There has been a lot of hysteria in the news lately about Israeli building in “Palestinian territory”- specifically, the Israeli announcement that 3000 housing units would be built between Jerusalem and the town of Ma’ale Adumim, on the hill known as E1. Please note – the mere announcement that Israel would build these apartments (construction of which wouldn’t even begin for at least another two years) is apparently a death blow to the Peace Process (what f*****g Peace Process?! The “Palestinians” strangled it in its infancy), because (so the “Palestinians” claim), it will cut the “occupied West Bank” in two, cut off access between the West Bank and “occupied East Jerusalem” which the “Palestinians” hope to make their capital, and cut off access between the “Palestinian” cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem. Thus, it is claimed (and the U.S. and E.U. have apparently bought into that lie), it will sabotage the chances of a “viable Palestinian state”.
Furthermore, it seems that Israel’s announcement that it will, in future, build homes for Israeli families on the hill known as E1 is apparently a “death blow” to hopes of a two-state solution, but Hamas threats to wipe out Israel and that not one Jew will be allowed to remain – not to mention constant missile attacks on Israeli towns, and terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians – are merely “unhelpful”!
I could write a whole article now on the one-sidedness of the European reaction, but that can wait for another time.
Let’s get back to the question of E1, shall we, and examine the claims?
It will cut the West Bank in half.
False! Take a look at the map prepared by Honest Reporting, in which we can clearly see that the “waistline” of the proposed “Palestinian” state, between the north and south parts of the West Bank, is no narrower than the “waistline” at Israel’s narrowest point within the pre-1967 borders (to which Israel is expected to return under the proposed peace terms). If Israel can live with that, why can’t the “Palestinians”?
It will cut off access between the West Bank and Jerusalem.
False! Once again, take a look at the map! Doesn’t anyone learn how to read maps these days?
It will cut off access between Ramallah and Bethlehem.
False again! There’s room aplenty for “Palestinians” travelling from Ramallah to Bethlehem and vice versa, to bypass Ma’ale Adumim – and that’s assuming that any future peace treaty doesn’t make provision for safe passage through Israeli territory, as indeed will be necessary for Palestinians and others travelling between the West Bank and Gaza. Yes, folks – people seem to have forgotten that the “Palestinian” enclave in the Gaza Strip is separated from the West Bank by an internationally-recognized border. Supposing Israel were to withdraw today from all territory “occupied” in the 1967 Six Day War and the “Palestinians” were to proclaim their state in those two non-contiguous territories. Would the next step then not be a demand that Israel permit “Palestinians” to enter her own internationally-recognized sovereign territory, in order to pass from one part of “Palestine” to another?
And now to my final question. Supposing that the proposed building were indeed to cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank (which, as I demonstrated, it does not) and that the “Palestinians” were unable to have Jerusalem as their capital. Supposing they were obliged to have their seat of government in Ramallah, as they do now? Why would that make their state any the less viable?
THE VIEW FROM THE PALACE 
Were any thinking person to examine Palestinian rhetoric closely (which applies to a minute portion of all who engage in this debate) they’d soon realize that Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, et. al., evidence no real desire for a “viable” state option, two states or otherwise. They spend vast amounts of time and money killing each other and everyone else, training to kill each other and everyone else, and buying off each other and everyone else, leaving no funds to BUILD a state. If Israel were to pool its resources and purchase an island out of reach of all missiles in the balmy Pacific, the Arabs would wither and fall into the squalor that is their normal state, having no Jew to throw themselves against. Let’s see some real progress in state-building from the “Palestinians”. Infrastructure, education, business, free and fair elections-that sort of thing. A hiatus from shooting and bombing would give them all time to work on these things. I can guarantee you that will NEVER happen. Ever. Ever. Just think how far they’d have come had they devoted themselves to that very same goal since at least 1948! They might be prosperous, respected, and have real lives-but that’s not what they, or their sponsors, really want. We all know this.
I agree with every word, Chrissie. And I ask myself, also – who are their sponsors?
And why does the Loony Left continue to support them when they stand for everything the Left is supposedly against?
Regarding sponsors, I’m guessing Russia and Saudi Arabia. As long as the “Palestinians” and their environs are busy killing each other via sharia law and killing the Jews, they’re not making trouble for anyone else. And since the Arabs-all Arabs, regardless of citizenship, are tribal in nature, that’s all they know how to do. They’ve never been interested in state-building. We (the US) have been in the region too long and accomplished naught. Americans don’t seem to understand the difference between Eastern and Western thinking. So, as long as we remain in the area, we may suppress a bit of activity, but the second we leave, Afghanistan and Iraq will revert to their tribal ways and set up warlords and carry out fatwas.