Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 23, 2009
ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS
Threats must have teeth to work
Regarding "Israel adding housing in east Jerusalem: Work defies U.S. demand to stop settlement plans," it avails nothing for the Obama administration to express dismay (Page 9A, Nov. 19).Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and George H. W. Bush showed how to stop such "settlements."
As Jimmy Carter writes in "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land," in 1956 when Israel had occupied Sinai and the Gaza Strip, Eisenhower threatened to "halt all foreign aid and eliminate private tax-deductible donations to Israel if it did not withdraw." They withdrew.
In 1989, Bush "threatened to withhold a substantial portion of America's $10 million of daily financial aid to Israel unless the settlements were stopped between Jerusalem and Bethlehem."
The construction was immediately halted but resumed when the elder Bush left office.
Impotent pleas to withdraw from illegally occupied land without financial sanctions will not work. They never have; never will.
Daniel C. Maguire
Milwaukee