Israel Matzav

The Left declares victory for the 'settlers'

Here's a fascinating piece from Geoffrey Aronson, which while being a bit overstated, acknowledges the reality that the settlers revenants have won, and that due to President Obama's incompetence, the 'Palestinians' are worse off than they were four years ago.

“[Israel’s] goal was to prevent the establishment of an Arab state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” noted Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea recently. “Today, with 300,000 settlers living in Judea and Samaria, with a powerful lobby and compensation arrangements from Gush Katif that would amount to hundreds of billions of shekels if they were to be applied to the West Bank, you could say that the mission has been accomplished.”

Washington’s commitment to a settlement freeze buckled in the face of Israeli opposition. As a consequence, Obama left the United States’ vital interest in an agreement hostage to the pathologies that dominate bilateral Israel-Palestinian relations. 

This breakdown in Washington’s diplomatic effort to address the occupation is unprecedented. Jeffrey Feltman, UN undersecretary for political affairs, acknowledged this state of affairs at an Aug. 22 briefing before the Security Council, where he noted that “in the short term the international community may not be in a position to succeed in helping the parties bridge their political differences.”

Obama’s singular achievement on this issue is therefore his most dubious one. US interest in and leadership of the effort to end the conflict has atrophied to a point not seen since the aborted Rogers Plan, creating a policy vacuum that would lead to the October 1973 war.

Today, policy makers and the public alike have surrendered in the face of the passions that drive the conflict. They are bored with its grinding hopelessness, distracted by the more hopeful and dramatic narratives of the Arab Spring, at once complacent about the price to be paid for failure to end the occupation and settlement and resigned to the victory of the settlers.

National Union chairman and MK Ya’akov Katz is representative of settlers who smell victory. “Despite the freeze, settlement in Judea and Samaria increased this past year,” he said. “With the current rate of growth, we will be about 400,000 Jews before the next election campaign, and within four years, we will be about half a million Jews in Judea and Samaria. If you include East Jerusalem, we will number more than a million Jews, at which point the revolution will have been completed.”

Read the whole thing.

Let's not jump for joy too much yet. The reality is that not a single new Jewish town has been established in Judea and Samaria, outside Jerusalem since 1993. Moreover, not a single new Jewish neighborhood has been established in any of the existing towns since that date, except such as were within the towns' previously established borders. As to the 'outposts,' the reality is that the government is still expelling their residents, albeit slowly.

What has changed has nothing to do with Obama: The reality of what happened in Gaza has made the overwhelming majority of Israelis resistant to the establishment of another 'Palestinian' reichlet in Judea and Samaria. While the Gaza envelope communities of Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim are NotInMyBackYard, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv very much are. Israelis aren't willing to give 'Palestinians' control of areas within rocket range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport, particularly after our bitter experience in Gaza.

And while Aronson has correctly described the reality, he ignores the connection between it and Obama's policies. Obama's poor treatment of Israel even predates the appointment of George Mitchell as envoy (the point at which Aronson begins). You will recall, for example, that Obama insisted that Israel not finish off Hamas so as not to spoil his inauguration party. And while many Israelis might have been open to territorial compromise before Obama took office, that openness was ended by Obama's disavowal of President Bush's 2004 letter acknowledging 'changed demographic realities,' by Obama's insistence on using the 1949 armistice lines as the default border, and yes, by the attempt at a 'settlement freeze' ('including Jerusalem') to drive the previous two points home, all of which made it a lot easier for Israelis to find something upon which most of us could agree.

Ironically, it is far more likely that there will be a two-state solution if Mitt Romney is elected than it is if Barack Hussein Obama is reelected.

Labels: 1949 armistice lines, Barack Hussein Obama, East Jerusalem, Hamas, Obama's obsession with Israel, Obama's obsession with Palestinians, revenants, settlement freeze, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:18 PM