"The [squatter] settlement enterprise has therefore run its course. It now represents an albatross that threatens to thwart the chance to achieve lasting peace and security."
...JPost
West Bank Jewish settlements – enough already!
Julian Kossoff is a senior editor for Telegraph.co.uk. He previously worked at the Jewish Chronicle as a senior reporter. He has written extensively on race and religion.
Settlements, of which there are now hundreds, come in every shape, size and hue. From mini-cities – part Stevenage, part Stepford – such as Maale Adumim, to the wild West Bank fort at Hebron.
Many settlements are little more than dormitory towns for commuters who can’t afford family homes in Israel and have been enticed over the Green Line with generous state subsidies and a nudge-nudge-wink-wink, “don’t worry, we’ll never give it back.” Then there are the “Hilltop Youth,” fresh-faced, pious and prone to thuggery, whose DIY illegal encampments pock Judea’s shapely peaks, the fast-breeding “facts on the ground”.
There are settlements for the very religious and settlements for the totally secular. There are settlements for Russian immigrants and settlements for English speakers. There are even several little-publicised settlements whose inhabitants believe in peace and fostering good relations with their Palestinian neighbours.
As Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations at NYU, wrote in the Jerusalem Post:
Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.ukSettlement construction in the West Bank has historically served four main objectives: greater security, a stronger connection to ancient biblical lands, a better way of life for residents and pressure on the Palestinians to accept the reality of Israel’s existence. Today, each of these goals has been largely met. The settlement enterprise has therefore run its course. It now represents an albatross that threatens to thwart the chance to achieve lasting peace and security.
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