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This is total bull. it's a land grab and the U.S. should absolve ourselves from any further aid to Israel. I no longer support them. Enough is enough. History will record the holocaust as it will what they are doing to the Palestinians.

NO! Not adding settlements in Palestine! I am shocked!! As I was shocked after the last ten times the Israeli government bombed Palestinian areas eight weeks before Israeli elections and then immediately increased settlements in Palestinian areas. Another political move by the party in power to get the votes of the loonie Israeli right wingers... On a side note - The interesting part of the settlements in Palestine is that the lands inside Israel taken from Arabs during the resettlement of 20 or so years ago - the ones I have seen at the top of the valleys have wonderful views of the Med, btw - are still empty. It's not like the Israelis are packed in tight and the population has nowhere to go.

TOTALLY shocking that Israel would slap us in the face like this, after we shamefully voted with them and against the rest of the world at the UN the other day. Obama should revoke all aid to Israel going forward and forbid ANY US military technology from being purchased by them. Enough is enough!

"This is total bull".. 1. The Israelis know you aren't going to anything about it but huff and puff, so what do they care? and 2) It will increase terrorist recruiting, which will result in more bombings inside Israel and more people to fight against the US, which will then get the Israeli right wingers now in power more votes than peace ever could, and 3) it will get the Israeli's ally the US less independent and having no option but to show strong support, because US knee jerk policy is to be sure Israel is strong whenever there is a less stable Mideast and a higher Mideast terror threat... So for a few collateral damage Israeli casualties, Israel gets land, US aid money, US technology, cheap captive labor to prop up there economy, and the right wing Israeli government gets to stay in power... besides, it benefits the US Defense contractors and right wing US politicians. And that the increased terror recruiting gets more Americans killed? Not their problem - US can just say no, and since it doesn't - not their problem.

I am totally convinced there is nothing you and I can do about this. But there is something congress can do and I hope they do; pass a resolution of "no confidence" concerning Israel, and cut our aid to the country to zero. If you don't think that is a popular idea, do a national poll and find out. Israel has taken this way too far now. Restore the borders to pre 1967; give the Palestinians their land back for a homeland, and live together in peace... OR.... don't bother us.

I think our governmen't reaction to the things that Israel does is a reflection of the impact the Jewish lobby has on American government. We send billions of foreign aid to Israel whose citizens enjoy universal health benefits that we lack. It is time for America to end foreign aid to Israel. Disregarding world opinion has been a constant for them ever since the Balfour agreement.

This move, termed "retaliation" by Israel for the UN's recognition of a Palestinian state, flies in the face of Israel's responsibility to act in accordance with prior UN Security Council Resolutions regarding settlement building and its aggressive moves against the Palestinian people. Apparently, the United States does not plan to hold Israel responsible for its actions. Israel has shwon time and again it does not want peace or a Palestinian neighbor, no matter how peaceful they might be. It should have been apparent long ago that Israel will do what Israel wants and it will disregard any UN Resolutions or admonishments by the US in order to further its goals. This move is further provaocation to keep peace from happening, and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms by the US State Department. The people of the Palestinian territories have the right to self-determination, and that includes seeking and receiving recognition of statehood, and after decades of negotions with Israel and no peace agreement resulting, I can see why they would decide enough is enough and go straight to the UN for relief. Such is their right. If Israel deosn't like it, tough. The Palestinian people do not owe their existence to Israel.

We've done a LOT for Israel. And it has cost us a LOT. I'm not even sure al Qaeda would exist if there was no Israeli / Palestinian conflict. All we ask is, "Hey bro. How about stop the settlements?" They won't even throw us that bone. Every election year our Presidential candidates get asked, "Which of you supports Israel more?" I don't care about that. How about, "Which Israeli candidate support the US more?" As in "Which one of you will put an end to the settlements?" Not one of them. So, I want out. As an American, as much as I like the moderate Israeli people, I just don't want to help their government anymore.

It's time for the US to cut the Israeli government loose. They claim they were bombing Gaza to protect their international borders, and that they have absolutely no responsibility for the death and destruction in Gaza because they have no power there; that's all the responsibility of the Hamas-led government. Yet Israel controls the water, electricity and access in and out of Gaza and the polka-dot territories on the West Bank. Israel influences Egypt's control of the other Gaza points of entry. Israel illegally blockades Gaza by sea and sinks fishing boats that stray more than a mile or two off the coast--within Gaza's 20-mile territorial waters.

Now Israel is going to resume illegal ethnic cleansing in retaliation for an international vote? Either the Palestinian's have a state, or they don't and Israel is responsible for them. The Israeli government can't have it both ways.

Israeli politics is as messed-up as American politics. The Israeli voters need to get this bloodthirsty Russian clique out of office, and replace them with leaders who will solve Israel's long-term existential issues rather than play dirty politics for the short-term.

America's unquestioning support is bad for America, and it's bad for Israel's long-term survival. It is good for arms manufacturers, counterfeiters, smugglers, and the strategy of maintaining violent instability in that part of the world. It's time for America to wash our hands of this debacle and force a real solution in the region.

Wow. Check out the anti-Jewish bias. I guess Minnesota hasn't changed much since the 1050s when Jews couldn't buy houses in WASP neighborhoods. The truth is this, yes those areas are "occupied", but they are territory lost by the Palestinians in the wars the Palestinians and other Arabs started against Israel. So they are occupied in a similar way that New Mexico, Arizona and California are occupied. With this difference. The war that got the US the American Southwest was a war started by the US. The wars that got the Israelis the "occupied territories" were started by the Palestinian Arabs who, unfortunately for them, lost the wars they started. But there's another point to be made here. The Israelis have consistently said they will trade these territories in return for guarantees that the Palestinian Arabs will stop bombing Israeli civilians. In other words, these territories are what Israel has to bargain with. But the Palestinians, who claim they want this land sooo much, consistently refuse to make that guarantee. Why? Well, they want Israel to give away their bargaining chip prior to any negotiations taking place. Well, who would give away their chips as a precondition to even bargaining? What incentive would the Palestinians have to make peace if they got everything they wanted before having to sit down and negotiate. But there's even one more point that the Strib won't mention in these articles. Palestinian home building in the "occupied territories" is outpacing Israeli home building by 3 to 1. That's right, these territories are still in dispute and subject to negotiation, but the Palestinians are staking their claim to them at a much faster rate than the Israelis. So who is really in the wrong here? The people who were attacked three times in major wars and have constantly suffered from terrorist attacks on their civilians? Or the people who refuse to do the one thing they can do to get control of the disputed territories, the thing that will cost them nothing, the thing that will guarantee that the violence stops?