Houses

USA Today provides us with the following report from Israel:

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded Sunday that Israel cease settlement construction and promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.

In his first trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories as Britain's leader, Brown repeatedly stressed that economics are key to Mideast peace, and said Israel should ease travel restrictions in the West Bank that have hindered commerce.

But his strongest comments were reserved for the settlements: "I think the whole European Union is very clear on this matter: We want to see a freeze on settlements."

"Settlement expansion has made peace harder to achieve. It erodes trust, it heightens Palestinian suffering, it makes the compromises Israel needs to make for peace more difficult," Brown said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

So … let me see if I’ve got this straight. Building housing developments on barren land that is claimed to be Palestinian land (only because the “Palestinians” say so) makes “peace harder to achieve” and “erodes trust.” Yeah, building houses certainly increases Palestinian "suffering."

I wonder whether launching 6,000 plus rockets into existing Israeli towns erodes trust or whether murdering civilians with suicide bomb blasts makes peace harder to achieve. I wonder whether Israeli suffering at the hands of terrorist thugs matters — nah, not to the usual suspects like Gordon Brown.

For that matter, since Hamas claims the entire state of Israel to be its own, I don’t see why Gordon Brown and the Euros don’t condemn the building of any housing development in, say, Tel Aviv or Haifa—after all, Hamas' claim to Tel Aviv and Haifa is as valid as its claim to the land where housing is currently being built, isn't it?

It’s long past the time when demands for tangible concessions are made of the Palestinians, not the Israelis. Oops forgot, we make demands of the Palestinians. It’s just that no one seems to care when they don’t address the demands. In fact, it’s as if the US State department, the EU, and every human rights group on the planet suffers from selective amnesia. When the Palestinians abrogate an agreement or conduct terror activities, it’s all forgotten within days. When the Israelis build houses in violation of a "road map" that the Palestinians also agreed to but have never followed, it becomes a cause celeb that is never forgotten.

Through the looking glass—middle eastern style.