© Ammar Awad / ReutersPalestinians walk past a post office building in East Jerusalem
The Irish and the Palestinian people share a common bond that stretches back in history many centuries - in the case of the Palestinians to Biblical times - and that is their long-fought struggle to acquire a national homeland against insuperable odds.
What distinguishes the two groups, however, is that the Irish succeeded in fulfilling the dream of obtaining statehood, while the Palestinians remain stuck in limbo.
The Irish achieved statehood status in 1922 following the Irish War of Independence and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (the struggle over Northern Ireland, however, continued up until the Good Friday Agreements in 1998). By comparison, the Palestinians have sat through countless peace talks, following battered roadmaps to nowhere, while the dream of a homeland always remains just beyond their grasp.
Now, with Donald Trump in the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have little to fear about getting an Obama-style scolding over the settlement construction in contested territories, which has increased dramatically of late.
It was on Obama's watch, it should be remembered, that the US abstained from voting in December on a UN resolution that calls Israel
"settlement building" in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank a
"flagrant violation under international law."A veto by the US - or any of the five permanent members of the council- would have stopped the resolution.
Comment: Brennan's television tap-dance doesn't hold water. The leaks were a grave breach of government secrecy. It also exposed the fact that the CIA feels it can spy on other branches of government with impunity. The organization is out of control, just as Kennedy said.