The Biden Affair turns nuclear

Joe Biden told the Israeli Prime Minister, that Israel was liable to ''set the Middle East on fire''

End of the line -Jason Koutsoukis

US Vice-President Joe Biden told the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that it was liable to ''set the Middle East on fire''.

Mr Biden [told] officials that the United States' close relationship with Israel was jeopardising its other bilateral relationships across the region.

''This is starting to get dangerous for us,'' he reportedly castigated Israeli officials. ''What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.''
[Sydney Morning Herald]


There is a reason Israel doesn't roll over -Stephanie Gutmann

Vice President Biden reportedly said that the lack of an agreement over Palestine is "endangering U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Oh please. Like what's really irking the Taliban and al-Qaeda is the placement of borders over in Palestine. If there was a "final status agreement," everybody would settle down and take up crocheting.

The VP's comment reveals some profound confusion about how the region works.
(Telegraph-UK)


Jerusalem: It's All in the Timing -David Hazony

[T]he New York Times headline read: "As Biden Visits, Israel Unveils Plan for New Settlements." An earlier version of the story, which has since been edited, described Jerusalem as home to "thousands of settlers."

What Netanyahu knows, and Biden apparently does not, is that the vast majority of Israelis, including those who favor a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians, do not, and will never, look at Jerusalem as a settlement or at residents of its neighborhoods as "settlers."
(Commentary)


Palestinians Honor Terrorist After Biden Visit -Isabel Kershner

Dozens of Palestinian students from the youth division of Fatah, the party led by Mahmoud Abbas, gathered in El Bireh in the West Bank to dedicate a public square to the memory of Dalal Mughrabi, a woman who in 1978 helped carry out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history.

Mughrabi was the leader of a Palestinian squad that sailed from Lebanon and landed on a beach between Haifa and Tel Aviv. They killed an American photojournalist, hijacked a bus and commandeered another, embarking on a bloody rampage that left 38 Israeli civilians dead, 13 of them children.

To Israelis, hailing Mughrabi as a heroine and a martyr is an act that glorifies terrorism. But Fatah representatives described Mughrabi as a courageous fighter who held a proud place in Palestinian history. "We are all Dalal Mughrabi," declared Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of the Fatah Central Committee. "For us she is not a terrorist."

An official PA ceremony was put off due to the visit to the region by Vice President Biden.
(New York Times)
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