This ISN'T The Death Blow to the Peace Process

Settlements were never the death knell or the stumbling block to a peace agreement between Israel and its enemies. It didn't stop the Israel-Egypt peace process from resulting in a comprehensive peace deal. It didn't stop the Israel-Jordan peace agreement either.

Yet, there are those who think that settlements are the key stumbling block.

According to reports in the Israeli media, the area has been earmarked for development under a secret accord between Binyamin Netanyahu, the new, conservative Israeli Prime Minister, and his ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

Better known under its old British mandate name, E1, it is the most controversial development project in the region, one that diplomats and observers warn will trigger the collapse of the weakened Palestinian Authority, or drive it into armed resistance again.

They couldn't be more hopelessly wrong.

Settlements are just housing. They could house anyone. People can, and have, been moved from communities to make way for peace deals.

Israel did that when they abandoned communities in the Sinai as a direct result of the Camp David peace deal.

Israel also removed Israelis living in Gaza communities as part of the Gaza disengagement, leaving Gazans in full control of Gaza for the first time in their history (prior to 1967, Gaza was under Egyptian control and was never part of an independent state).

No, the death blow to the peace process is the Arab and Islamic reaction to Israel's existence. They still seek it's destruction and are unwilling to peacefully coexist with Israel. These are not partners for peace. They are proponents of continuing war against Israel until such time as Israel is destroyed.

Palestinian courts call for the death penalty for Palestinians who sell land to Israelis. Hamas celebrates the murder of an Israeli kid at the hands of a Palestinian axe murderer. Hizbullah and Syria and Iran call for Israel to return the Golan Heights or face war.

No, the construction of a new Israeli community in Jerusalem will be used as an excuse to violence that has been ongoing since Israel came into existence. It will be yet another excuse for rocket attacks and other terror attacks on Israelis. It is, however, not the stumbling block to peace.

Palestinian refusal to accept Israel's existence is the stumbling block. The media and diplomats are always looking at Israel's actions as being stumbling blocks and demand Israeli concessions to spark the peace process, all while ignoring Palestinian attacks and the religious and social and political calls by Palestinian leaders to destroy Israel. It is ingrained in the Palestinian polity that Israel must be destroyed. It is ingrained in the religious and theological underpinning of Hamas that Israel must be destroyed. If it is the religious obligation to destroy Israel, how exactly does that permit such people to make peace with Israel?

It does not.

This has been a conflict that is more than a thousand years in the making, and diplomats wishing away key factors will not bring about peace. Blaming the construction of a community does not address the real source of the conflict. It's time that the diplomats and pundits and media do.

UPDATE:
This is a blow to the peace process. It's another day, and another terrorist attack against Israel.

Several hours after IDF soldiers killed two Palestinian terrorists who were trying to plant a bomb along the Gaza border fence, Border Police forces killed a terrorist who tried to carry out a shooting attack at their base in the Negev on Saturday afternoon.

At approximately 2 p.m. Saturday, a Palestinian woman armed with a rifle arrived at the Border Police base near the Shoket Junction between Beersehba and Arad, and opened fire at the soldiers.

The soldiers returned fire and managed to kill the terrorist. No soldiers were wounded in the incident.

Meanwhile, the UN decided to put a Jewish judge in charge of investigating Israeli "war crimes" in Gaza. Gee, that'll work. Instead of investigating Hamas terrorist war crimes, the evidence of which is abundant, they're going after Israel and hope that putting a Jewish judge will somehow diffuse the fact that it's a witch hunt against Jews. Nice.