Obama/Biden: Right Turn on Israel

After blowing way out of proportion U.S. opposition to Israeli settlements policy and redirecting world attention from Palestinian reform efforts, where it ought to be, the White House is now starting to head in the right direction on Israel.

Over the weekend, Vice President Biden said Israel has a "sovereign right" to decide for itself whether a military strike on facilities associated with Iran's nuclear weapons program is in its national security interests.

Israel “can determine for itself as a sovereign nation what is in its best interest,” Biden said. "If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice."

Later, asked to respond to Biden's comments, President Obama, while traveling abroad, insisted the U.S. had "absolutely not" given Israel the proverbial "green light" to attack Israel but that "We can't dictate to other countries what their security interests are."

It is important that the U.S. continue to publicly recognize Israel's prerogative to determine for itself what, if any, actions are necessary to ensure its security and to assist Israel in any way possible to help provide security.

AP Presses Palestinian Agenda

Veteran AP reporter Mohammed Daraghmeh continues, in his reporting, to seek to advance the Palestinian cause -- this time, to ensure that Western audiences view the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the most positive light. Daraghmeh has found a PA official to public claim that some 300 Palestinian militants of the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have "turned in" their weapons.

"...more than 300 Al Aqsa gunmen have surrendered their weapons to Palestinian authorities and pledged to refrain from violence, said a senior Palestinian security official.... The official said 25 gunmen from Islamic Jihad also signed the pledge and handed in their guns, defying the group's leaders....

Unmentioned is that many of those al-Aqsa gunmen probably continue to moonlight in the PA's security services and have access to weapons there and that other weapons will soon be easily replaced owning to the illegal weapons trade.

Daraghmeh also reports that Israeli officials could not confirm the Palestinian claims but also did not express doubt about them. One wonders how many "officials" he asked, whether they are at all representative of the Israeli government's assessment, and why, after nearly seven years of fighting, could there not be any doubt as to the PA's claims. Surely, with no precedent for militants voluntarily giving up weapons, some Israeli officials are questioning whether in fact this, now, has occurred.

According to Daraghmeh, a Hamas legislator claimed that "more than 400 Hamas activists have been detained by Abbas' security forces in the West Bank" but could not say how many have since been released. Daraghmeh should have mentioned the PA's long history of a "revolving door," whereby it arrests militants only to give the impression of a crackdown while releasing them almost immediately.

In an effort to further bolster PA leader Abbas's credibility as having made good on his word, Daraghmeh adds: "Abbas said after the Hamas takeover of Gaza that he would not tolerate militias in the West Bank." Daraghmeh reports that the PA hopes to "take full security control of the territories" on the West Bank. Daraghmeh's agenda-driven reporting is intended exactly to leave his readers little basis on which to deny the PA what it wants.