Re: In other news
>>The only way you can have peace in the area is by kicking Israel in the nuts so hard it stops its constant humiliating attitude towards the gaza ghetto and west camps.
That's going to take US condemnation. So long as the USA is giving $3bn annually in aid to Israel, they will never take seriously any US diplomatic pressure. It's like trying to bully someone whilst giving them your lunch money. The Obama administration is privately going nuts trying to reign in Israeli aggression - the USA would actually (hard to imagine, I know) love to see things calm down in the Middle East and for it not to get dragged into more conflict there. But all the politicians there feel constrained.
Firstly, there's the aid. I forget the exact figures but I think about 70% of it comes right back to the USA in terms of purchases, overwhelmingly military. So it's essentially a way of turning US taxes directly into revenue for the US military-industrial complex, and that's a powerful entrenched interest. Israel also puts itself as the USA's supposed proxy in the Middle East and supposed bulwark against the Islamic states there. But I think the current realization is that Israel is becoming more a hindrance than a help in that regard.
But the final big hold is that there's a very strong Zionist lobby in the USA (n.b. to the less-informed, zionist =/= jewish) that act as king maker in the States. Recall a couple of years ago when Obama dared to make some critical statements about Israeli aggression. Within about three days there was a long speech given about how the USA unconditionally supports Israel and is loyal to it. It was heavily publicised and quite obviously, it had been made very clear the degree to which his electoral chances could be hurt. There's a lot of influence there, and more than enough to make the difference in a two-party system as finally balanced as the USA's.
But until that lock is broken, Israel will have the USA's backing diplomatic, militarily and financially. That makes it extremely hard to pressure them diplomatically. I'm not saying it can't be done - it can and should be. But I'm pointing out the degree that the USA's support hinders this.
(N.b. and again, because pro-Israeli types set about very hard to try and make the two synonymous, Zionist is not the same as Jewish. There are many Jewish people who are critical of Israel's foreign policy and there are many prominent pro-Israeli government types who are not Jewish. The former Attorney General of the US Govt. John Ashcroft, a Christian, belongs to a church that publically teaches that unless Jerusalem is Jewish, the Kingdom of Heaven cannot descend. One of the first things needed to break the pro-Israel lock on US politics is to no longer allow Israel to pretend to speak for all Jewish people, which is its first and most despicable tactic. It doesn't. /rant ).