I'm going to argue tonight that Israel's settlement policy is deeply destructive to its own future. The larger the number of settlements built and settlers settled beyond the so-called 1967 borders, the harder it will be for any Israeli government to persuade its citizens to withdraw from them. I fear ultimately onto a path of its own destruction. But let's start at the beginning with some maps as a way of illustrating what's been going on.
Patriacide. Nationcide. Whatever you want to call it, that is what Israel is doing with its settlement policy: it is killing itself. If ever greater numbers of Jewish settlers are installed on land regarded by Palestinians as the basis for a state of their own, the possibility of a two-state solution grows ever more remote. Yet the single state alternative, involving annexation of the West Bank, would result in a country where Arabs vastly outnumber Jews and then you won’t have a one-state or a two-state solution: you’ll have a no-state solution. For those who love Israel and wish to preserve a democratic Jewish homeland, as much as for those who hate it, the settlements must stop. That’s what many left-wing Israelis and their friends say. But defenders of the settlements see things very differently. The two-state solution has long been a dead letter in their view: why stop building settlements in the name of a peace plan that is frankly unattainable? Whatever the eventual solution – it could even be a...
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices