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Uriel Sinai / Getty Images, file
A donkey roams at a Bedouin camp in the E1 area at the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumimin in the West Bank.
TEL AVIV -- To the outsider, it looks like a poor piece of land to fight over: A sand and scrub hillside where, on a winter’s day, a chill wind whips over the boulders and blows through to the bone.
On one side stand the minarets of Arab East Jerusalem, hemmed in by Israel’s security wall. Ahead, across a valley, lies the Jewish settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, a sprawling suburb of neat streets and anonymous housing blocks.
Between the two feels like a bleak no-man’s land despite the presence of many Bedouin families.
But that is deceptive: No patch of ground in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is more bitterly contested, or more important to White House hopes of restarting peace talks.
At the heart of the dispute is Israel’s policy of building homes for Jewish settlers building communities built on land that the Palestinians feel is vital to a future state.
“We are a force to be reckoned with,” said Yigal Dilmony, deputy general manager of the Yesha Council which represents 360,000 Jews who have settled in East Jerusalem and the West Bank (what they call Judea and Samaria). “The reality on this territory is that we can’t be ignored.”
Late last year, the Israeli government announced it would speed up the start of construction of around 3,500 homes for settlers, connecting Ma’aleh Adumim to Jerusalem in an area known as E1 on the planners’ maps.
The settlers’ progress appeared unstoppable. But in 2013, the political landscape at home and abroad shifted.
Shifting balance
In December, in a rare public show of unity, every member of the United Nations Security Council except the United States condemned the expansion plans. In January, U.N, human rights investigators said Israel must stop settlement expansion and remove all Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its practices could be subject to prosecution as possible war crimes.
Ariel Schalit / AP, file
A Palestinian man works at a new housing development in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim.
President Barack Obama’s impending visit to Israel and the West Bank in March will only highlight the issue of the legality of settlements.
And within Israel, January’s elections saw the balance of politics shift, if not decisively then certainly significantly, toward the center and away from reflexively supporting the settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still struggling to knit these disparate strands into a governing alliance, but it is likely he will need to bring together his traditional right-wing supporters and the new more moderate voices.
And few issues divide the Israeli establishment more than that of settlements.
Here’s the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister, Dan Meridor, speaking on Israeli radio on Feb. 7:
"There is a discrepancy between our claim that we are willing to accept a two-state solution and the fact that we don't limit the construction in the settlements to the settlement blocs.”
Meridor is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party who failed to win re-election. But his voice has always tended toward the pragmatic.
"I'm not saying we should stop construction in Jerusalem and in the settlement blocs, but we must not build beyond them, because by doing so we promote a very dangerous situation to Zionism, of one state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, which endangers us more than anything else," he said.
Israeli media cite anonymous sources in Netanyahu’s office to say he’s not planning another freeze on settlements. On Monday he reiterated his support for two state-solution, albeit unenthusiastically.
The battle over settlements centers around mutually exclusive visions of Israel’s future – a two-state solution versus an Israel decisively laying claim to land captured in the 1967 war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
Clouds gathering
For Palestinians, settlements and an eventual Palestinian state cannot be seen as separate issues. E1, the plot of land near East Jerusalem, is a vital corridor without which their territory would be severed, north from south.
Abir Sultan / EPA, file
A Bedouin shepherd puts a newborn lamb in a bag on his donkey in the E1 area between Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The construction of the thousands of homes would render impractical if not impossible the foundation of a meaningful state of their own.
“My family has been here for 80 years,” said an Arab farmer tending his sheep and chickens on the disputed parcel of land known as E1.
“This is our land but they’ve told us we’ll have to go,” said the farmer, who preferred his name not be used. “I don’t know what will happen to us.”
So upon this seemingly barren corridor rests America’s chances of reviving a peace process that has been comatose for two years.
Leaders of the settler movement see clouds gathering as Obama’s visit draws closer. But they remain defiant.
"We understand that Obama as a second term president is much more dangerous to the settlements than the first term Obama and we need to keep our eyes wide open,’’ Dilmony said.
"When he comes here he should meet us, the settlers, and see the situation for himself,” Dilmony said.
On only point is Dilmony likely to be in agreement with the US administration.
“Peace can only come from the people who live here,’’ he said.
Related:
Israel faces European backlash over decision to expand settlements
US slams Israel's decision to expand settlements
UN panel's report: Israel must withdraw all settlers from West Bank
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In spite of what it says, nobody is any less interested in co-existing than Isreal. America's only interest here is our slothbrained notion that, by supporting Israel, we will somehow be on the winning team. Israel could cleanse the landscape of every Palestinian man, woman and child tomorrow and the American right would applaude. I'm afraid the most saddening truth about the Holocaust, is that humanity has learned nothing from it.
Specially the Jewish state!
The Israeli lobby has a death lock on all our politicians, I have never seen a critical remark about Israel from them. Even a mild critical remark is used against politicians today. In fact seeing how our congress practically worshiped Israels prime minister when he addressed them makes me wonder if all congressmen are more scared of the Israeli lobby than the NRA? At least there are a few critical of the NRA but none of Israel
yeah, so much for democracy that we preach to the world with... Our monarch, king and owner is Israel.
square dude, you are correct. What does Israel have on the US? Is it because of our involvement in Nazi Germany which includes Preston Bush, IBM, GM, Ford and other Fortune 100 companies and/or as a pawn in the Middle East chess game? I know if the Jewish state of Israel were to provide proof of the US involvement with Hitler pre-war and during the war including the Catholic Church to the world it would be damning not to mention the price to pay for War Crimes since we held German henchmen to such a high standard during Nuremberg trials but swept away their data on human experimentation and of course their scientists for building NASA's space program and advancing nuclear weapons. If these facts were put out in plain truth there would be indictments for War Crimes and would demean and smear our former leaders including some who are still alive.
That's why Chuck Hagel is having a hard time with Sen. Graham in his confirmation, Graham is owned by AIPAC and Hagel has been critical of Israel in the past, all those Jews in Congress hate Hagel because AIPAC tells them to. Un-elected House Speaker Grover Norquist has his hand in the pie too he works for AIPAC so does FOX news.
As Ariel Sharon once said : "Don't worry about America...we control America..."
Zionists control the money- they control most of our politicians; they control Hollywood and they pretty much control most of the garbage that gets on TVs .
As far as the USS Liberty goes, even the tiniest bit of research will show that it was premeditated slaughter on the part of our so called friend, Israel. Some of us were in US military back then- 1967 and so on. Every day back in the last half of the 60s, Marines and soldiers in Vietnam were slandered by the mass media but you never hear anything bad said against the state of Israel- not about the Nakbas, the use of WP on Palestinian children, nothing; no criticism of PNAC and the huge Zionist block who pushed hard for the Iraq invasion in 2003. The USA is totally controlled by money and the mass media.
Well we have our own problems to deal with,let these people sort out their own mess
Bulletman357, if it was only that easy. Too much oil and natural gas to leave it to them to resolve. Nuclear contamination of the Middle East would be a game stopper for all of the world's economy.
Barack is a Muslim in Christian clothing and should not be trusted
Compromise now - sounds like another racist hate against a president that is 100 times better president than the previous president that nearly drove us into a great depression sucking up to the extremely rich milllionaires and billionaires while shooting the middle finger at the rest of americans.
who hunted down bin laden and fed him to the sharks? Sure wasn't your lovely dovely bush, if "our" president was a muslims he would have left bin laden alone to continue to live in his awesome compound like bush did.
using the muslim race card is like saying that our president was never born in america which has already been proven false.
Put a sock in it honey
Ah today the President is still a Muslim after being slammed for killing Muslims via drones--nonsensical accusation still doesn't fly, find some new material.
I remember how South Africa treated its blacks and how the nations boycotted that country. It took a few years but they eventually had to change their behaviour. Israel has also been treating Palestine's as people with no rights, if most countries started to boycott Israel they would also have to start changing their behaviour, I know USA would continue its support as Israel owns our politicians but that would only go so far.
The Palestinians are controled by a Terrorist Organization known as Hamas and they should be boycotted and not given any help from any other Nation at all
Israeli's no strangers when it comes to discrimination--treat their own Arab citizens worse than we treat our migrant workers, just got caught in conning Ethiopian Jewish Women into long term birth control without their knowledge or consent---Israeli Public Health program run by the Israeli Government--big scandal. Withholding tax payments to the Palestinian workers, really a good way to keep the unrest going.
Hamas duly elected learn to deal with them instead of poking them with a big sharp stick.
Yeah, yeah, SD...Israel is apartheid...which is why when you go to Jerusalem, you will see the Jews and Muslims working side by side, and your only problem will be telling them apart. Which is why I doubt that Jimmy Carter ever set foot in Jerusalem, with his "Israel is apartheid" baloney. Although his REAL message to his Jewish supporters was "Thank you...SUCKERS!"
All Christians are losers and cannot be trusted,like the Muslims and all religions,,losers
Only when accepting reality, truth, can progress be made and America has to come to deal with that over the aggressive efforts of those who literally buy political influence, otherwise America's credibility is jeapordized and our efforts to achieve peace are negated. Reality: ask whose land is it and then ask if there is fair and equitable treatment, regardless of who has the power? The whole UN, except the USA and Israel, think the land belongs to the Palestinians. The truth needs to be declared and accepted by all parties, only then can details of peace be determined and advanced. Anything else is undermining the process with attempted deception and inequality.
sad that we support these bastards; let go of our balls will ya!
Zionism is the root cause of all the troubles in the middle east
It mus be eradicated completely from the face of the earth like black plague,lock stock and barrel.
Anti-Semitism is the root cause of all the troubles on the Planet.
All these loses have done over time,is cause wars,take money without paying taxes and lying to,the sheep that follow them
Let them all kill themselves,,,,,,or my problem,,we have our own issues,,dam sand n1 ggers
Jews = "in you face"..not satisfied to mere victory.
Smart people think for themselves..
Very biased, still very pro-settlers reporting. They try to excuse settlers aggression as if it's somehow a balanced issue.
Israel has been in violation of UN resolution 242, passed in 1967, and reaffirmed as resolution 338 in 1973, BOTH of which the US signed and has not changed its policy towards, not under ANY US administration. The resolutions explicitly state that Israel must withdraw beyond its pre-1967 borders, no ifs, no buts, no whens.
It is funny how passionately Israel keeps bringing up other countries' violation of UN resolutions as a case for war...
You say that as if Israel was never attacked before the six-day war...
'You say that as if Israel was never attacked before the six-day war...'
How is that relevant?
Yes, Israel has a right to defend itself. And they did. Afterwards they were required to withdraw back to their lands. That's the issue here. They didn't.
Occupation is not defense, and the settlements are certainly not.
No, that's not the way war works. Especially if you're the victor.
I guess you missed the part about the UN resolutions above? If that's not a requirement enough for you, I don't know what is.
It certainly is the requirement we impose on everybody else.
There was no greater casualty to Hitler's aggression in WWII than the Soviet Union, with estimates ranging upwards of 20 million people killed by the nazi army.
Stalin's army pushed the aggressor all the way back, and it was the Red Army that then defeated the nazis in Eastern Germany, including taking Berlin.
If continued occupation is justified by being victorious over an aggressor, surely the Soviet army's presence in Eastern Germany and Berlin throughout the Cold War was justified as well, right? Even more, they would have been justified to start settling russians in Eastern Germany.
There's a reason they where chosen. To be wiped out,,lok at the bastards,,,,
You are just too funny! LOL...
Israel is out of control.
Like someone mentioned before, Israel must show the deed to the land given to them by God. Although, that is kind of contradictory, since they killed the Son of God, JC.
I wonder if the UN knew then what they know now, if they would have done the same for these people....
Romans Killed JC to appease a corrupt Priest. I am sure 1948 deed is regretted.
hr, you say the Jews killed Jesus? That is beyond mere anti-Zionism to hard-core Jew baiting. To set the record straight, though, two recent Popes have said that the Jews must not be blamed.
I say let them compete for it. A match of Dodge-ball! Yeah! The Globo Gym Purple Jews against the Average Palestinians Gym.
In case of Sudden Death, Netanyahu and Abbas must face off. The winner takes all, the loser must leave.
No foreign intervention would be allowed. Iran and the U.S., stay away!
Occupation"? What "occupation"? All the territories the Israelis now possess are theirs by legal right -- the right conferred by the League of Nations Mandates Commission, when it carefully defined the territory which would be set aside, from the vast territories in the Middle East that had formerly been in the control of the Ottoman Turks as part of their empire, and which had been won by the Allies. An Arab State, a Kurdish State, and a Jewish state were all promised. The Arabs got their state -- no, in the end, they got far more than their state but rather, in 2005, 22 members of the Arab League, the most richly endowed with natural resources of any states on earth, enjoying the fruits of the greatest transfer of wealth in human history The Kurds did not get their state, because by the time things had settled, Kemal Ataturk was driving a hard bargain and would not permit it. The Jews got the Mandate for Palestine set up for the express purpose of establishing the Jewish National Home, which would inexorably become, all parties realized, in time a Jewish state. It did not seem wrong then, and does not seem wrong now, that the Jews should have a state of their own. They asked only for the right to have no barriers put up to their immigration, and no barriers put in the way of their buying land. That was it. That was the sum total of what they demanded. Until the 1948 war, when five Arab armies attacked, not a single dunam of Arab-owned land (and remember that nearly 90% of the land, in any case, remained the possession of the state or the ruling authority, as in the Mandatory period) was appropriated. No one should dare to write about this subject without having done the research on demography, land ownership, and law.
The Israeli claim to the West Bank (as Judea and Samaria were carefully renamed by Jordan after 1948, in precisely the same way, and for the same reason, that the Romans, nearly two thousand years before, had renamed Judea as "Palestine" and Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina) is not that of a military occupier, though it is also that. The main legal and historic claim is that based on the League of Nations Mandate, which in turn, was based on a considerable historic and moral claim recognized by the educated leaders of the then-civilized world, who actually knew something of the history of the area, and were not nearly as misinformed as so many have been by the mass media, and the laziness and prejudice of journalists today.
The notion of "occupation" of course evokes imagines of Occupied Paris, or Occupied Berlin, after the war. It implies no justification for the claims of the power with the military presence. But the claim of Israel to the lands it took in 1967 are based, for the Sinai, on the standard rules of post-war settlement, the rules which have obtained for centuries, whereby a victor in a war of defense keeps what he has won. If the Israelis chose not to, or were forced not to exercise that right, it does not mean that the right did not exist. It did, and it applies even more forcefully to Gaza and the West Bank. But the claim there is not based merely on the successful conquest of territory to which otherwise Israel had no claim. It did have a claim, a claim based clearly on the Mandate for Palestine -- and like all the other League of Nations Mandates, was formally accepted, taken over as it were, by the United Nations when it came into being. This is a matter of record. It cannot be undone.
Whatever else one wishes to say about the West Bank or Gaza, the word "occupation" is a tendentious, and cruel, misnomer. What it seeks to imply, what it seeks to implant in the minds of men, is clear: Israel has no rights here. This is nonsense. This is the very reverse of the truth. Read the Mandate, and the Preamble to the Mandate, for Palestine. Then read the records of the Mandates Commission -- and especially how they reacted when the British unilaterally announced that the terms of the mandate would not be applied to Eastern Palestine -- that is, the consolation prize given to Abdullah of the Emirate of Transjordan.
Read it, and understand it.
Pulsar, you write a lot but most is pure BS, your reaching back to the League of Nations, strange at the very least, you ignore some facts and make up others to support your position. The propaganda that some swallow should cause them to choke, Jpseph Goebbels has to be your muse.
These are not settlers" they are land thieves.They have a guilty feeling that's why they have to dig in.They were given part of Palestine in 1948 now they want the whole thing they are greedy and the US Congress Jews are going along.If they really wanted peace they would not be doing what they are doing but because of the Jews in Congress they continue because they know AI PAC will save them in any wars Congress does what AI PAC tells them to do.
Amazing how my comment just dissappeared ..... I am simply amazed at hjow zionist these moderators are. If they feel that your comment was just too much they simply delete it without a trace ...
What I said earlier is that there will one day be a United Nations resolution demanding the immediate turning over of all illegally built homes back to the Palestinian authority. Israel will of course ignore that resolution but they would have set the stage for their ultimate eviction.
The Palestinians can actually prove (legally and with documentation) about 2000 years of consistent life in Palestine where as the israeilis simply steal and annex the land illegally using their might to cover up their theft. Most israelis speak yiddish or whatever language they spoke in eastern europe just 40 years ago.
Well, as all things fair, I am certain that once the united states has a major rift with israel we will eventually abandon these parasites and we will allow a certain weakening of israel by IMPLY not interfering. Of course we will not allow them to detonate any nukes in that part of the world because OUR oil is at stake. The Arabs will one day OVERRUN israeli offensive forces and will take their land back. If it takes them a THOUSAND YEARS, they will do it....
The israelis will lose that land in a fight someday (inevitible) and I can't wait to hear how the american jews will complain and raise a fuss and try to get us into fighting on behalf of israel. We won't budge because it was never our fight. They will WHINE like they do and the world will ignore them. Meanwhile, I can cuarantee you all that these homes WILL be occupied by Palestinians one day. No doubt about it. The 300 million Arabs around israel can't wait to take a bite out of it since it was installed and illegally expanded.
Its just a matter of time. I for one will vote for the expulsion of illegal israeli colonizers when the time comes. I can't wait to see that change occurr. It probably won't be long before most americans realize how much money the israelis are STEALING from our tax base simply because their agents in congress vote that way right or wrong. They are thieves EVERYWHERE even in congress AND the senate. How do you think fienstien and lieberman and all those jews vote ? If that isn't infiltration I don't know what is.
Do your self a favor and check out how much money we give israel ... AND FOR WHAT ? You will see the ultimate truth when you can't get food stamps but israelis are getting them instead :-)
The mask has not merely slipped in Gaza. It is entirely off. Jihad, jihad, jihad. Use the word. The Arabs and Muslims are using it, day after day, not least in Gaza. It is a Jihad. It is prompted by the tenets of Islam, and those tenets do not say "compromise with the Infidels." Those tenets do not say "leave them with a tiny rump state." Those tenets do not say "Push them back to the pre-1967 armistice lines" or "Push them back until they are sufficiently small." No, Islam tells Muslims not to countenance, not to endure, any Infidel state, any state which permits non-Muslims the right to determine their own destiny, any entity or institution which would allow non-Muslims that modicum of power that would keep them from being reduced to the status of dhimmis -- no, neither the Qur'an, nor the Hadith, nor the example of Muhammad himself, permits such an interpretation.
Some, but not enough, Israelis, have come to understand this -- not enough in time to prevent the Gaza disaster. But whether the Israelis do or do not come to comprehend their enemy and the relentless Jihad against them, that is no reason for the rest of us, the Infidels outside the Middle East, not to recognize the nature of the war against Israel and how it merely prefigures, and is not the cause of, the larger world-wide Jihad against all Infidels, to be conducted with whatever means prove most efficacious. It does not make sense to pursue open military challenges to the West. It does make sense to divide and demoralize and terrorize not only that West, but all parts of the Infidel population, whether or not they are within dar al-Islam: the Christians who remain in the Middle East, along with the Jews in Israel, as well as the Hindus and Buddhists and Confucians in such Muslim-ruled countries as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, or even within Infidel lands where a small Muslim population still manages, as in Europe or Thailand or the Philippines or even India, to conduct attacks on Infidels despite the disparity in numbers.
Why is it that the Western world and Americans in particular fail to comprehend this and waste time actually ignoring the problem of Islam and pretending that the matter can somehow be solved if alternative regimes -- a primitive democracy rather than a primitive despotism in Iraq, for example -- will somehow help to contain the threat of Islam? It will do no such thing. The way to contain Islam is not to better the lot, still less to sacrifice one's own men and materiel and money to do so, of Muslims, however plausible some of the westernized representatives (Shalabi, Rend al-Rahim Francke, Kanan Makiya, Allawi himself), the unrepresentative representatives, may be. Rather, the way to contain Islam is to play upon and exploit the natural divisions within this or that Muslim state or population, so as to turn Muslim against Muslim, or, in the case of the Kurds, by supporting them to the hilt, to make the case of all non-Arab Muslims everywhere who wish to shake off the dominance of the Arab supremacist ideology for which Islam has always been a vehicle.
While the mask is off in Gaza, Western dhimmis are doing their utmost to keep it in place. I just finished watching a propaganda piece on the Bill Moyers show. It was all about some "Palestinian" Arab widows trying to make a go of it as the start-up owners of a pickle factory. I did not count the many occasions on which it was suggested -- no, stated -- that everything depended on Allah, the number of times "Inshallah" (God willing) and other phrases were inserted into conversations, not as mere rhetoric, but as expressions of deep belief. Inshallah-fatalism is not conducive to economic activity. It has its points: it can reconcile one to a miserable condition and even to the injustice of the very belief-system that is almost entirely responsible for that miserable condition. But industriousness, entrepreneurial flair, and the constant attention to detail that modern economies require are simply incompatible with the lessons and tenets of Islam, and the overall attitude of inshallah-fatalism cannot be ignored, for it pervades everything.
After the propaganda show was over, Moyers interviewed one Azza Karam, an Egyptian woman described as connected to the U.N. Commission on Arab Development (or some such name). She of course, when asked about the possible connection between the teachings of Islam and the miserable condition of these widows and of women under Islam, referred to "tribal culture." One would think that the cities of Islam -- from Cairo and Tunis and Damascus, all the way to Karachi and Dacca and Jakarta, owed the treatment of women to some "tribal culture." And even if one could pretend that "tribal culture" rather than Islam was responsible for the treatment of women in, say, Iraq (which does have a tribal culture in many areas), could the same be said for Cairo? And even if we were to pretend that this "tribal culture" explained the position of women in the Middle East and North Africa, what "tribal culture" is there in Jakarta?
And even if we were, just for the hell of it, to pretend that it was "tribal culture" that explained the mistreatment of women everywhere in dar al-Islam, then how would we explain the same mistreatment of Muslim women in the Muslim areas of London, Paris, Milan, and Barcelona? The lingering effects of "tribal culture"? And what about the treatment of Western women who marry Muslim men, whether those women "revert" to Islam (i.e., convert) or not? Is their mistreatment, which has been so widely reported (not least after they flee those marriages that are often of convenience -- to the green-card seeking Muslim groom), the result of their "tribal culture"?
The viewer saw Azza Karam's attempt to defend Islam at all costs -- in her constant refusal to even permit the slightest hint that just maybe, there was something in the Qur'an, in the Hadith, in the Sira, that might cause Muslim men to act as they do (and there is, there is), and put the kind of restrictions they do on Muslim women -- as the transparent taqiyya it is. But no matter how often one views this spectacle -- of the Muslim who is intelligent, personable (up to a point), and seemingly part of the same rational universe, and yet who suddenly reveals that coute que coute, that person is going to lie about, to dissimulate, to hide, the truth about Islam, for Islam must never ever be subject to a hint of criticism – it is always stunning.
Really, Azza Karam's performance was astonishing, and most enlightening. One hopes that many non-Muslims will be able to -- as we old vaudevillians say -- catch her act. The things she does with masks are breathtaking.
conrad, that is a pretty racial load of crap you spent time on. If your post didn't make it the first time, you probably screwed it up and with your blood pressure so high, didn't realize it. It wasn't the jews that hit us on 911, it was the arabs. It isn't the jews that bombed the uss cole, it was the arabs. The arabs are not our friends, they hate us. They are a uneducated race of religious fanatics. Grow up conrad.
Open letter to Israel and all their US crazies acolytes --show us how proud a people you are and reject Obama by refusing to take any more US tax payer money- the local dummies or chosen who love you can dig into their own pocket so you can continue maintaining a higher per capita than US citizens- refuse to take those 6 billion plus we send you
Good luck on that!
So much for Zionist moderators...as these rabidly anti-Zionist ravings prove.
I know, I know, the truth can be hurtful sometimes....
Tick...Tick...Tick...that's the arrogant time bomb Israel has planted for its self-destruction. Their solution to the Palestinian problem...ignore it by building a wall around settlements and Israel itself, denying the existence of a people, contolling the American media and politicians, and singing Hava Nagila. This is not a solution...it is a formula for diaster. Maybe there was a time for Milchama. Today there is one Jewish word for a solution...Shalom! The Jewish people are too great a people to let this irrational behavior continue. At least I and the rest of the world hope so.
Bebe not interested in peace--keep the conflict going, refuse to control the "Settlers," and their land grabs, drag the US into the continued conflict--treat your non-Jewish citizens as dirt, Israeli Arabs treated worse than our migrant workers, poke a stick at Hamas by refusing to pay tax refunds to Palestinian workers, it all comes back to stirring the pot to make sure it boils and staying in power.
Tired of sending $$ down both swamps. Let Sheldon Adelson take up the funding slack.