Written by Michael Thervil
Video by PBS NEWS HOUR
During yesterday’s State Department briefing, the topic of the Israel settlements and how they adversely affect Israel’s national security was touched on. For many Palestinians, the expansion of Israel as a state has been nothing but a nightmare, but for Israel, the settlements are perceived as a “right”. No matter what side is championed – it leads to two things: avoidable trouble on the border of Israel and the opportunity for Israel to suck America further into its border skirmishes and pointless land disputes.
The State Department stated that they were against the expansion of the Israeli settlements. But when one weighs the words to the actions of the State Department, they simply don’t match. The fact of the matter is that the United States continues to send aid in the form of weapons and money to Israel. In a heated debate, it was revealed that the State Department has not produced any tangible results that can demonstrate that the “tools” within their possession are effective in stopping Israel from not only expanding their settlements, but to stop Israel from forcefully acquiring land from the Palestinians that live on the land.
Another statement the State Department made was that they would not normalize relations with the Assad regime”. The State Department also stated that “when it comes to the topic of human rights and the security situation for all Syrians” that the: “the people of Syria need to be at the focus of these kinds of engagements and we also stressed with region partners that the Syrian regime needs to cooperate with the political process that is laid out in the U.N. Security Council resolution 2254”. This was in response to a reporter asking if “do you support the meeting or reconciliation between Syria and Türkiye since the officials of the two countries will meet soon in Iraq”.
This says a lot, given the fact that Syria has the right to do whatever it wants within its borders as it is an internationally recognized sovereign country. Moreover, it can be considered an insult to the leadership of Syria that America is essentially forcing them to play ball on the terms of the United Nations. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that America doesn’t always abide by the rules of the U.N. itself. America does this by continuously interfering with other countries' political affairs, thus violating the sovereignty of various countries, as well as engaging in the overuse and weaponization of sanctions and posing a threat to the economies and security to other nations and reneging on its commitments and obligations amongst other perceived violations from the international community.
Other topics of discussion were Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) manufacturing fentanyl and whether the U.S. Government provides subsidies to Chinese companies that make the precursors for fentanyl, the Ukraine- Russia War, and China-Cuba relations.
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