That "freezing" settlements or not freezing settlements is of little consequences.
The heart of the issue is, does Israel have the right and the justification to consider Palestinian Arabs as theirs to be controlled, dominated, told what to do, who to see, where to live, where to go and not go. Basically, as Israel conquers more land, it demands "security" conditions which only those that people with rights can ask of people without rights, and which are only a thin veil for continued control and ultimately expulsion.
In the Torah, after Joshua conquered the Holy Land, foreigners were allowed to live if they accepted the status of wood cutters. I don't know what a "wood cutter" is, but I suspect it's not the same thing as a "Landlord." I actually have come to think that -- although it's not repeated often in polite conversation -- a number of Israeli Jews and their Christian Fundamentalist supporters actually are pretty much in line with that thinking. "We do OK with the Palestinians if they know they have been conquered, if they know their place." Others are more straightforward and advocate loud and clear for "transfer", aka expulsion and accelerated ethnic cleansing. (I once perused a nice glossy brochure which left me absolutely speechless. My Hasidim friend had shared it with me to explain how humane their plans to transfer were!)
Anyway, last week Israel took one more measure -- poorly understood in the US -- to increase pressure, control and prepare for the next step. As the world's leaders came to DC for the Nuclear Summit, there was a full page ad by an Israeli group portraying all the villains here to justify its warmongering (from Nasrallah to Ahmedinejad). And 2 pages later, a small text blurb referred to this new Israeli rule on the life of those it is not supposed to administer, those who live in the Palestinian Territories. Ironic how visible one was--the possible terror of tomorrow; and how invisible the other was--the actual terror of today. Except the Transgressor, just re-equipped with more US weapons for free, prefers to be painted as Eternal Victim.
Read 'Ethnic Cleansing by Another Name' by Yousef Mounayyer to have a clear and paused treatment of this new rule applied by Israel to people living inside Palestine.
There is no status quo. There is conquest and occupation and oppression and dispossession.
Paid by US tax dollars.
The US has taken sides, remember this.
Elrig
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