Paying for Israel's makeover

[Englander]

U.S. funds for a controversial settlement pullback could help advance a peace agreement.

By Gershom Gorenberg
GERSHOM GORENBERG is the author of "The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977."

May 22, 2006

A VISIT BY A newly installed Israeli prime minister to the White House is nearly ritual, like a vassal king arriving for confirmation of his coronation. But when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrives in Washington this week, he also has some specific business to transact. After a long and not terribly passionate career in politics, he has arrived at a grand belief, and he wants American support — including American cash — to carry it out.

Olmert's belief is that to remain a Jewish state, Israel cannot continue ruling over the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank. This is an old idea, but Olmert, a lifetime hard-liner, is a new and eager convert; he wants to act quickly. He would have Israel pull out of most of the West Bank, evacuating a third of the 250,000 settlers there. A dramatic move, to be sure, and one that will stir up plenty of controversy at home.

His conversion, though, goes just so far. He plans to keep the remaining settlements, which are close to Israel's pre-1967 border, and to annex the parts of the West Bank where they stand. Some of the evacuated Israelis could be given new homes in the remaining settlements.

Because even moderate Palestinians are certain to reject this (and moderates are not in charge now anyway), Olmert expects to act unilaterally. Peace and Palestinian independence can wait; his priority is to reshape Israel's borders. To help relocate settlers — an operation that could cost from $10 billion to $50 billion, according to media guesstimates — Olmert says he will ask the U.S. for funds.

More at;
Los Angeles Times

[acmavm]

1. I had something to post, but it sounded to harsh. Let's just leave it at

the fact that we can't afford to keep subsidizing Israel, they need to find someone else's pockets to pick. Especially since you get so damn little cooperation, or anything else for that matter, in return.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. Brit Tzedek v'Shalom - Bring Them Home

PROVIDING SUITABLE COMPENSATION OPENS UP THE POSSIBILITY FOR MANY SETTLERS TO VOLUNTARILY RETURN TO ISRAEL PROPER

A popular misconception claims that settlers would uniformly resist any attempt to bring them home to Israel, but a November 2005 survey* of settlers whose communities are on the Palestinian side of the separation barrier found that about 25% would be willing to leave immediately if they were offered comparable housing within the Green Line. The poll also found that 35% percent of the settlers and 74% of the general public support the new 'evacuation-compensation' bill that would enable those who wish to move out of their settlement to do so, in return alternative housing within the Green Line.

A 2002 survey** revealed that 59% of settlers are prepared to accept a withdrawal from the settlements in exchange for suitable financial compensation in the context of a democratic decision by the Israeli government. Only 2% would fight against the decision with illegal means. The survey also found that 77% of settlers chose to live in settlements for “quality of life” reasons and just 20% of settlers moved to the occupied territories for religious reasons.

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Notes:

*Survey of 500 settlers whose communities are on the Palestinian side of the separation barrier, and 500 Israelis nationwide conducted by the Israeli firm TNS Teleseker in November 2005for the One Home Movement.

**Survey of 3200 households in 127 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza conducted by the Hopp Research Company in July 2002 for Peace Now.

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[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[tjwmason]

3. More importantly right-wing American evangelicals.

Who think that Israel is the re-establishment of the Biblical state...and that it's going to make Jesus come back.