from living in areas of the West Bank evacuated in 2005, calling it “provocative” and in direct contradiction of promises made to Washington at the time.
Blinken, appearing before a Senate committee, also reiterated previous US pushback on Smotrich’s comments about Palestinians, saying they do not reflect US values.
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kt comments:
Gulf Cooperation Council is just pissing into the wind - meaning their complaint would be quietly chucked into Washington's wastepaper basket.
Point is US is damn scared of Israel because of its own domestic Christian Right voters who have been defending Israel blindly, Israel being the land where Jesus will make his Second Coming, PROVIDED Hebrews still walk on that land.
OK, Hebrews = Israelites = Judean = Israelis (Note: OTOH Jews walk outside Israel, wakakaka, like in USA, Europe, Australia, South America etc). Therefore for Jesus to make his Second Coming, the Wankee Christian Right have been BLINDLY ensuring the "Hebrews" in Israel are FULLY protected, inclusive of being provided with humongous annual financial, military, intelligence, diplomatic aid/support, and e;f;f; the Arabs.
So long as Israel exists and continue to steal Palestinian land, (for the ultra religious) to regain the Israelites biblical land of Judea and Samaria (a religious obsession), there is and will be no peace.
So long as the Wankees have Christian Right voters they will control their president in his/her BLIND allegiance to Israel (or Jesus Second Coming may be jeopardised).
Thus, to reiterate, the Gulf Cooperation Council in making a complaint (any complaint) to the Wankees about Israel is just pissing into the wind.
Solution: Turn Wankee Christian Right into (Muslims will be too impossible, thus) Buddhists, wakakaka.
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