The 'settlement' canard
Mrs. Carl and I drove with some of the kids to the center of the country to visit our married eldest son and daughter-in-law. As we were driving, I asked Mrs. Carl where one of her recently married nieces is living. She told me that the niece and her husband are living in a 'caravan' (mobile home) in the same Samarian town as her parents and sister. I jokingly asked if a newlywed couple moving in is considered 'natural growth' of the town, because 'natural growth' is the only kind that 'settlements' are allowed. Mrs. Carl told me I shouldn't joke, because they were lucky to get a caravan. There aren't enough.It's considered gospel truth among the foreign policy hacks in the US and Europe that 'settlements' are 'an obstacle to peace.' But that's a canard - it's just plain false - according to Paul Mirengoff at Powerline.
To view the settlements this harshly is to accept the Palestinians claim that they are entitled to live in territory that is free of Jews. But the assertion of that claim only further demonstrates the Palestinian's deep and abiding hatred of Israelis and of Jews. It is that hatred, not the settlements, that represent the primary obstacle to peace. Indeed, Israel would be foolish to make concessions to such a population in exchange for mere promises.Read it all.
One need not be a fan of the settlement movement to deny that Israelis are obligated to eschew settling on land captured by their government during a war of aggression waged by its enemies, on the grounds that some day the Palestinians might stop hating Israel enough to make real peace. As noted, and for better or for worse, the Israeli government demonstrated its willingness to take on the settlers -- to the point of forcibly removing them from their homes -- pursuant to larger purposes relating to the Palestinians. What followed, including the rocket attacks from Gaza, hardly supports a claim that settlements are a meaningful barrier to peace.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:16 PM
2 Comments:
The Israeli government should not be in the position of indulging Palestinian anti-Semitism on grounds of principle. Its odious and its offensive. And Avigdor Lieberman... while I disagree with his support for the two state solution, he is right when he says it makes no sense to create one state for the Palestinians and a half a state for the Jews in which Jews are expected to put with a 20% Arab minority while their next door neighbor is 100% Judenrein.
That's unfair and illogical, no matter one's position on the settlements. What the Palestinians really want is an Israel free of Jews. Their demand for a reichlet devoid of a single Jew is just a down payment towards their ultimate objective.
Its not Jews living where they want to live that's the true obstacle to Middle East peace. Its the Palestinians hatred of Jews.
Despite my vibrant and vigorous support of Jewish revenant residency in Yesha, I don't like applying German terms, and especially those of antisemtic connotation to our situation.
Instead of Judenrein, I prefer "uni-ethnic entity".
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