The Settlers' Movement Is a Threat to Peace and Israel's Existence

[Purveyor]

By Alon Ben-Meir, Senior Fellow, NYU's Center for Global Affairs

The attack of hard-line Jewish settlers on an Israeli military base in the West Bank must not be seen as a passing incident that can simply be eradicated by punishing the perpetrators, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said in the Israeli Parliament. This dangerous and most deplorable incident is a byproduct of the continuing settlement policies that Netanyahu and his hard-core coalition partners have zealously been pursuing for the past three years. Netanyahu condemns the attacks on individual settlers while such policies continue to focus on the rapid expansion of the settlements, further strengthening the settlers' movement, which, for all intents and purposes, has acquired a de-facto veto power over policies affecting the future disposition of the West Bank.

Any attempt to resume serious peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, including the recent efforts by Jordan's King Abdullah II who hosted the representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Quartette (the U.S., EU, Russia and the UN) in Amman will go nowhere as long as there is no change in the settlements' policy. Beyond that, continued settlement construction will increase the divide between those Israelis who seek an end to the conflict with the Palestinians and those hard-core ideologues that reference the building and the expansion of settlements as the singular, historic opportunity that will restore the Jewish birthright to their homeland.

The attack on the military base will not be the last incident and is bound to escalate to the detriment of Israel's very existence as long as the settlement issue remains the most contentious issue between Israel and the Palestinians and any future peace agreement requires the evacuation of scores of settlements scattered throughout the West Bank. Indeed, far more than a manifestation of the territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, the settlement problem is intertwined with the principle ideologies encased within Israeli and Palestinian identities. Every housing unit built beyond the 1967 Green Line has physical, psychological and political ramifications, making the issue a formidable obstacle to overcome if a two-state solution is to be achieved.

From the Pa

[LeftishBrit]

1. Agreed - and sounds like a most interesting article - but there's no link.

[Purveyor]

3. My bad. Here is the link to the article...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/the-settlers-movement-is_b_1194002.html?ref=world

[holdencaufield]

2. Fundamentally flawed assumption

The writer assumes that non-resolution of the I/P issue poses an existential threat to Israel -- it does not.

In a war of attrition between Israel and the Palestinians -- it's only a matter of time before "Arab Spring" finally comes to Hamas and Fatah.

The settlements will go when the Palestinians agree to Israel's conditions for peace.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Except that one of those conditions is many of the settlements remaining...

So no, that's clearly not true.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

5. I'd have no problem with the settlements remaining as well as the settlers for that matter

as long as they are willing to accept becoming Palestinians once the peace deal is arranged and abide by its laws.

[bemildred]

8. Palestinian officials: Jews welcome

Palestinian officials are rolling out the welcome mat for Jews to come to a new Palestinian state.

Trying to tamp down a controversy over whether a Palestinian state would be Jew-free, Mahmoud Habbash, the Palestinian minister of religious affairs, said a future state would be open to people of all religions, including Jews.

“The future Palestinian state will be open to all its citizens, regardless of their religion,” Habbash said, according to USA Today. “We want a civil state, which in it live all the faiths, Muslim, Christian and Jews also if they agree, (and) accept to be Palestinian citizens.”

Maen Areikat, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s ambassador to the United States, told POLITICO that his comments earlier this week which some interpreted as meaning Jews would not be welcome were misconstrued.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63688.html

[azurnoir]

9. Thank you n/t

[bemildred]

10. When it's so easy, why not? NT

[aranthus]

6. Every side in this war needs to gain control of its extremist elements.

What's sad is that neither side is doing that. I thought that Israel had dealt with its radicals way back in 1948-49, but now they're back (if they ever went away). Here's an interesting parallel. There are at least some on the pro-Israel side (myself included), who argue that the Palistinian refugees were kept in camps to use as a weapon agaihnst Israel, and now that has taken on a life of its own as the Palistinian people. Well the Settler movement was created so that Israel could hold on to the West Bank, and now that has taken on a life of its own, which is now becoming a threat to the Israelis.