Get Tough Now - Before It's Too Late


Last week, in a resounding vote of confidence for the two-state solution, the UN voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to that of “non-member observer state.”
 
Rather than recognize this vote as a huge achievement for Israel – an achievement in which the entire Arab and Muslim worlds voted for a future Middle East that will be home to both Israel and Palestine – the Netanyahu government decided to exploit the vote as an opportunity to take actions that could well close the door on the two state-solution.  These actions include:  the announcement of the approval of 3000 new settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem – an announcement that, on its own, sends a message that Netanyahu is eager to undermine Abbas and pander to his right-wing political base in the run-up to Israeli elections early next year; moving ahead with the E-1 settlement – the construction of which virtually everyone agrees is a potential death blow to the viability of the two-state solution; and announcing that it will withhold tax revenues it owes to the Palestinian Authority – a move that further undermines President Abbas and threatens to collapse the Palestinian Authority.

Tell Secretary Clinton: Get tough now.  If not now, soon it will be too late.

Hillary Clinton

Department of State

Fax:(202) 647-3344