Denial, Delusion And Jewish Settlements Are Killing The Two-State Solution
In a May 9 Reuters article “Israel fires back at U.S. envoy over peace talks' failure” this is the part that caught my eye: “The Israeli official said [U.S. envoy Martin] Indyk had been informed of the construction plans, down to the number of homes. ‘Furthermore, he knew that it was on this basis that Israel agreed to enter the talks,’ the official said. ‘So it's not clear why now that should be criticized.’"
Which is more or less like asserting that if you walk up to someone in the street and say you’re going to smack them, then they can’t complain afterwards when you actually do. “So it’s not clear why that should be criticized,” as the official said.
But it’s not just the anonymous official. Most Israelis and many of Israel’s defenders abroad were no less upset that in his address to the Washington Institute last week, Indyk had the chutzpah to pin at least half of the blame for the collapse of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace efforts on Israel and its settlements. There is nothing wrong, they believe, with Israel building or planning thousands of housing units in what right-wingers insist are “disputed territories” - despite the fact that even that neutral label implies that it’s a dispute that has yet to be settled.
With breathtaking self-persuasion, most Israelis have convinced themselves that the physical, geographic and demographic transformation that has taken place in the West Bank as a result of four decades of Jewish settlement does not constitute a unilateral act that undermines a peace process, while Palestinian letters to international bodies such as the United Nations or the World Health Organization are irrefutable indications of bad faith. And the only possible reason for the world not to concur is that it is anti-Semitic.
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.590266
