A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
5/8/03-5/8/04

I don't like the term bloggiversary, so let's just say that today is one year since I whimsically started this blog.

My first of 384 posts, below, is at least as apt today as it was on May 8, 2003.


Painful Concessions

Interesting series of columns in Friday's Jerusalem Post on what kinds of "painful concessions" Israel would have to make, whether for peace or to alleviate its difficult demographic situation.

It seems clear to me that the trends currently are very unfavorable toward the Jewish communities ("settlements") in Judea and Samaria. PM Sharon strongly implied he'd dismantle large communities like Beit El, where people have lived for more than 25 years. As Yossi Klein Halevi pointed out in The Jerusalem Post, the religious community in Israel will be devastated by the destruction of towns in Judea and Samaria.

Unfortunately, nobody is doing anything to stop this trend. I'm not necessarily referring to stopping the trend by trying to stop the entire process toward a Palestinian state and a withdrawal from territory. Rather, there needs to be a pragmatic recognition that Israel is not forever going to retain all of the West Bank land it currently holds, with some of that land going to a Palestinian state. Once this is recognized, the key will be to try to retain as many communities as possible (i.e. Ariel, as much as possible of Gush Etzion, the Binyamin region, including Beit El; and strategic areas such as the Jordan Valley). Every "settlement" that is eventually annexed to Israel will cease to be a settlement and will thrive and grow by leaps and bounds. Gush Etzion has the potential to become a key region within Israel over the next decades. But this will only happen if people recognize and soberly accept the threat to the Jewish enterprise in Judea and Samaria, and act not to completely eliminate that threat, but to limit its results by fighting to save as much as possible.
posted on 5/08/2004