Reply #26: No it isn't. [View All]

[Ken Burch]

And it's bound to be much more effective as a means to combat antisemitism than OPPOSING Palestinian self-determination.

The settlers, with their arrogance and self-entitlement(and with their delusional notion that the West Bank is MORE their than it is the Palestinians, are doing more harm to Jews(and especially to the majority of the world's Jewish communities who do NOT live in Israel and never will)than any Hamas crazy could do.

It's the height of arrogance to take somebody else's land, steal their water, steal their olive and lemon and fig trees (or just destroy them), and then say "you're a bigot if you feel any anger whatsoever towards me for doing this".

Nothing would do more to ease tensions, nothing would do more to make Israel to secure, than for the Israeli government to make it clear that Israel is the lands in the pre-1967 boundaries and nothing else is, and to accept that a Palestinian state(a state which would then have every incentive to live in peace with Israel as defined in those terms)in all of the West Bank and Gaza.

It is perfectly obvious that "peace through crushing the foe"(which is what Netanyahu STILL wants, whether you realize it or not)is impossible. It's equally impossible for either side to win an outright and final military victory. Sane people accept this.

There's no longer any reason to pretend that stalling for time and "creating facts on the ground" can achieve anything positive whatsoever for Israel. And there's no longer any reason to pretend that the Palestinians can be made to accept peace as surrender terms. Please accept that "victory" in this conflict is no longer possible or even a worthwhile goal.

The IDF high command and the settlers simply don't deserve the support of anyone with humane or progressive values. The settlements are not American style desegragation, and expanding them can have no positive effects for Israelis or Israeli security. Why pretend otherwise?