Comment

AIPAC: Dangerous for Jews and Other Living Things

9
researchok5/17/2011 7:34:52 pm PDT

re: #8 Timmeh

Can somebody explain to me why Israel needs to have settlements in the West Bank?

It seems like withdrawing the settlements from Gaza was the right idea. Now just do the same thing in the West Bank and it would be easy for me to support Israel (I support Israel, just not the settlement/occupation policy or religious discrimination).

Israel does no need West Bank settlements. They were built because decades of negotiation were formally rejected by both the Palestinians and the Arab world.

To be clear, border negotiation is not now and never was a real issue. Israel has always to wanted to negotiate land for peace (and to be clear, that is very different from land before peace) an idea that was unacceptable to everyone else in the region. To this day the principal goal of the Palestinian leadership is the eradication of Israel. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza resulted in only more terror. The land was and remains irrelevant to the Palestinians.

Have you ever wondered why there were never any demonstrations against the building of the now infamous settlements? Can you imagine the PR value of a hundred terrorized little school girls, sitting in the road and blocking a bulldozer? The reason for the marked lack of protest against settlement building in the West Bank is because PA ministers own the construction companies that build those settlements. It’s been going on for years and only recently, has the matter been discussed in the Arab press. Sadly, ‘Cementgate,’ as the story was called is no longer on the Arab press agenda. Israeli settlements are being built by Palestinian companies, owned by PA ministers and big wigs- on land that was mostly purchased from Palestinian landowners. That is another reason the Palestinian at the top are in no rush for a peace deal- the Israelis pay. Arab nations that promise money do not. Besides, other Arabs might make unreasonable demands- such as accountability and transparency.

When it comes to money and aid to the Palestinians, the words of Charles De Gaulle come to mind- ‘We shall stun them with our ingratitude.‘

Lastly, what is left unsaid is quite thunderous. Why are the settlements so offensive? Why won’t the Palestinians tolerate those who have bought and paid for the land, even within the confines of a Palestinian state? What is it about these settlers that sends these noble and righteous Palestinian ‘victims’ into a frenzy?

I wonder what that might be.
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