Settlements are not the problem...
Israel has always shown a willingness to dismantle settlements when needed for peace...
Palestinian propaganda machines have for years purveyed the myth of Israeli settlements choking Palestinian communities the way commerce and residential developments have encroached upon rural America. Yet, in reality, nothing like this exists in the largely unsettled expanses of the West Bank.
When Mark Twain walked this land in 1867, he described in his book, Innocents Abroad, this very same "deserted" and "desolate country" with its "rocky and bare" landscape. Today, despite Palestinian efforts to portray it differently, not all that much has changed outside the few towns and villages that dot the land.
Even the pro-Palestinian group Peace Now concedes that Israeli settlements - mostly bedroom communities of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv - occupy less than 3 percent of the West Bank. More than 98 percent of Palestinians already live under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, and there is no shortage of land there for Palestinian expansion.
Moreover, Israeli professionals living a suburban life with their children in the vast expanse of these territories do not threaten or harm Palestinians. Israeli checkpoints and security measures have been implemented because Palestinians have seemed more interested in destroying Israel and killing Jews than establishing an independent Palestinian state.
Nor are Jewish settlements the result of Israeli colonial aspirations. Most represent the return of the Jewish people to the cities of their ancestors. As Twain painstakingly reported, Jews have lived here since time immemorial, and a drive through these territories highlights the Jewish history - cities, tombs and other landmarks - rooted in this land.
posted by GayandRight @ 9:03 AM
2 Comments:
"Palestinian propaganda machines have for years purveyed the myth of Israeli settlements choking Palestinian communities"
It is the same propaganda machine that for decades now has urged us to believe the Palestinian "camps" are the result of Israeli oppression, when in fact it is Egyptian and Jordanian strategy to use the displaced Arabs as pawns in their political game. Their disgusting plan is to portray Israel as modern day Nazis running concentration camps, when in fact it is Egypt (primarily) that corralled the Palestinians refugees like animals in the Gaza Strip.
The truth of this is well documented, but the propaganda is more widely believed.
This was clearly illustrated when Sharon withdrew all Israeli presence from Gaza and left the PLO, Hamas, and Hezbollah with only each other to fight with.
When will we hear the outcry "EGYPT, FREE GAZA" or,
"FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS"
I agree with the premise that because Israel has in the past and can again in the future remove settlements, they are not an insurmountable obstacle to peace. Nonetheless, I don't think the situation is as rosy or as clear cut as this post implies.
Many of the settlers are, as the post mentions, ordinary people living the suburban life who found it less expensive to live in the settlements. Others, however, are extreme, violent and fanatical and are an obstacle to peace.
I don't think removing the settlers tomorrow will bring peace. I don't think the settlers should be removed unilaterally either. I would also argue that given the Jewish ties to the land, Jews should have a right to live in the west bank. All this being said though, there will eventually need to be a Palestinian state and it will be in the West Bank. The settlements (which most Israelis are opposed to) makes this difficult, especially when some of the people in them are not willing to be good neighbours.
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