Israeli expansion of selected settlements is welcome news. Anyone who has traveled in the Jerusalem area has seen that many actual and proposed settlements have the reasonable strategic purpose of protecting vital roadways and hilltop observation points.
The Palestinians have been told that if they don`t get a state soon, demographic trends will give them control of the whole former Palestine Mandate in less than a generation. They are willing to accept a relatively low level of casualties and economic stagnation as the price of maintaining a minimal social cohesion, especially as these factors inflate international political and financial support. Unless there is something they don`t want to lose(i.e., nibbling of land), why should they ever negotiate in good faith for a near-term solution? Those few settlements that actually prevent territorial contiguity can be removed via negotiations; minimal inconvenience, however, is a price everyone has to pay, Palestinians not excepted. |
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