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Obama puts whole world on fire by speaking against Israel’s occupation: GOP senator

US Republican senator Lindsey Graham speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference (AIPAC) lobbying group in Washington, DC. (file photo)

A pro-Israeli Republican senator has accused US President Barack Obama of putting the entire world on fire for allowing White House officials to speak against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian lands.

Lindsey Graham, potential Republican presidential candidate, made the remarks on the Senate floor on Monday, after White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough called on Israel to end its “50-year occupation” of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Denis McDonough speaks at the J Street Conference in Washington on March 23, 2015.
 

Graham condemned the speech by McDonough on Israel, saying the White House chief of staff used the language of Hamas.

"The language used by the chief of staff of the president of the United States is exactly what Hamas uses," Graham said. "Today the chief of staff of the president of the United States used language that has been reserved for terrorist organizations [sic]."

The South Carolina senator suggested that Israel is not occupying the West Bank but rather just maintaining law and order there.

Is Israel “occupying the West Bank” or is it “there to make sure the West Bank doesn't turn into Gaza?" Graham asked.

"The chief of the staff of the president of the United States is looking at a world completely different than the one I am viewing,” said the senator, who along with John McCain, are considered by analysts as the “biggest lackeys for the Israel lobby in the entire United States Senate.”

Lindsey Graham (L) meets Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in al-Quds in December 2014. 
 

Graham warned the Obama administration that if it does not veto anti-Israel resolutions at the UN Security Council, "Congress will recalculate how we relate to the United Nations."

"Wake up and change your policies before you set the whole world on fire,” he warned the US president. “Please watch your language. ...You're making everything worse, and now you've added fuel to the fire.”

In a speech to an American Jewish advocacy group in Washington on Monday, McDonough, President Obama’s top aide, said, "An occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end."

“Israel cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely,” McDonough said at the final event of J Street’s 2015 conference.

In a war in 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and East al-Quds. Since then, Tel Aviv has continued to expand its illegal settlements there. The issue has become a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal. The settlements are subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

McDonough said Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestine state as well as his approval of illegal settlements in the occupied territories for the strategic purpose of changing the borders are “so very troubling”.

He censured Israel for its settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, warning that it “would only contribute to Israel’s further isolation.”

Israeli settler homes in a neighborhood of occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem) 
 

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

GJH/GJH


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