Friday, December 4, 2009
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Commentary: The Illegal-Settlements Myth by David Phillips - 'The conviction that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal is now so commonly accepted, it hardly seems as though the matter is even open for discussion. But it is. Decades of argument about the issue have obscured the complex nature of the specific legal question about which a supposedly overwhelming verdict of guilty has been rendered against settlement policy. There can be no doubt that this avalanche of negative opinion has been deeply influenced by the settlements’ unpopularity around the world and even within Israel itself. Yet, while one may debate the wisdom of Israeli settlements, the idea that they are imprudent is quite different from branding them as illegal. Indeed, the analysis underlying the conclusion that the settlements violate international law depends entirely on an acceptance of the Palestinian narrative that the West Bank is "Arab" land. Followed to its logical conclusion -- as some have done -- this narrative precludes the legitimacy of Israel itself...'
As a recent reader of history, I have seen that nations interact with one another much as would used car dealers. Look at Britain, France, Germany and USSR/Russia. All corporate opportunists. Law can provide a marvelous framework, but does not substitute for common purpose, rhetoric, bluff, subterfuge, etc. To the regret of many, Israel's citizenry is not unanimous on the topic of who owns the land.