As anyone who pays attention to the news cannot help but be aware, in recent weeks the Netanyahu government has opened the settlement floodgates, approving massive settlement expansion, especially in and around East Jerusalem. The most recent of these approvals was announced this week - the approval of more than 1000 new units in a new settlement neighborhood known as Mordot Gilo. Also this week, in a step toward normalizing settlements as part of Israel, the Israeli government decided to formally recognize a college in the settlement of Ariel as a fully-accredited Israeli university.
The Israeli Peace Now movement (Shalom Achshav) has helpfully summarized the recent approvals (minus the most recent one) here.
Netanyahu and his fellow travelers initially framed the settlement surge as a measured punitive response to the vote to upgrade the status of the Palestinians at the United Nations. The magnitude of the approvals, however, suggested from the start that Netanyahu was seizing on the UN vote to launch a strategy intended to be a game-changer, or even game-ender, with respect to the viability of the two-state solution. With the subsequent announcement of every new settlement approval, such a strategy seems more self-evident.
Why is Netanyahu doing this now? Is the world finally seeing Bibi's true colors - an ideologue who in his heart believes in Greater Israel, always opposed the two-state solution and has been biding his time until he could find an opportunity to definitively kill it? Or is this all about domestic politics, with Netanyahu pandering to the settlers and their supporters in order to hold off the challenge from politicians of the far right like Moshe Feiglin and Naftali Bennett? Or could this be about Netanyahu's own delusions of grandeur and his eagerness to put President Obama and other European leaders in their place, by engaging in outrageously provocative actions and seemingly daring them to respond. Or perhaps it is a combination of all of the above. Continued below the interactive discussion
Regardless, the result is the same. The Netanyahu government is systematically destroying the very possibility of a negotiated, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and along the way, destroying the very possibility of Israel's viability as a democracy and a Jewish state. With the ongoing settlement surge, nobody - not even the most skilled, determined, ethically bankrupt pro-Netanyahu propagandist - can pretend otherwise. The question is, when will those who truly love Israel - not as an ideal set on a pedestal but as a living, breathing nation whose character as a progressive, tolerant, democratic nation is as important as its character as a homeland for the Jewish people - stand up and stop this madness.
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Bibi's anti-Israel policies are becoming a real threat to the future of the Israeli state. Instead of threats from outside the state the greatest danger is from within.
The pandering to the extreme right and the settler movement is an afront to the average Israeli.
Tragically, the majority of Israelis who will vote in the upcoming election will be fooled into believing Bibi is rigtht.
How can I as lifelong supporter of Israel imapct to change these terrible policies? Or do I abandon Israel because it path to the future is so flawed?
netanyahu policy is totally crazy and continue building in west bank and east jerusalem totally insane ....the question is does netanyahu believe in peace ? no he does not believe in peace and he is not interest of making peace because he want to maintain his political position and care about his personal interests....
Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat.
Latin speakers, please translate for the rest .
Israel has never intended to give up even one inch of the territory it now occupies. Everything they do is designed to make 'facts on the ground' proving a two state solution is impossible. They will keep going until they annex all of Palestine and either drive the Palestinians and Bedoin out or kill them.
If you read Ilan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, you will find all this was documented back before 1948.
Isreal has no intention of negotiating any kind of agreement with the Palestinians. They will continue building settlements ,isolating Palestinian villages,making life as difficult as possible.The Isrealis will take the land bit by bit until they have it all. That is the governments plan and my country and my tax dollars have enabled the Isrealis
to continue their practice of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. I had faith that the APN to which I belong might have had some influence in bringing about a peace agreement but I am convinced that the present government of Isreal does not feel they have to negotiate and so they will continue to blockade Gaza making life as miserable as possible,build new settlements in the west bank,and so and the American Congress will give Bibi a standing ovation .Shame,Shame