Israeli Settlements - The End of the Peace Process?

Israeli settlement building is an aggressive act. There is no other way to frame it. Israel's actions are absolutely contrary to a viable two-state solution, regardless of what it proclaims. The Palestinians are the victims with few options (and the rest of the Arab world watches). If Israeli settlement building is not stopped immediately, the ‚ "peace process" will be pointless. Palestinians will be denied their right to self-determination and they will be isolated into bleak, impoverished ghettos surrounded by Israel. And Israelis will become jailers, forever patrolling the ghetto borders.

UN resolution 242 (passed after the 1967 war) called for Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories back to the 1967 borders in exchange for Arab recognition of Israel. That resolution was reaffirmed in the Roadmap to Peace. In 1993, Yassir Arafat recognized Israel's right to exist when he signed the Oslo agreement in 1993. In 2002, the Arab League offered a proposal to recognize Israel if Israel would withdraw to the 1967 borders. In May 2006, the Palestinian National Reconciliation Document (aka the "Prisoner's Document"), which was a collaborative offer from Hamas and Fatah factions, offered official recognition of Israel within the 1967 borders. When the Arab League inititated a debate in the UN Security Council on its peace plan, Israel together with the US attempted to prevent that debate. (G. Baskin, "The Jerusalem Post" 10/10/06)

The truth is, Israel does not want to return to the 1967 borders. Israel wants more. The Christian Science Monitor reported that in the ten years from the 1993 signing of the Oslo Peace Accord in which Israel promised not to change the status quo in the territories, the Jewish population in the West Bank doubled from 110,000 to 220,000 (CSM 6/9/03). The Roadmap to Peace was agreed to in April 2003 but in August of 2003, Israel announced an $11,400 grant to induce young settlers to move to the West Bank. In August 2004, the Congressional Research Service Brief 1B82008 (8/19/04) reported that, "Israel confirmed that it would build 1000 new houses in Maale Adumin and three other West Bank settlements, an apparent contradiction of Israeli pledges not to expand settlements."

Imagine you are a Palestinian living in the West Bank. Since 1967, your life and destiny has been under the military control of Israel. You live in an area the size of Delaware. Since at least 1993, Israel has been continually building settlement enclaves on your land, peopling your land with Israeli citizens. You watch your small "state" being eroded. Then along comes the international community as "brokers for peace." Inexplicably, the international community puts the burden of making concessions for peace on you while ignoring the steady usurpation of your shrinking "homeland!" Tanya Rinehart of Tel Aviv University observed, "...what (Ariel) Sharon`s legacy has brought to perfection is that war can be always marketed as the tireless pursuit of peace. Sharon proved that Israel can imprison the Palestinians, bombard them from the air, steal their land in the West Bank, stall any chance for peace, and still be hailed by the Western world as the peaceful side in the Israel-Palestine conflict." ("An interview with Tanya Rinehart" www.counterpunch.org 10/02/06)

NH Peace Action

Keep in mind that this map is over one year old. Another year in which the Zionist theft of Palestine has continued unabated.

Another year to steal more arable land and potable water resources from Occupied Palestine.

It's interesting that Israel has declared as a "security risk", then occupied ALL of the land in the eastern West Bank that is next to the Jordan River.

When the Zionists aren't busy stealing water and land from the Palestinians and Jordan, they're busy stealing land and water from northern Palestine and southern Lebanon, as in their numerous invasions of southern Lebanon to steal the resources of Lebanon's Litani River testify.

The ZOF (ZIONIST OCCUPATION FORCE) occupied southern Lebanon from 1982-2000. They conveniently designated the area from Occupied Palestine to just north of the Litnai River as one of their "security" zones.

From an article in Anti War.com

As early as 1905, early Zionists considered diverting the Litani. Later, it was hoped that the river would be considered as a northern border, but the League of Nations nixed that proposal. Later still, some suggested leasing the water to the young Israeli state. Long after the Israeli borders were set, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion still wanted to see the Litani become part of Israel, and as late as the 1967 war Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was disappointed that the river remained entirely in Lebanese hands. The 1978 invasion of Lebanon itself was interestingly named the Litani River Operation. After the 1982 Lebanon War, Israel occupied varying areas of southern Lebanon until 2000. During that time period, rumors led many to fear that Israel had already diverted part of the river.

Time and again, the states bordering Israel have offered to recognize Israel, and offer which Israel rejects outright or replies to the offer by bombing and invading one of the nations seeking peace.

Or, as they have recently done, they change the ground rules.

Now, those states wishing peace with Israel must first recognize Israel as a "Jewish" state.

Even if those countries would grant Israel that recognition, that would not be enough for the Israeli's.

They'd move the goal posts again and demand a different set of guidelines.

Israel is hell-bent on stealing as much arable land and water resources of the ME as possible and it isn't going to let something as insignificant as PEACE get in their way.