‘US envoy condemns new settlement building plans’

‘Dan Shapiro criticizes Israel’s decision to push ahead 1,500 units in West Bank and East Jerusalem as response to formation of Palestinian unity government’

US envoy condemns new settlement building plans | The Times of Israel 

‘PA promises ‘unprecedented’ response to settlement expansion’

‘Announcement of 1,500 housing units in West Bank and East Jerusalem draws storm of condemnation from Palestinians, coalition members’

PA promises ‘unprecedented’ response to settlement expansion | The Times of Israel

This new construction phase can hardly be expected to foster better relations between Palestinians and Israelis. Indeed, having been roundly condemned by the US and various others as an extremely retrograde step, the policy of further settlement building can only heap more opprobrium on the Israeli cause, generating even greater sympathy for the Palestinian position that might otherwise have been the case.

It’s almost as if Israelis have developed such a deep attachment to the conflict that they themselves and even their neighbours are, in some strange way, reluctant to see it end. Perhaps the mantle of being the perpetual victim has wrapped itself too tightly around both communities and now no room is left for believing in anything other than this fatalistic approach to life. Could this be why peace has proved so elusive over the years? Does some subconscious desire to prolong the saga now reside within all those born into its past and present embrace? Has the journey proved to be more attractive than the destination itself? And is this because that destination has become lost in the fog of battle and everyone’s blind instinct for survival?

Then the mesmerising influence of so strong a spell must be broken.

And is there a magic wand to do this?

www.laxiankey.com – ‘ for those of us with better things to do.’Well, since some real ‘magic’ is definitely going to be required here, only the strongest possible must be chosen for a task that has become so demanding and tenacious in its refusal to be bound by weaker remedies.