It must be interesting to live in the world of those people who think that the only problem in the Middle East is the settlers in Judea and Samaria (West Bank). How simple their lives must be.
They can ignore the decades-long terrorism of the Palestinians and their proudly-stated determination to destroy the Jewish homeland, the famous ‘no peace, no recognition, no negotiation’ of Israel’s neighbours, the suicide bombings that have blown packed school buses to pieces and slaughtered survivors of the Nazi holocaust as they sat at their Passover seder table, the Hamas rockets fired at kindergartens, the kids brainwashed to hate Jews, the kidnapped Gilad Shalit, the Iranian project to wipe Israel off the map in a nuclear holocaust…
Apparently, none of the above is a problem or obstacle to peace. No, the real problem is a small band of Jews living peacefully on land that they have a unique historical connection with, land which constitutes less than 1.7 per cent of the West Bank. It’s all their fault apparently.
Sadly, it’s not just Israel’s enemies who are increasingly positioning the settlers as the real problem: some of Israel’s supporters do too.
I accept that the settlers’ presence is contentious and this post is not intended as a full analysis of the debate, but next time you hear someone blaming the settlers (hello Obama), please consider a few obvious facts…
The settlers have not stolen anyone’s land. In most cases the land they live on was uninhabited before the settlements were built. In many cases settlers live in areas with direct archeological evidence of previous Jewish ownership, sometimes dating back 2,000 years.
As things stand now, both Arabs and Jews are allowed to live and do live on both sides of the ‘green line’. If we removed all the settlements then Arabs would still be allowed to live on both sides of the green line, but Jews would not be. Is that reasonable?
Before a single settlement was built, Israel’s enemies wanted the state and its people destroyed. If every single settlement was removed, Israel’s enemies would still want the state and its people destroyed. So where will that have got us?
Just look at Gaza, all those wonderful people ripped out of their homes in 2005 and what was the response of Hamas? Renewed aggression, which ultimately led to Operation Cast Lead, and thousands of dead. Do we want part two, with Jerusalem facing the rocket fire that the brave people of Sderot faced, and the Arabs of the West Bank facing the inevitable response?
The Palestinians have repeatedly been offered a homeland (in 1936, 1947, 2000 and 2008 for instance) and each time have turned it down. How is that the fault of the settlers? How is that the fault of anyone but the Palestinians?
Be honest with yourself: it’s easy to dismiss settlers as ‘religious zealots’ or ‘extremists’. I wonder how many of those who toss out these lazy descriptions have ever met or spoken to a single settler?
Jews have been made scapegoats for the world’s problems throughout human history. In a way, the scapegoating of the settlers is but the latest chapter on this. That those who hate Israel and/or the Jews propagate the anti-settler fraud is terrible but to be expected. When ‘friends’ of Israel fall in at their side, it is another matter.
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