Settlements

Sharon is trying to separate from the West Bank and Gaza, and keep a few settlements in the process while dismantling the rest. Palestinians are screaming so loudly that one could think he decided to build more settlements rather than dismantle most of the old ones.

For those who does not read this regularly: I don't believe that Palestinians have any kind of a right to the territories they lost in 1967 (that's what happens when you keep attacking your neighbor and losing), but I support the idea of establishing a Palestinian state there for purely pragmatic reasons (basically: they live there now, they have nowhere else to go, Israel shouldn't and hopefully doesn't want to kill them all, Israel doesn't want to annex them and they don't want to be annexed, either). Therefore, I do support Israel's idea to change borders to more convenient ones and separate. But still - isn't Sharon demanding too much?

The settlements of Givat Ze'ev, Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim are for all intents and purposes suburbs of Jerusalem that are on the West bank side, right near the 1967 border, and populated by Israelis. No shit Israel wants to keep them. I can understand Palestinians complaining about them on general principle, but it's not like those places are in Palestinian use now. Ariel and Kiryat Arba, however, are deep into West Bank territory, and even though my sympathies in this conflict are clearly on the Israeli side, I can well understand why Palestinians are not thrilled at the idea of two Israeli settlements deep in their territory. Hell, I wouldn't have liked it either.

How does Sharon expect people to get from Israel to those settlements and back? The separation is not going to be peaceful under any circumstances. The Jerusalem suburbs can be (and mostly already are) easily separated from the new Palestinian state by the wall, but how are they going to separate the standalone settlements? How are they going to protect the settlers from Palestinians? Keep Israeli army there? Then how is it different from the current situation? For that matter, how are they going to protect Palestinians from the settlers (at least in Kiryat Arba they'll need to)?